Narrowly Avoided A Disaster Down Under

Officials say it was the closest thing Australia has had to a major air catastrophe, and after 4 months of silence, the pilot has finally told his story to the Australia Herald Sun...

The A340 was fully loaded with 257 passengers and 18 crew on board. As it approached the end of the runway of Melbourne Airport on its takeoff roll, the pilot knew they were not fast enough to provide the required lift. He pushed the engines to 'Take Off And Go-Around' power and rotated, bouncing the tail of the Airbus three times off the pavement and hitting the REIL lights at the end of the runway as the airplane finally became airborne. After 30 minutes dumping fuel over Port Phillip Bay, they returned to Melbourne and landed safely, but the Emirates pilot was badly shaken.

The pilot said he still doesn't know exactly how he managed to get the Airbus in the air. "I . . . sort of reacted on instinct," he told the Herald Sun. "I had a feeling that (something) wasn't working, but I couldn't find out what was wrong. I knew I couldn't stop. At that point I knew we just had to go. And we got it off the ground, miraculously."

Safety investigators found that the First Officer was flying the plane when the Captain called "Rotate". When it failed to fly, he called "Rotate" again, which caused the first tail strike. It was then that he pushed the plane to Take Off and Go-Around power and hit the tail again as they became airborne. Once off the ground, they realized that the calculated departure weight was 100 tons lighter than the actual weight of the airplane. While the crew is not responsible for entering the takeoff weight, they are responsible for checking that it is correct. The typo meant incorrect calculations of takeoff power and requisite speeds.

File Photo

According to the Herald Sun, the pilot has left Dubai with his family and returned to Europe, where he is from. He reportedly had slept only 3 1/2 hours in the 24 before he was scheduled to fly, and both he and the co-pilot were handed prepared letters of resignation when they returned to Dubai after the incident. There were four pilots on board the aircraft, including two relief pilots, due to the 14 1/2 hour length of the flight from Melbourne to Dubai.

FMI: www.atsb.gov.au