onetrack

You'd have to have handfuls of anti-seize applied, before any of it migrated to brake pads. A dab of nickel-based anti-seize is the cure to any corrosion/sticking problems.

......Cappy, Turbo, and others. Only OT's contributions are stimulating and interesting, just like Cappy's long delirious nights, down at the..........

Good luck with getting through the TSA without a body orifice inspection!! 😄  Always remember in America, it's, "Yes, Sir!", "No, Sir!", when anyone has some kind of authority over you!  

https://www.mensjournal.com/travel/tsa-sends-clear-warning-to-all-airport-travelers

Qatar Airways is basically an arm of the Qatari Govt, it is wholly-owned by them, so limitless petro-dollars go into ensuring they're a "premium flying experience". I flew business class from Doha to Perth on a Qatar B777 about 12 yrs ago, it was the best airline experience I've ever experienced.

Meals are cooked on board to your order, and the fully-reclining seats that lay flat for sleeping, have inbuilt massagers! Even better, there were 34 seats in business class on the Qatar B777 flight, and there were only 9 occupied!

The electrical system of the Dreamliner is staggering in its complexity, as compared to earlier models. It uses six generators along with miniature "substations" to provide electrical power.

Its design relies a lot more on electrical componentry, and a lot less on pneumatics, with the design aim of reducing weight and increasing efficiency.

Even the hydraulics are electrically controlled on the Dreamline, a major design change from earlier Boeings.

However, I harbour a feeling that the investigators will find a cause for the thrust and power failures that will come from out of left field - a reason, that no-one, especially the Boeing designers and testers, ever imagined could happen.

Remember the FADEC blips on the Qantas Airbus that flew near the U.S. Navy communications base at Exmouth in 2008? The aircraft did an uncommanded descent of 650 feet before the crew intervened and corrected the flight path deviation.

It was found after extensive investigation, that the U.S. Navy low frequency radio wave generation overwhelmed the FADEC protection systems and more FADEC shielding had to be installed in the Airbus.

I'm wondering if some unexpected powerful radio signal generation in the Ahmedabad airport area, produced EMI interference with the Dreamliners electrical power systems?

GaryBPilot on YooTube points out an interesting thing about Flight 171 after takeoff. Everyone is trying to figure why the undercarriage didn't retract - which it should have, as soon as positive climb rate was established (normally only seconds after liftoff).

GaryBPilot outlines how the Dreamliner MLG bogies are electrically canted forward, prior to being retracted into the wheel wells. Conversely, the bogies are electrically canted backwards prior to landing.

This bogie canting process assists in improved undercarriage stowage when retracted, and assists in softer runway contact when landing.

Gary says he can see the undercarriage bogies commence their canting, which indicates the undercarriage retraction lever was selected. But then, the undercarriage goes no further in the retraction process. That would seemingly indicate a major power failure to the undercarriage retraction mechanism. This could be an indicator to further electrical failures that led to loss of thrust.

Another point is that India is the home of some pretty destructive critters, such as rats. If a rat got aboard undetected and chewed up important electrical componentry or wiring, and thus damaged redundancy features as well, that would go a long way to explain how "foolproof" aircraft systems could be damaged to the point where redundancy failed.

http://787updates.newairplane.com/787-Electrical-Systems/787-Electrical-System#

It's amazing the uses to which you can put a hair dryer. A good one is using them to remove decals that are otherwise difficult to remove, without damaging the underlying paint. Warm them up, and they will come off a lot easier.

The BBC article below outlines the investigation procedures. The Boeing investigation team are deferring to India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) as the investigation leaders.

As the article states, investigators will have a pretty good handle on what happened within a few days, but gaining understanding of WHY it happened, will take a lot longer. The recorders on the Dreamliner are high tech, and record a vast array of inputs, unlike early recorders. Therefore I would presume that they have backup power in the event of total engine failure.

I'm not sure that the engines failed completely, but a check of engine component damage will soon reveal whether they were running or stopped. 

The BBC article is fairly well done, but there's an error where it states the aircraft was carrying 100 tonnes of fuel. The aircraft is capable of carrying 100 tonnes of fuel, but according to my information, 50 tonnes of fuel is adequate (with statutory reserves) for a flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, and that's what Flight 171 was carrying.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gkd555jlko

You can advise "at your own risk" all you like, but if someone crashes on your property, and they're injured or even killed, all it takes is one clever lawyer to advise the injured party or their spouse/close relatives that you failed in your duty of care, and the lawyer for the complainant has found a reason to pursue a claim - then your advice about "at your risk" is worth very little in any ensuing legal action.

To protect yourself, you really need to carry out an airstrip Risk Assessment, record the details, and initiate a Safety Plan (and record that, too), thus ensuring that you took satisfactory steps, that met your Duty of Care to your airstrip users.

New territory that people have not ventured into previously can contain hazards that they're not aware of. You must make sure all hazards are logged, and the details provided to the airstrip users.

And now, Capt Steeve has changed his opinion, after seeing the clear video evidence of the RAT deployment.

That video and explanation from Capt Steeeve is very good, and it jells with what MenTour Pilot and his mate were discussing - that a brain fart in selecting flaps up instead of gear up is totally on the cards, and there would be no major warning against the error. Even the distinct shape and placement of the different levers still does little towards an inadvertent incorrect choice of levers.

The FO on the Yeti Air ATR 72 crash in Nepal selected the prop feather lever inadvertently, instead of flaps, when coming in to land - but on the ATR 72, these two levers are adjacent, so a higher chance of incorrect lever selection.

Do you have a link to that "clear video"?

I wouldn't be looking for dead birds on the runway, for evidence the engines ingested them. A few birds in a flying flock would do the damage and be chewed up, and the rest would fly away.

The RAT being deployed is seriously open to question. People are basing their decisions on the RAT being deployed, on grainy, low quality video with pixellation. It's not possible to determine if this was the case.

The chances of a double engine failure are very low, but bird ingestion is the main cause. Usually, bird ingestion results in visible smoke and flames from the engine exhausts. I can't see that in any video, but the videos are scarce and of poor quality.

The general technique is the aviation authority of the country where the aircraft crashed collects and analyses the recorders, with the NTSB assisting in the process of opening and studying them.

The story about the aircraft taking off using only half the runway is a furphy, initiated by faulty tracking that only commenced once the aircraft was halfway down the runway. The runway is 3,500 metres long, and a Dreamliner needs 2538M to take off.

Add in high local temperature at takeoff, a full aircraft at near MTOW, and it would need all of that 2538M to get airborne. No-one in their right mind would take off at the halfway mark of the runway, with a full commercial flight at MTOW on a stinking hot day.

If the aircraft initiated the takeoff at the halfway mark along the runway, it wouldn't have even been anywhere near V1 when the runway ended.

The CCTV shows an aircraft climbing satisfactorily for about the first 500 feet, and the questions to be answered is why the undercarriage wasn't retracted as soon as it left the ground, and why the flaps appear to not be set to takeoff position.

The flaps may have been extended for takeoff, the video quality is too poor to determine what their position is. It seems impossible that an experienced Captain would takeoff with no flaps extended - that is so basic to aircraft operation, and there are so many warnings if you try to, the chances of that happening is near zero. 

MenTour pilot has a fairly good discussion about the flight on FB, get past the first few minutes, and they get into the nitty-gritty. It's all speculation anyway, until the FDR and CVR are examined. Both have been recovered.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-crash-flight-ai-171s-last-takeoff-analysed/articleshow/121811830.cms?from=mdr

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1207383097733798

......merely token in the W.A. scrap business, as he soon found out that no-one in W.A. was bigger in the scrap business than OT was. Cappy soon found out that even Sims Metal went to OT for their scrap, and the Chinese regularly begged OT to send more scrap to them, to keep their massive electric arc furnaces operational, and their millions of steel workers employed.

Even Sanjeev Gupta came to OT, seeking advice on how to save his faltering steel business. O.T's advice was simple, "Mate, forget about trying to run steel mills, the real money is in picking up valuable scrap, that people simply throw away!"

Very soon, both Cappy and Sanjeev were sighted, riding bicycles, towing little trailers, scouring their local streets for kerbside giveaways, and council collection piles. They soon learnt that.........

26 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

how many thrusters muster in a thruster muster

Sound like a Thruster Muster could turn into a Cluster!

Uncommanded rollback of throttles? Or did the FO make an alteration to power settings accidentally, when he was about to raise the gear? All the indications in the video are, the power was reduced at about 500-600 feet.

The aircraft tore the top storey off the building it hit first (the one with the tail stuck in it), then the exploding remnants of the aircraft flew on for many hundreds of metres, damaging buildings further on, after travelling across a small open area.

Wreckage fills the streets all around the fire damaged buildings. I really am amazed there wasn't hundreds more casualties on the ground, knowing how populated India is.

https://www.siasat.com/photo-plane-crashes-near-ahmedabad-airport-3232391/

7 hours ago, BrendAn said:

Hopefully most of the people in the hostel were at work

Unfortunately, all the medical trainees and teachers were having lunch in the buildings as the aircraft landed on them.

.....leave OT's tractors and equipment alone. But the true reason OT was sighted in a Kununurra pub wasn't anything to do with Cats or Allis Chalmers, it was because OT had received a message on the Noongar elder grapevine (and of course, OT is an Elder, and the Noongars respect him far and wide. Once OT tells the Mormons he's an Elder too, they leave him alone) - that a WW2 warbird wreck had been sighted in the long grass of a Kimberley station remote back paddock.

OT is always on the hunt for archaeological treasures of the powered kind, and a WW2 warbird wreck was high on his list of "finds", yet to be discovered. His aim was always to beat other members and contributors of the NES to wreck finds - and it wasn't just about the glory and money associated with WW2 wreck finds, it was............

The Captain made a Mayday call saying he was losing power - and the failure to climb, and then slowly sinking, is indicative of power loss. What the reason was behind the power loss will be the focus of investigations.

Could it have been the FO mishandled power settings and the Captain failed to notice any incorrect settings?

Birdstrike on both engines has been suggested, but I see no birds in the vicinity, and no indication of flameout in the form of flames or smoke from engine exhausts, as one would expect from birdstrikes.

There was one survivor out of all the aircraft pax and crew, a British-Indian passenger seated in 11A, who walked away from the destruction with facial injuries and some chest injuries.

He said he came to after the crash surrounded by destruction and bodies, and simply got up and walked off. Talk about luck, he should buy a lottery ticket. Total deaths are close to 300, one of aviations worst disasters for a long time.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2068049/No-thrust-losing-power-Pilot-s-desperate-Mayday-call-Air-India-crash-kills-290

BBC has the best coverage, it appears there are no survivors from the flight, and the death toll for civilians on the ground will be in multiples of 10. The video clip shows a Dreamliner struggling to gain altitude, slowly sinking into the village and producing a sharp nose-up shortly before crashing. The aircraft exploded on crashing, it appears the only major section left is the tail, stuck in the top of a building.

The aircraft crashed into a medical educational centre, with many medical trainees living in flats that have been seriously damaged and destroyed. Aircraft misconfiguration, crew mishandling of controls, high temperature on takeoff (it's reported it was over 40°C in the area when it took off), and also reports of the aircraft taking off a long way down the runway, meaning inadequate liftoff distance. The crew capabilities are going to come under examination, most surely.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c8d1r3m8z92t

That's incredible! They were a beast in their day. I have vivid memories of watching a Phantom bomb the crap out of a Viet Cong/NVA hideout in the nearby hills, that was only a couple of kms from where I was located, at Long Hai, just East of Vung Tau, in 1971. Their climb ability was staggering.

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

How would you know W&B weren't addressed?  Let me assure you that it certainly would be.  Nev

Unfortunately, in July 1949, W&B was NOT properly addressed in the case of MMA DC-3 VH-MME, and it stalled immediately after takeoff, and it crashed almost vertically into the ground, killing all 18 on board.

This was one of Australia's worst air disasters in that era, only exceeded by the crash of the ANA DC-4 Amana in the following year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_MacRobertson_Miller_Aviation_DC-3_crash

....'s attitude changed instantly, to one of roaring approval. "Oh look!", said a bloke in the crowd, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Cappy. "She's an Occupational Therapist, which means I'll be able to get her to manipulate and carefully stroke my.......