Those stupid french

miir · Post by **miir** » August 3, 2005, 12:55 pm

Can't even crash a plane properly.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... hub=Canada

Pretty amazing, an A340 skids off the runway and bursts into flames a few minutes later.... only minor injuries reported.

Kudos to the crew and emergency personel.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » August 3, 2005, 1:12 pm

Watched the entire thing on CBC yesterday moments after it happened. Pretty scary stuff.

Turned to Fox News and they were interviewing a guy that claimed that the plane broke in half in the air while pieces of the plane turned into fireballs and crash in a creek. Back to CBC I went.]

I'm glad only they only had minor injuries and that everyone will pretty much walk away just fine (physically that is).

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » August 3, 2005, 3:30 pm

I saw some of the footage on CTV and am amazed... 309 people was a number I heard at one point, off the airplane in an extremely short time before the whole thing went up.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » August 3, 2005, 9:28 pm

Lynks wrote:Turned to Fox News and they were interviewing a guy that claimed that the plane broke in half in the air while pieces of the plane turned into fireballs and crash in a creek. Back to CBC I went.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » August 3, 2005, 11:47 pm

Award for Iron Balls goes to that pilot... landing a plane that was in flames from what appears to be a lightening strike... bellying it down and stopping smooth enough to not only not seriously hurt someone (or break the plane into a kazillion pieces and kill em all) but smooth enough so 390 people could exit in 120 seconds?!?! That dude earned every penny he will ever make, times a million, for those 3 minutes.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 4, 2005, 9:32 am

Those people should be thankful for 3 things:
- Skill. The pilot was damn good.
- Training. The crew had excellent training and executed it perfectly.
- Luck. Without a bit of luck that plane would have gone boom no matter how good the pilot was.

Kudos to Air France for saving what could have been a very very nasty incident.

Cartalas · Post by **Cartalas** » August 4, 2005, 3:39 pm

Pherr the Dorf wrote:Award for Iron Balls goes to that pilot... landing a plane that was in flames from what appears to be a lightening strike... bellying it down and stopping smooth enough to not only not seriously hurt someone (or break the plane into a kazillion pieces and kill em all) but smooth enough so 390 people could exit in 120 seconds?!?! That dude earned every penny he will ever make, times a million, for those 3 minutes.

Where did you read the plane was struck by lightning?

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 4, 2005, 4:07 pm

I read early on that it was speculated that it was hit by lightning due to it supposedly losing electricity and the fact that there was a "red alert" due to lightning at the airport.

Been a lot of planes hit by lightning lately. Read about a SAS plane that got a hole in it from lightning which is very unusual.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » August 5, 2005, 4:03 am

The engine was on fire on landing, lightening was and is the primary suspect

Cartalas · Post by **Cartalas** » August 5, 2005, 7:30 pm

hmmm Looks like the pilots might of landed a little long.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 6, 2005, 12:20 pm

Yeah read that. Makes me wonder how the electrical systems both on the ground and in the plane were impacted by the bad lightning storm. My guess would be that the systems did not work correctly.

Anybody know how long that runway is? The safety measures are fairly huge when it comes to the length of them.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » August 6, 2005, 1:13 pm

I think 9000 feet.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 6, 2005, 5:34 pm

This is getting interesting. Initial reports indicate that the plane missed the safe zone (275 to 450 meters) and touched down after it on a runway that is 2750 meters long. It was being flown by the co-pilot with more than 10K flight hours behind him and manually landed. Two guesses so far is a tailwind hit them and brought them further down the runway (not uncommon in these conditions) and possibly aquaplanning. The co-pilot might get some blame for this one but too early to tell. He has earned a lot of praise for double-checking that the plane was empty after it caught on fire though.. This will be tricky.

This is a scary read of the Dallas crash if y'all haven't read it. 20 years ago and still frightening:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/4787896/detail.html

Metanis · Post by **Metanis** » August 6, 2005, 6:34 pm

My flight instructor always told me, "any landing you can walk away from is a good landing".

These are some really lucky folks. And that's cool!

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 6, 2005, 8:26 pm

And I bet the 309 people on board that plane agrees!

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » August 8, 2005, 1:00 pm

Kind of interesting some of the findings coming out on this...
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... TopStories

Levasseur says he believes the plane landed about 4,000 feet down the 9,000-foot runway. Under normal runway conditions, 5,000 feet would have been enough for a plane to stop in time. But the rain changed all of that.

The plane was also travelling slightly faster than normal for a landing, moving at a speed of about 148 knots with a tailwind (275 km/h), instead of the usual 140 knots (260 km/h).

Nothing else is being said of lightning or fires (initial coverage and witness reports I saw all said lightning hit as it touched down) at this point but a lot of this seems to raising the question of whether the pilots fucked up and would have been able to stop regardless...

miir · Post by **miir** » August 8, 2005, 1:05 pm

Kelshara wrote:And I bet the 309 people on board that plane agrees!

Apparently not

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » August 8, 2005, 1:38 pm

Read that.. I am surprised she didn't sue because she dumped coffee on herself during the crash or something.