ABU DHABI FLIGHT CREW 'BREAKS IN' A NEW AIRBUS 340-600
The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever
built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single hour of
airtime.? Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies
(ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine
run-ups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi ..
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all
four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having
read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600
really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had
all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were
trying to take off but the aircraft had not been configured properly
(flaps/slats, etc.) Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit
breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm.? This fooled
the aircraft into thinking it was in the air.
The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft
rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature
so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was quick enough to throttle
back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million
brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.
The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown for there has been a news
blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere. Coverage of the story
was deemed insulting to Muslim Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to
leak out.
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