This Airliner Was Doomed To Crash (But It Didn’t) | Qantas 32

in 2010 the most modern airliner in the world the airbus a380 was also meant to be the safest however a serious incident over singapore would put this claim to the test and at stake would be the lives of 440 passengers and 29 crew singapore clearance good morning qantas 32 super for sydney bay charlie 2 3 469 passengers on board ready for start and push good morning qantas 32 cleared for push back and start face north for a runway 20 center qantas 32 is an airbus a380 bound for sydney on the 4th of november 2010. the super jumbo registered vh oscar quebec alpha is carrying 440 passengers and 29 crew most of whom are australians returning home qantas is australia's largest airline and is the longest continuously operating airline in the world it is also one of the safest having no fatal accidents since the start of the jet age the aircraft type an airbus a380 is just three years old in 2010 with this airframe being delivered in september 2008 the a380 is the largest passenger aircraft ever built capable of carrying 484 passengers it utilises the power of four highly advanced rolls-royce trent 900 engines each capable of producing 84 000 pounds of thrust [Music] the crew make their final preparations for departure as they taxi to singapore changi's runway 2-0 center it will be a long-haul eight-hour flight to sydney the weather is clear with light winds in command is captain richard de crepany with first officer matt hicks and second officer mark johnson joining him on the flight deck two senior captains are also jump seating in the cockpit as they conduct routine checks on the crew qantas 32 cleared for takeoff cleared for takeoff qantas 32. all right everybody happy yeah just don't crash take off the four giant engines propel the double-decker aircraft into the sky and it takes off at 9 56 am [Music] as the airbus climbs out of singapore the first officer conducts the after takeoff checklist flaps zero flaps zero after takeoff checks roger after takeoff checklist complete instead of paper checklists the a380 utilizes a system called electronic centralized aircraft monitoring or ecam it continuously monitors the entire aircraft with thousands of sensors providing the crew with necessary information and warnings in normal and abnormal flight therefore to complete the after takeoff checklist the first officer simply needs to lean forward and look at the e-cam grey font confirmed that all the after takeoff items have been completed qantas 32 continues its climb as it tracks along its waypoints to set costs for sydney the autopilot is on and auto thrust active everything appears normal but just five minutes after takeoff the crew and passengers hear a loud double bang explosion it comes from the number two engine a succession of two quick loud explosions upon hearing the highly abnormal noise and subsequent warnings in the cockpit the captain presses the altitude hold command momentarily passengers feel as though the plane is falling in a nosedive due to the slight negative g-force however it is simply leveling off from its climb at 7400 feet altitude hold heading and out hold active the auto thrust has disconnected ecam actions please master warning ecam actions directing them to shut down the engine the ecam provides the appropriate checklist ecam actions engine 2 turbine overheat number 2 thrust lever idle engine master switch off the crew briefly pause to ensure they need to shut down one of their engines as they do so a new checklist pops up at the top of the queue the ecam has detected an engine fire okay we've got a number two engine fire checklist engine master is off number two fire bottle push in fire bottle pushed i'm going to talk to atc pan pan pan qantas 32 engine failure maintaining 7400 feet current heading quantus 32 copied quartus 32 we'll keep you informed and we'll get back to you in five minutes with air traffic control taken care of the crew assessed the situation what they're faced with is a sea of red lights and countless serious checklists on the ecam whatever caused the explosion it had taken out more than just an engine as more and more systems fail new checklists pop up at the top of the e-cam each serious enough to take priority over previous items now realizing how serious the situation is the first officer turns to the captain i think we should turn back towards changi yep i'll tell them singapore qantas 32 we require a left turn back towards singapore to hold while we fix our problems roger qantas32 turn left heading 0-1-0 the crew are using their fundamental crew resource management skills to deal with a large number of complex problems the first officer is fully occupied by the ecam checklist and actions while the captain is flying the plane making radio calls and maintaining overall situational awareness delegating tasks to his second officer and other two pilots as required as captain decrepany slowly turns the giant plane he asked one of his check captains to make a pa hello ladies and gentlemen we have an issue with our number two engine we have dealt with the issue and the aircraft itself is perfectly safe we are trained for this situation and just dealing with some technical issues before we land back in singapore now 10 minutes since the explosion the crew were beginning to build an overall understanding of the situation the explosion was an uncontained engine failure the debris of which was sent flying through the wing puncturing several fuel tanks and damaging two main wiring loops about 650 wires in total all of which play a role in vital aircraft systems the super jumbo airbus a380 is on its knees and the safety of its 440 passengers and 29 crew is in serious jeopardy qantas 32 request climb to 10 000 feet and keep us within 30 miles of the airport what's 32 roger climb to 10 000 feet do you think we should risk trying to climb i'm not talking about it won't be a max thrust climb i'm not sure we might only be flying on one engine okay i agree let's stay here for now qantas 32 disregard the climb we'll maintain 7 400 feet the check captain has made a good point here of the four engines one has failed two are in degraded modes and one is in alternate mode while a climb could cause extra stress on already critically damaged parts of the airframe thus the crew elect to remain at 7400 feet the captain does elect to stay within 30 miles of the airport just in case enough systems fail that he's forced to make an emergency approach qantas 32 what's the problem which engine is in trouble qantas 32 engine 2 has failed and there's a hole in the side of the engine the other engines are okay but the wing is damaged and we have extensive checklists to complete we need at least another half an hour in the hold before returning to singapore the second officer goes back into the cabin and assesses the damage the lights are flickering with the aircraft down to 40 percent of its electrical power he has shown an in-flight entertainment screen on the skycam page it reveals a worrying situation there's holes all over the wing and the fuel is leaking i put my best poker face on for the passengers but it doesn't look great all right so we've deep out all of the left wing can we start the apu i'm trying but it won't connect most of the damage which has occurred is known the task now is to work out how to get the crippled aircraft back on the ground safely there are four main issues which need addressing first is the fuel system there is a rapid leak occurring in the left wing what started at 105 tons of fuel at takeoff is now down to 93.9 however much of this fuel is unable to be provided to the engines due to the explosion taking out several transfer pipes between fuel tanks and this is only the beginning of the issues both fuel quantity management computers have failed along with several fuel pumps and the jettison systems the most drastic leak is causing a second issue a lateral imbalance of the plane it's occurring as the right wing becomes heavier than the rapidly leaking left creating a roll force on the aircraft an ecamm checklist prompts the first officer to address the issue ok wings not balanced ecamm actions fuel cross feed valves to open stop should we be transferring fuel to the good right wing into the leaking left wing no i don't think that's a good idea all right i'll move on to the next checklist yep let's keep the cross feed closed not available yeah i think we have another lateral imbalance the checklist called for us to do an emergency transfer fuel from the outer tanks into the feed tanks the ride is transferred but the left is not the lateral imbalance is worse than the pilot's first thought a transfer prior to this checklist has occurred incorrectly the imbalance across the outer tanks is now 300 outside of the flight manual's published limit the aircraft is still stable at the moment but the imbalance may become an issue when the plane gets lower and slower also an issue is the plane's longitudinal center of gravity which the econ produces an error for when it tries to calculate the aircraft's center of gravity must be within specified limits for landing or it may render the aircraft uncontrollable this ecam is still showing an error for centre of gravity it can't seem to work it out mark would you find the graph of the cg envelope if the flight crew operating manual tell me what you find shop the second officer digs through the aircraft's manuals to find the paper graph for calculating center of gravity position rich we're over our max landing weight and our cg is greater than ideal but we're within the acceptable range we're okay good we're okay i think we can ignore these ecam cg messages the ecam is only a tool for the crew to use and it is clearly suffering from erroneous data being provided from faulty sensors the manual calculation from the second officer confirms that the center of gravity will be within acceptable limits for landing all right now the fuel synoptics have failed standby i can reset the fuel management quantity computer okay we're coming back online i don't understand it does anyone understand this fuel display the computers are having trouble dealing with so many failures in the fuel system again the captain is forced to think outside the box for a solution okay let's keep this simple we can't transfer fuel we can't jettison it the trim tank fuel is stuck at the tail and the transfer tanks are useless the only usable fuel is the fuel in the three feed tanks sitting on top of each engine i don't care which fuel pumps have failed because we are below our fuel gravity ceiling so fuel will drip into each engine so forget the pumps forget the other eight tanks forget the total fuel quantity gauge and instead let's concentrate only on the fuel in the feed tanks above each engine the captain calculates how long each engine can run for based off the amount of fuel in its corresponding feeder tank engine 1 has 2 and a half hours while engine 3 and 4 have 3 and a half hours ok so i say we forget analyzing the fuel system and concentrate on the feed tanks we'll monitor the feed tank and endurance every five minutes i'm happy do any of you have any thoughts nope sounds good okay if anyone is worried about the aircraft and wants to ditch the ecamm checklist and get on the ground asap mention it otherwise we'll review the situation again in 10 minutes despite the pressure the captain and his crew are still displaying impressive crm skills the captain has made a big decision to leave alone any further abnormal fuel checklists but remains open to thoughts from his crew and elects to review the general situation of the aircraft every 10 minutes this leaves us with one more major concern the hydraulic system was severely hindered by the explosion it consists of two independent systems the green and the yellow they power vital aircraft components including the slats flaps ailerons rudders elevators and the horizontal stabilizer the green system has already completely failed and the checklist has just popped up directly to turn off two more pumps connected to the number four engine this would bring the aircraft down to just 25 percent of total hydraulic power and the captain is concerned ecamm is calling for the punch on number four to be shut off hang on can we all please think about this for a second what do you think mark uh i can't see how the damage could have spread all the way to engine four i'm not sure even if we lost all hydraulics we still have the backup electrical actuators i agree perhaps it has detected iron filings in engine 4's pumps so maybe we should turn 5 and 6 off to preserve seven and eight yes okay all right shut down pumps five and six hydraulic punch number five and six off the crew now have a fairly good overall view of the situation but the aircraft is still in a precarious position the fuel leak is creating a major imbalance on the aircraft adding to this the lack of hydraulic power is making it difficult to control the ailerons in particular are heavily degraded down to 35 percent of normal roll control fortunately the a380s highly advanced autopilot is still available and compensates for the imbalance by moving the working ailerons as required the left wing is electrically dead but sufficient power is being provided by the right engines and auxiliary power unit the landing gear may need to be extended manually before landing while the anti-skid on the brakes is also inoperative it truly is a nightmarish list of failures all right your controls matt it's easy to control the speed with thrust if you just move number three roger my controls mark you monitor matt and the aircraft's performance please singapore qantas 32 we just need a few more orbits of the holding pattern before we commence an approach we're still possibly linking fuel and hydraulic oil and will need a 20 mile long final for a stable approach to runway 20 center the fire services will need to meet us at the end of the runway roger quan is 32 i'll notify the services hmm that's odd what's wrong richard i've run an ldpa calculation and it won't work it won't calculate our landing performance dave take out all the crap and leave only the critical failures i have well keep trying please i'm going to make a pa need to be careful everything we say from now on will be on youtube within 30 minutes of our landing ladies and gentlemen this is the captain speaking the number two engine the captain speaks to the passengers for almost 10 minutes describing the situation of the aircraft this will be the final pa he makes before commencing an approach the a380 is the newest and most advanced aircraft in the world the systems in the aircraft are safe you are safe don't worry when you see fire engines surround us after landing and back in australia 100 people have assembled in the qantas crisis center to look at our flight and monitor us they will look after you as well so don't worry about missing any connections captain de crepany finishes his pa to find the rest of the crew in the final stages of preparing the landing data the first officer is about to enter the approach speed into the flight management computer it can't be 145 knots it's far too slow the first officer has realized that they have neglected to include the inoperative slats into the landing calculation okay recalculating with no slates richard we have performance 100 meters to spare changi's longest runway is 4 000 meters long more than enough distance to accommodate an a380 but many of qantas 32's failures have added to the landing distance required it will land overweight by 41 tonnes and with reduced stopping power due to its degraded brakes spoilers and reverse thrust there is exceptionally little room for error soon after with the aircraft secure enough to commence an approach the first officer takes over the radios and requests to send qantas 32 request is sent to intercept a 20-mile final at 4 000 feet for runway 20 center the crew commences stable descent early in the approach the captain disconnects the autopilot to perform a control check he augments the number three engine power to control speed just before landing the nose will be raised slightly to flare and touch down smoothly but float distance will need to be kept to a minimum a go-around is almost out of the question for this approach once the landing gear is down as the wheels will unlikely retract once locked in place and the engine power may not be enough to allow for a sudden climb quantus 32 singapore tower good day the surface wind is 180 at 5 knots runway 20 center cleared to land cleared to land confirmed the fire services are standing by affirm we have emergency services on standby thank you remember richard you can't be fast thanks harry that's an understatement the super jumbo approaches the runway much faster than usual due to its abnormal configuration this is the most critical stage of the flight so right sprites i am get into it i am keep it in rich hammer them the aircraft finally comes to a stop at the end of the runway the fire services approach and the captain makes a coded pa to prepare the flight attendants for an evacuation should it be required attention flight attendants await further instructions beautiful fantastic matt can you go through these checklists please qantas 32 we have stopped now please advise fire services we have very hot breaks and fuel leaking from the left wing strangely the aircraft goes dark as the engines shut down the auxiliary power unit is running but is not connecting to the electrical system but there is a more pressing problem fuel is still leaking onto white-hot brakes after the intense landing and as the fire services approach the plane they aren't hosing down the aircraft quantus shut down engine one we have shut down engine one repeat number one engine is still running frustrated the captain slams open his cockpit window and to his amazement sees the far left engine is in fact still running and the crew can't stop it even after extinguishing the fire bottles inside the engine despite the danger the fire crews begin spraying water over the brakes and foam over the fuel eventually they managed to stop the engine after spraying foam directly into its core it isn't until 52 minutes after landing that the first passengers begin disembarking the aircraft the first officer describes what he saw as he walked around the outside i didn't expect the whole back of the engine to not be there i mean the only thing holding the back section of the engine on was the shafts the turbine shaft the whole intermediate pressure turbine was gone to look underneath and still see fuel leaking out of the fuel tanks and just be walking around it was actually a bit surreal there's all this you know retardant foam blowing around through the air and i'm just sort of wandering around under the plane and fuel leaking everywhere and it's weird after the major incident qantas grounded its entire a380 fleet for 24 days to confirm that the engine explosion was not likely to happen again the australian transport safety bureau in consultation with qantas and rolls-royce investigated the cause of the uncontained engine failure it found that deep within the engine a fatigue crack in the oil stub feed pipe reached a size that allowed a rapid leak of oil this oil was hot enough to auto ignite moving the intermediate pressure turbine disc rear woods and creating a surge in the engine a surge usually results in the slowing down of the entire engine however the high pressure system recovered within just four seconds and sent additional energy to the intermediate turbine disc which exceeded its designed rotational speed and fractured into three main sections each of which had sufficient energy to penetrate the engine case and exit at high speed damaging numerous aircraft structures and systems it was found that the cause of the fatigue crack was a slight misalignment of the stub feed pipe and shortly after the incident rolls royce issued a service bulletin that required a series of checks on all trent 900 engines qantas 32 was the first major incident involving an airbus a380 the uncontained engine failure did have a near catastrophic effect on the aircraft however thanks in part to the highly advanced systems of the aircraft as well as the impressive skills of the pilots it managed to land safely while there is often much talk about technology replacing pilots in the cockpit this incident shows that the two can combine to produce an even higher level of safety [Music]

Channel: 3 Greens

Views: 4,214,022

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Id: Bo_YVBLNYXU

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021