Image: 123RF
An Air Transat Airbus A330
What are the chances of landing safely on some islands if both engines fail while flying over the ocean?
To have two engines fail on a plane is extremely rare. Amongst others, there were 2 such incidents – one was caused by a flock of wild geese at around 3000 feet from La Guardia Airport in New York and crashed landed successfully onto the Hudson River.
The other one occurred at 39,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean on August 24, 2001 after almost 4 hours into the flight on an Air Transat Airbus A330 from Toronto to Lisbon.
The plane had run out of fuel due to a fuel leak caused by improper maintenance. With exceptional skills, the captain glided the plane to a successful landing in the Azores.
It was the longest glide by a commercial aircraft without engines. Following this extraordinary feat, this aircraft was nicknamed the “Azores Glider”
It all started when the crew had observed a problem which they attributed to a simple fuel imbalance. Unknown to them, it was in fact a fuel leak through a fracture that had developed in a fuel line.
A fuel imbalance happens when one wing is having more fuel that the other. It is an undesirable condition which may lead to control issues. As such, the pilot needs to balance the fuel tanks manually. This is a simple process – open the cross-feed valve and switch off the fuel pumps on the tank with lower fuel quantity.
In my previous posting, I discussed the 9 memory items of the Airbus that must be memorized by pilots. I also elaborated that there are other less critical emergencies that a pilot need not memorize. Instead, such drills must be carried out with the aid of a Check List.
However, in this incident, the captain decided to do away with the Check List and carried out the procedures by using his memory as it was only a 2-step action. Unfortunately, he missed the ‘CAUTION’ on top of the Check List which states, “DO NOT APPLY THIS PROCEDURE IN CASE OF FUEL LEAK”
As such, all the fuel in the good tank were depleted through the leak, causing both the engines to shut down in turn.
The captain followed their standard emergency guide, “aviate, navigate and communicate”:
Aviate – have the plane under control by commencing a glide descent.
Navigate – proceed to the nearest airport at Lajes Air Base in the Azores.
Communicate – transmitting a Mayday call to the air traffic control.
Fortunately, they were close to the Air Base in the Island which was well within the gliding range of a commercial plane that has lost all engines. If the plane were further than 105 miles away, the aircraft may not be able to make it to a safe landing.
So, when the crew finally sighted the airport, they were still very high and the captain had to execute a 360-degrees turn together with a series of “S” turns to lose excess height.
The plane touched down fast and busted the 8 tires. Thankfully, 306 lives were saved from this exceptional no-engine landing.
See video here – Air Crash Investigation: Air Transat Flight 236