Air Transat Flight 236

Air Transat Airbus A330 -200 C- GITS

Flight 236 is a line of flight with Air Transat from Toronto - Pearson in Canada to Lisbon in Portugal. On August 24, 2001 an Airbus used on this flight A330- 200 went out on board over the Atlantic due to a leak and a wrong decision of the captain of the fuel with 293 passengers and 13 crew members. The Captain Robert Piché and his co-driver Dirk De Jager managed the longest gliding flight of a jet aircraft in aviation history and the subsequent emergency landing at the air base Lajes Field in the Azores island of Terceira.

The course of the incident

Flight TS 236 lifted on 24 August 2001 at 0:52 clock from UTC (local time August 23, 2001 20:52 EDT clock ), from Toronto- Pearson International Airport. The flight was carried out with an Airbus A330 -200 with the registration C- GITS, built in 1999, which had been designed for 362 passengers and entered service in April 1999. For departure time of the aircraft with 47,900 kg of kerosene was refueled.

Clock at 4:38 UTC, after about four hours of flight time, entered the RH engine to a fuel leak. In the cockpit, then an audible alarm has been triggered. However, this implied not primarily indicate a fuel leak and was first interpreted by captain and co-pilot as a false alarm. Only when the alarm occurred permanently, the captain to divert the flight to the Lajes Air Force Base on the western Azores decided. When they noticed an imbalance in the distribution of fuel between tanks in the right wing and the left wing, they tried to fix this by pumping. However, this only accelerated the loss of fuel.

Clock at 6:13 UTC, 28 minutes after leaving the course in the direction of the Azores, was engine number 2 ( on the right side) of the fuel out. Then the power of engine number 1 was increased to maximum continuous power. Since the performance of an engine, however, to hold the current cruise altitude of 39,000 feet was not enough, a descent to 30,000 ft (about 9,100 m) was initiated. Another 13 minutes later engine number 1 was due to lack of kerosene to a halt. So had about 15 minutes after Flight 236 had declared an emergency air, the glider can be initiated.

All Airbus aircraft from the A320 family are equipped with a fly-by -wire controls. Due to the failure of all engines a plane would lose propulsion and power supply. It is therefore an emergency power supply required so even in the event of a failure of all engines an aircraft is adequately supplied with electrical energy to keep essential components of the hydraulic and electrical systems functional. This emergency care is provided by a back pressure turbine.

While the captain steered the aircraft, the copilot kept the rate of descent in mind that (about 10 m / s) was about 2,000 feet / minute. This resulted in a glide of about 15 to 20 minutes of time before the pilots would have had to perform an emergency landing. However, the amount was sufficient to reach the airport. It succeeded the crew to align the airplane on the runway 15/33. However, the speed was higher than usual, because due to the impaired functioning of the hydraulic no spoilers or buoyancy aids could be set.

Clock at 6:46 UTC, 20 minutes after complete engine failure, the pilot was able to set up the Airbus A330. The landing speed was doing about 200 knots ( 370 km / h). As for braking after touchdown, only the emergency brake system state ( without anti- lock braking system) available, bursting all main landing gear tires. However, the plane came in the middle of the runway to a stop. Upon exiting the aircraft via the emergency chutes 16 passengers and two crew members were injured. The happy ending was also due to the fact that the flight was conducted on a more southerly Atlantic route that passed closer to the Azores.

During the non-powered flight around 120 km have been completed, which is the longest gliding flight of a jet aircraft in aviation history. The aircraft with the registration C- GITS and the serial number 271 is still for Air Transat in use.

Cause investigation

The investigation revealed that a motor change a not the modification level of the engine corresponding component in the hydraulic system had been installed. Vibrations in the hydraulic line leading to vibration -induced wear on the fuel line so that the line eventually broke and a leak developed. Air Transat accepted responsibility for the accident. The Canadian government imposed thereupon a fine of 250,000 Canadian dollars.

Since the aircraft on an airfield landed safely, only a few passengers were injured and the aircraft had only minor damage, the pilots were received by the Canadian media as heroes. However, the investigation report comes to the conclusion that the fuel would have been enough to landing if the pilot had carried out the measures provided for in the event of a fuel leak procedures.

The incident led to the DGAC and FAA gave out an airworthiness directive that made all operators of aircraft of the type Airbus A330 to rest, to change the manual ( Airplane Flight Manual ). The change demanded that the pilots should check for imbalance occurring before opening the balancing valves, if a fuel leak is the cause in question. This statement was to be implemented within 15 days. The French aviation authority even demanded the amendment of the manual before the next start of the affected aircraft types.

Piché and De Jager were honored for their flying performance and the saving of human life in 2002 with the Superior Airmanship Award.

The incident in the media

Based on this incident, a documentary was filmed, which in the series Mayday - aired alarm in the cockpit Air Crash Investigation under the German title "With empty tanks " by the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel. MSNBC reported in a report on the incident ("A Wing and A Prayer ").

Similar incidents

  • June 24, 1982: A Boeing 747 on British Airways Flight 9 ran into about 11,000 meters in the ash cloud from the volcano Gunung Galunggung, which at times turned out all four engines.
  • July 23, 1983: A Boeing 767-200 of Air Canada had to make an emergency landing because of fuel shortages. The incident is known in the press as the Gimli Glider.
  • December 15, 1989: KLM flight 867 fell into the ash cloud from Mount Redoubt. At times, fell from all four engines, landing in Anchorage.
  • July 12, 2000: An Airbus 310-300, Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378, had to perform an emergency landing in Vienna -Schwechat due flown empty tanks.
  • January 15, 2009: An Airbus A320, U.S. Airways Flight 1549, was forced to land by a bird strike on the Hudson River in New York after the failure of two engines.

Swell

37435
de