This left a mark! Link to pictures after text... > 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 runups, 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 takeoff but it 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 fools the aircraft into thinking it is 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 smart 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. Pics; http://www.cargolaw.com/2007nightmare_a-340.html
An accident occurred at the Airbus Saint-Martin factory site in Toulouse, France on Nov. 15 at 5 pm local time, when engine-run-ups were being carried out on an A340-600, Number MSN 856 (to be A6-EHG), which was due to be delivered to Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. The delivery of Number MSN 856 was to be in 6 days. She was fully checked out -- and full of fight as the coming photos will disclose. The A340-600 jumped her chocks during an engine run-up test and -- the plane shot foarward like a rocket at full power. She went up -- almost over the blast wall. Number MSN 856 went up and through a blast fence wall. Number MSN 856 has suffered substantial damage. There were 9 persons on board. Of them, 5 crew sustained injuries. There were no fatalities -- although only God knows why. Airbus reports that of the 5 injured people, 3 remain in hospital. Two were released overnight. Of the 3 persons remaining in hospital, one is an employee of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT), a service provider for Etihad Airways, and 2 are Airbus employees. Airbus and ADAT are providing all necessary support to the persons involved and their families. An investigation has started and Airbus is providing full support to the official investigation authorities in France. Methinks the email you got was a bit biased :/
How can you tell the difference between a new airbus pilot and old airbus pilot. New air bus pilot.....What is it doing ? Old airbus pilot.....I don't know but it is doing it again !
