Monday, May 3, 2010

Airbuses are not Toys

This   brand spanking  new Airbus 340-600, the longest   passenger airplane ever built, sits just outside its  hangar  in Toulouse ,   France without a  single  hour of  airtime. 
Enter   the Arab flight  crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft   Technologies
(ADAT) to conduct  pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as
engine  run-ups prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi    .
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600  to the run-up area..   
Then   they took all Four engines to takeoff power with a
 virtually empty aircraft. Not having Read the  run-up
 manuals, they had no clue just how light  an empty
 A340-600 Really is.  

  


 
  The  takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit
 because they had All 4 engines at full power.
The aircraft computers thought they were trying  to take off,
but it had not been configured  properly (flaps/slats, etc..) 

Then  one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the  circuit
breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to  silence the alarm.
This fools the  aircraft  into thinking it is in the air. 
The  computers automatically released all the brakes  
and set the aircraft rocketing forward.
The ADAT  crew had no idea that this is a safety feature
 so that pilots can't land with the brakes on. 
 Not  one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough  to throttle back the engines from their max  power setting, so the $200 million brand-new  Aircraft crashed into a  blast barrier,  totaling it. 
The  extent of injuries to the crew is unknown due to the  news blackout in the major media in France and  elsewhere. 
 
 Finally,  the photos are starting to leak out. 

A  French Airbus:                   $200   million dollars
  
Untrained   Arab Flight  Crew:         $300,000  Yearly  Salary

Unread Operating Manual:             $300

 Aircraft   meets retaining wall
, and the wall  wins.  
PRICELESS!!!
These pilots should have
stuck to camels.

Hat Tip to Opus #6 at MAinfo

10 comments:

  1. Ha ha. Thanks for the link. That was one sweet ride. Er, before it was destroyed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Opie, $200,000,000.00 just doesn't go as far as it used to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Odie, you have been put on the hit list! You have outed another Arab fuck-up. Bearded men wearing bed sheets and towels around their heads will come for you when you least expect it.

    be afraid.

    be very afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for posting this! I find you blog VERY interesting!!

    Steve
    Common Cents
    http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

    ps. Link Exchange???

    ReplyDelete
  5. LL, I even toned it down a little. I'm armed and ready ... bring em on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Commoncents, interesting ??? Not funny ??? It sounds like I'd better get to work.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just be glad they didn't fly it into a building. Tasteless, but it had to be said.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wonderful stuff Woodsie, after chernobyl and three mile island you would think that an alarm would cause alarm rather than just be switched off.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Snarky, It was indeed tasteless, but who else would we expect to say it?

    ReplyDelete
  10. The word "PRICELESS" covers all kinds of stupidity in this post, Banned.

    ReplyDelete

Put it here ... I can't wait to read it. I have the Captcha turned OFF but blogger insists it be there. You should be able to bypass it.

** Anonymous, please use a name at the end of your comment. You're all starting to look alike.

*** Moderation has been added due to Spam and a Commenter a little too caustic. I welcome comments, but talk of killing and racist (or even close to racist) are not welcome.