Plane WON’T Climb! Then The Pilot Did Something Incredible

Emirates flight 407 set off on a flight from Melbourne Australia to Dubai in a fully loaded Airbus A340 but what was supposed to be a long but routine flight quickly turned into a nightmare a vital human error in the cockpit led to one of the most terrifying takeoff experiences in aviation history and put the lives of the almost 300 people on board in danger in the late hours of Friday March 20th 2009 257 passengers and 18 crew members boarded Emirates flight 407 at the Melbourne Airport in Australia most of the passengers had come in from

the Orland airport in New Zealand earlier that day and was strapped in for the long 14-hour trip to Dubai the night was mostly clear and the conditions were perfect for flying the aircraft being used for the flight was a 5-year-old Airbus a 34500 which had an excellent safety record and could also carry out such a long journey without needing a refuel stop since the flight was a significantly long one there were four pilots on board instead of two this was done to allow the main crew to rest during the flight as the other Pilots would

take over during stated parts of the cruise the relief crew were required to be in the cockpit for the entire flight as well as the pre-flight preparations to further ensure the safety of such a long trip little did they know of the dire situation that was about to befall them while while the passengers strapped in and prepared for takeoff the pilots carried out the important pre- departure procedures inside the cockpit with a captain who had just over 8,000 hours of flying experience with about 1,400 of those coming on the A340 his first officer had similar

total flying experience but just over 425 hours on the A340 the relief Captain was the most experienced with almost 12,500 flight hours the relief first officer had about half of that on paper the numbers and wealth of experience in the cockpit before takeoff should have been a plus but on this occasion proved to be the opposite during the pre-flight preparations there were five people in the cockpit three pilots and two ground Engineers the lack of space meant that the first relief officer had to stand outside the cockpit and wait for the ground Engineers to leave

while the pilots and ground Engineers chatted in the it the first officer possibly distracted by all the chatter made a grave error he unknowingly inputed the incorrect takeoff weight into the electronic flight bag or efb which is used to calculate the takeoff performance parameters the first officer handed the efb to the captain to confirm the associated parameters before entering them into the aircraft system the vital verbal check with his first officer also did not take place which would have revealed the error the first officer had accidentally inputed 262.50 tons lighter than it actually was but

no one had taken notice of this grave error computers are only as good as the data to them so the system underestimated the engine power flap settings and speed the aircraft would need for takeoff the situation was rectifiable and the pilots in the cockpit had multiple chances to fix the issue before takeoff unfortunately for all on board they did not around 1018 p.m. local time the aircraft doors as well as the last opportunity to correct the efb error closed flight 407 pushed back from the gate 7 minutes ahead of schedule and headed towards Runway 16

by 10:30 the flight was cleared for takeoff by the ATC as the aircraft began taxiing the runway the pilot set the flaps to the first setting then pushed the thrust levers to maximum continuous thrust the massive plane began speeding down the runway as it approached its calculated rotation speed the acceleration of the aircraft seemed to be relatively slower but this wasn't a huge cause for alarm however however once the aircraft reached its rotation speed the first concerns became visible the captain called for the first officer to rotate the aircraft and in response the first officer

applied a nose-up command to the Sid stick but the nose of the aircraft didn't rise the captain called out again rotate this time the first officer pulled back even further but even as the nose began to rise the aircraft itself didn't rise from the runway this was the first point where both Pilots realized that something had gone very wrong since the aircraft had reached rotation speed there was no longer the option to stop it on the runway and a solution would have to be taken once the plane was Airborne the problem with this however was

that the plane wasn't looking like it could go Airborne as its speed was around 20 knots too slow due to the incorrect weight parameters inputed earlier in reaction to this the captain selected the takeoff go around or toga thrust on the rust levers with the end of the runway fast approaching while all of this was happening the tail of the aircraft had slammed hard into the runway tarmac Sparks went flying as the aluminium fuselage screeched against the runway at around 170 mph the impact was severe with part of the Black Box destroyed and the fuselage

basically shredded passengers noticed a strange red glow and began to smell the fumes from burning metal and insulation the end of the runway was also now in sight if the plane couldn't get airborne in the next few seconds it would all but signal a fatal disaster luckily for everyone on board the plane managed to climb around 3 seconds after the captain had selected toga thrust at that point it was around 148 M Beyond The Runway it was a close call but the main problems were just about to start the impact the A340 aircraft had suffered

during takeoff had Unk knowingly damaged some of its Landing systems as the aircraft climbed a warning appeared on their Central display alerting them of a tail strike which was confirmed by a radio call from Air Traffic Control at that point the crew knew that they wouldn't be continuing to Dubai and needed to return to Melbourne to assess the damage however the heavy weight of the aircraft was going to be a stumbling block they had to navigate with 130 tons of fuel on board the crew now had to find a way to reduce the aircraft's weight

to the required maximum Landing weight of 280 tons they first received orders to climb to an altitude of 7,000 ft and began circling over the port Philip Bay in Victoria as they dumped fuel into the water to find out how much fuel needed to be dumped in order to land safely the first officer needed to use the efb once again it was then when he pulled it out of its compartment to check it that he realized the enormous mistake he made but there was no time for the first officer to reflect on his grave error

because the relief first officer almost immediately pointed out another life-threatening concern the aircraft wasn't pressurized apparently when the aircraft's tail scraped against the runway it had done so with such force that it created multiple holes in the fuselage the plane was no longer a sealed vessel to make matters worse there wasn't a lot of time to deliberate on what had caused it the pilots declared pan pan and flight 407 was given Landing priority over other flights in the cockpit the pilots deliberated on how many encirclements of the port Philip Bay they would need to make

while dumping fuel in order to get to their maximum Landing weight they decided to dump around 80 tons of jet fuel to get their weight down to 280 tons the pilots made three independent calculations for landing performance two of them using the efb and one of them using the aircraft's quick reference handbook to ensure there were no further performance errors the aircraft along with its 257 passengers and 18 crew members was 7,000 ft above the ocean with a damaged tail and quickly losing pressure the only thing on the mind of the crew was to First

deliver everyone to Melbourne safely the passengers were obviously concerned for their lives so the captain made his first public address to inform them of the tail strike during takeoff as well as the necessary dumping of fuel to complete the landing at around 11:25 the pilots decided they had dumped enough fuel so it was time to make The Descent towards Melbourne however just moments into their descent the crew heard an unusual Rumble before they could realize what had happened they got information that there could be a possible fire on board due to sightings of smoke the

first officer radioed the control tower to inform them of the situation and told them that they would be completing the landing a bit earlier than expected in response the tower sent Fire and Rescue Services to the runway they were in a Race Against Time to complete the landing before the alleged fire could spread now having to make a quicker approach Landing the aircraft was made many times more difficult for the crew as they neared touchdown with a genuine risk of overrunning the runway a second time the captain had to heavily slam the brakes once the

aircraft touched down he then brought the engines into reverse thrust as he tried his best to decelerate the massive aircraft it was a heart-in-mouth moment but this time the aircraft managed to stop just before the end of the runway an hour and 4 minutes after its departure flight 407 landed safely on Runway 34 the rescue vehicles reported that there was no fire and thankfully there were no casualties on board inspections following the incident showed that the air craft received serious damage to the underside of its rear fuselage as its external sheets had their lower skin

panels completely stripped off by contact with the runway a service panel was also found to be dislodged while numerous fuselage frames and stringers in the rear fuselage area were damaged by abrasion and contact forces during the strike an investigation conducted by the atsb along with some other Aviation safety organizations revealed that the two main factors caused the accident first was the flight crew's failure to detect the erroneous takeoff weight and the second was the late detection of the degraded takeoff performance it was also found that the flight crew didn't complete all of the tasks in

the standard operating procedures which contributed to the failure in detecting the error Additionally the first officer was found to have changed the first digit of the flex takeoff weight on the master Flight Plan during the load sheet confirmation procedure which removed another opportunity for the flight crew to detect the error in reaction to the incident Emirates reportedly fired the pilots upon their return to Dubai in fact it's near impossible to find the names of these Pilots it also reviewed its pre-flight procedures and mandated the use of two laptops for pre-flight planning to ensure dual data

entry additionally they began developing an avionic system for takeoff acceleration monitoring and alerting Airbus also reportedly updated its software to detect such erroneous data with plans to develop a monitoring system to alert Pilots if inputed data is erroneous or doesn't tally with required rates the atsb issued safety recommendations to both the US FAA and the International Air transport Association or iata in an effort to minimize the possibility of such an event occurring again in future the A340 aircraft involved in the incident was repaired and return to service with Emirates until 2014 flight 407 showcased the

importance of proper pre-flight checks and correct calculation of takeoff parameters to ensure safe flight operations the investigations from the incident have brought about recommendations which have contributed to improving Aviation safety and preventing similar future occurrences what do you think about the events from Emirates flight 407 and the Pilot's handling of the incident share your thoughts in the comments below we'd love to hear them until next time take care