Air France will fly damaged A380 back to France on three engines

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
10/16/2017 at 17:55 • Filed to: planelopnik

Aviation Week

When an Air France A380 suffered a serious engine failure that ripped off the front of the engine and damaged the wing, the pilots made an emergency landing at Goose Bay, Newfoundland. Now, Air France has a plan to repatriate the airliner. The damaged engine has already been removed and flown back to Wales for inspection, and Air France plans to replace the damaged engine with a non-running spare, then take off and fly back to France on three engines. The replacement engine will likely just be windmilling in place. An A380 captain took to Twitter to explain the procedure.

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DISCUSSION (13)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > ttyymmnn
10/16/2017 at 17:58

Were can I book a ticket? Cheapest flight to Europe I bet.

WilliamsSW > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
10/16/2017 at 18:03

Good luck getting to Goose Bay to make that connection. :)

Mercedes Streeter > ttyymmnn
10/16/2017 at 18:12

TOGA thrust on the operating engines must be used for takeoff.

I would hope so! xD

Is it bad that I would totally fly on that damaged A380?

WilliamsSW > Mercedes Streeter
10/16/2017 at 18:14

The trick, however, is that there’s a sequence to advancing the throttles forward- all 3 at once won’t work—

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW
10/16/2017 at 18:15

I thought it was interesting that they will line up off of runway center. Can you say “asymmetric thrust?”

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn
10/16/2017 at 18:21

That kind of surprised me, too - especially given the size of the A380 (runway width can be an issue).

But it actually makes sense. By starting off to the side, they can get the 2 engines on one side up to TOGA a little bit quicker, shortening the takeoff roll by just letting the aircraft angle a bit into the dead engine.

The other thing that caught my eye (I saw Dave’s tweet yesterday thanks to AVWeb), was the 10kt x wind component. That’s low, but also understandable.

Mercedes Streeter > WilliamsSW
10/16/2017 at 18:27

Oh most definitely! One of my favourite things to do in a simulator is to see what I can do with a crippled plane. I think I spun an Antonov An-225 off a runway trying to take it off with engines 5 and 6 dead and 1 through 4 at full power. :D

Man, I’m in the wrong career. lol

Svart Smart, traded in his Smart > Mercedes Streeter
10/16/2017 at 18:30

I would also fly on the damaged aircraft.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
10/16/2017 at 19:23

This is an expensive problem and an expensive solution. Fascinating bit from Cap’n Dave.

f86sabre > ttyymmnn
10/16/2017 at 19:26

Says to me that they don’t have a spare engine or maybe there is an issue with the pylon. If you are going to ferry over and install an unserviceable engine and cowls then why not do the same with a servicable unit?

ttyymmnn > f86sabre
10/16/2017 at 19:34

The tweet suggested that they didn’t have the means to attach and test, or that the wing was too damaged.

WilliamsSW > Mercedes Streeter
10/16/2017 at 23:17

Best to do that in a sim and not the real thing!

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn
10/17/2017 at 06:31

very interesting!