BA Flight lands short of Runway

[Xaccers]

The University of Hertford*****, or Hatfield Poly (with a capital S) used to teach ADA in the late 90's, they probably still do simply because it's free.

[BBKing]

I met a lady a few years back (mid-90s) who knew ADA and lived in Cheltenham. Not to hard to work out where she worked, then.

[foreverwar]

Originally Posted by BBKing

I met a lady a few years back (mid-90s) who knew ADA and lived in Cheltenham. Not to hard to work out where she worked, then.

Now you know, you'll have to be dealt with...........

Worked there when I was in the RAF - did my training at Bletchley, before it was a museum

[BBKing]

did my training at Bletchley, before it was a museum

My grandad was there before it was even acknowledged as existing, so there

He didn't tell anyone until the 1970s.

[foreverwar]

Originally Posted by BBKing

My grandad was there before it was even acknowledged as existing, so there

He didn't tell anyone until the 1970s.

Which is, funnily enough, when I was there - which I wasn't, obviously

[BBKing]

Latest AAIB report is out...

http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/publicati...er__g_ymmm.cfm

Let me peruse it...

---------- Post added at 17:30 ---------- Previous post was at 17:11 ----------

Interesting - the autopilot was in charge down to 175ft when it gave up trying to fly the plane, so the actual 'hero pilot wrestling with controls' bit can't have been more than the last few seconds. More like 'pilots faced with impossible conditions wonder what the hell happened and try to follow procedures'.

It had over three tonnes more fuel than expected on landing, so there was no shortage there.

The AAIB is very interested in temperatures over Mongolia and the Urals during the flight, since it had to descend due to the cold (a bracing -76C). However, the fuel never got cold enough to freeze.

Nothing wrong with the major aircraft systems including autothrottles and autopilot.

No birdstrike or FOD in the engines.

Both engine fuel pumps were damaged by cavitation. This is highly interesting, as this is caused by air bubbles coming out of solution in liquid due to a sudden reduction in pressure, then hitting something solid and bursting, resulting in a short sharp jet of hot liquid. Nasty stuff.

Fuel quality was fine.

There were some small items of debris in some of the fuel tanks, which may or may not be relevant.

Rather alarmingly, the fuel hadn't been cut off to the engines after the crash, so it could easily have gone up in flames. They've advised Boeing of this, since it resulted from BA (with Boeing's approval) modifying the checklist so it was possible to get the two essential steps in the wrong order (basically because each pilot had one step to do, and thus could easily execute them in the wrong order).

[jkat]

espresso fuel?? be interesting to see if other aircraft have the same prob with the high pressure fuel pumps? by all accounts they are very lucky people seeing that those fire switches are u.s!
guess we will have to wait and see.

[SMHarman]

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...espond-to.html

---------- Post added at 16:59 ---------- Previous post was at 16:59 ----------

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...dent-says.html

[Kevin T]

Well, at least GB's not to blame for one thing...

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