Bit of light lunchtime reading....

Acceptance test for Airbus A340-600
Etihad is the national carrier of Abu Dhabi and ADAT is Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies.

The 340-600 is still in Toulouse, it has NO air miles on the frame and Airbus is waiting for the customer to accept the aircraft. Enter ADAT.

The ADAT crew taxi the A340-600 to the run-up (engine testing) area where they run all four engines to takeoff power. Having not fully read the run-up manuals ADAT were in a world of noise in the cockpit during this 'test'.

The engines were roaring at max power. The aircraft computers think that
aircraft was trying to takeoff and that it is not properly configured; flaps/s lats, etc. The warning sirens and claxons were going berserk in the cockpit so one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. Genius.

The GPS is a safety feature that prevents the aircraft landing with the landing gear brakes on. So, with the 'safety off' the aircraft thinks that it is flying and the computers automatically released the brakes.

With 80,000lbs of thrust suddenly released, the aircraft rockets forward.
The 7 man ADAT crew were clueless and had no time to shut down the engines as the empty aircraft shot across the test area.

Result - one $200m aircraft totaled. The extent of injuries to the crew is
unknown as there has been a news blackout in France and elsewhere.
Coverage of the story was deemed too much of an embarrassment for the customer.

there were photos of the end result, but i don't know how post them here. sorry.

Probably a Republican pilot. This would be a much better job for McCain.

I think the United Arab Emirates can afford the loss.

yipes! That's a big ooops!

Andy... tsk tsk tsk... (be nice! this is NOT the lounge)

"The ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. Genius."

That sentence says it all....

Aloha!

Anybody can get barred in the lounge (Filmwill?). It takes a special person to get barred over here on the Asia forum.

I happily wear the crown of Martyr Fodorite

Apparently this is an urban myth in the making... Yes there was an accident, but the crew was French Airbus employees.

Of couse the arab haters are making a dumb muslim joke out of the whole thing - when the crew was apparently European.

just found out that this accident happened last year. heres a link.

http://chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-...nt_6261622.htm

Interesting we did not hear about this the western press. Must have been censored.

Poorly defined (or executed) test procedure. I think I'd want to immobilize the wheels first.

I see that someone took this thread as an opportunity to do some French bashing! But wait, many French are Muslim, so maybe it WAS Muslim bashing. But then, those Abu Dhabi based Etihad employess might actually be French, so it probably is French bashing (unless they were Muslim French in Abu Dhabi). Or maybe it is Protestant bashing! Or are the French actually Catholic? (except for the Muslim ones, I mean) I'm so confused about what nationality or religion to blame for this!!

I guess we'll never know.

hmm, "does Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways employees" mean "employees of Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways" or does it mean "Abu Dhabi based employees of Etihad Airways"? Or does it mean "European"? We can just blame "the Europeans", I think. I need some rest.

lol. rotf.