777 - 'You have ditched'

[Fishu]

You try it.. I tried to add the url between url brackets and there was %20 a.k.a space between the two, similar to the above message outside of url brackets. I suppose you didn't see the attempts prior to the quoted one, which I removed as it didn't serve any practical purpose.

[Ripsnort]

Accident to Boeing 777-236, G-YMMM at London Heathrow Airport on 17 January 2008 - Initial Report


Initial Report       AAIB Ref: EW/C2008/01/01


Accident

Aircraft Type and Registration:  Boeing 777-236, G-YMMM
No & Type of Engines:  2 Rolls-Royce RB211 Trent 895-17 turbofan engines
Year of Manufacture:  2001
Date & Time:  17 January 2008 at 1243 hrs
Location:  Undershoot RWY 27L, London Heathrow Airport
Type of Flight:  Commercial Air Transport (passenger)
Persons on Board:  Crew - 16
Passengers - 136
Injuries:  Crew - 4 (minor)
Passengers - 1 (serious)
Passengers - 8 (minor)
Nature of Damage:  Substantial
Information Source:  AAIB Field Investigation

Following an uneventful flight from Beijing, China, the aircraft was established on an ILS approach to Runway 27L at London Heathrow. Initially the approach progressed normally, with the Autopilot and Autothrottle engaged, until the aircraft was at a height of approximately 600 ft and 2 miles from touch down. The aircraft then descended rapidly and struck the ground, some 1,000 ft short of the paved runway surface, just inside the airfield boundary fence. The aircraft stopped on the very beginning of the paved surface of Runway 27L. During the short ground roll the right main landing gear separated from the wing and the left main landing gear was pushed up through the wing root. A significant amount of fuel leaked from the aircraft but there was no fire. An emergency evacuation via the slides was supervised by the cabin crew and all occupants left the aircraft, some receiving minor injuries.

The AAIB was notified of the accident within a few minutes and a team of Inspectors including engineers, pilots and a flight recorder specialist deployed to Heathrow. In accordance with the established international arrangements the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the USA, representing the State of Design and Manufacture of the aircraft, was informed of the event. The NTSB appointed an Accredited Representative to lead a team from the USA made up of investigators from the NTSB, the FAA and Boeing. A Boeing investigator already in the UK joined the investigation on the evening of the event, the remainder of the team arrived in the UK on Friday 18th January. Rolls-Royce, the engine manufacturer is also supporting the investigation, an investigator having joined the AAIB team.

Activity at the accident scene was coordinated with the Airport Fire and Rescue Service, the Police, the British Airports Authority and British Airways to ensure the recovery of all relevant evidence, to facilitate the removal of the aircraft and the reinstatement of airport operations.

The flight crew were interviewed on the evening of the event by an AAIB Operations Inspector and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Quick Access Recorder (QAR) were removed for replay. The CVR and FDR have been successfully downloaded at the AAIB laboratories at Farnborough and both records cover the critical final stages of the flight. The QAR was downloaded with the assistance of British Airways and the equipment manufacturer. All of the downloaded information is now the subject of detailed analysis.

Examination of the aircraft systems and engines is ongoing.

Initial indications from the interviews and Flight Recorder analyses show the flight and approach to have progressed normally until the aircraft was established on late finals for Runway 27L. At approximately 600 ft and 2 miles from touch down, the Autothrottle demanded an increase in thrust from the two engines but the engines did not respond. Following further demands for increased thrust from the Autothrottle, and subsequently the flight crew moving the throttle levers, the engines similarly failed to respond. The aircraft speed reduced and the aircraft descended onto the grass short of the paved runway surface.

The investigation is now focussed on more detailed analysis of the Flight Recorder information, collecting further recorded information from various system modules and examining the range of aircraft systems that could influence engine operation.

[Fishu]

You didn't quite get my point about the URL.. it's lack of co-operation with the URL brackets was the point of curiocity to me. Why it adds a space to it... it caught my attention more than the contents

[LePaul]

Amazing no one got killed

Wonder if water in the fuel is part of the issue?  Read on one of the links that they are advising aircraft to be double sure they drain any/all water out of other craft.

As Rip mentioned, it'll be interesting to see what the blackboxes and examinations uncover.

[steely07]

sorry about the bad url Fellas

[rpm]

This had to happen sooner or later. It's an unavoidable hazard in fly by wire. Airbus had a similar accident at the 1988 Paris airshow .

[Chairboy]

We've certainly seen what failures are possible with the hydraulic controls that FbW replaced.  If this is indeed a failure of that system, it's a pretty damn good record.

Perspective, folks.

[Chairboy]

Also, that's absolutely incorrect, RPM.  The Paris Air Show crash was because the pilot commanded full idle instead of approach idle, and it took too long to spool up when he commanded go around thrust.  It was not a failure of FbW, it was legit pilot error.

[rpm]

My bad. I thought it was an fbw issue. Been a long time.

[Holden McGroin]

the first D-FbW flight was in the early seventies.

Its a fairly mature technology.

[OOZ662]

Originally posted by Furball
Wonder what could stop both engines responding like that?

The monkey between the throttle cable and the fuel pump fell asleep.

[Hornet33]

I wonder if the flight control systems run on Windows software??

30 seconds to touch down.......wait for it.......Blue Screen of Death.......of CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!


Seriously though if both engines failed at the same time it sounds like a software glich in the computer. Kinda like the whole "Don't move your controls so rapidly" thing. The reason I say this is because acourding to the pilot he tried to move the thottle controls while they still had the auto thottle engaged. I'm wondering if the computer canceled both inputs out because they conflicted with the programing of the flight computer, hence the engines stopped responding and dumped the generators, then they lost the computers as well?

Anyone with experiance with fly by wire ever see something like this before?

[cpxxx]

Some talk of fuel waxing now as a possible cause.

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
the first D-FbW flight was in the early seventies.

Its a fairly mature technology.

Goes further back than that. A B-17 was set up for fbw in WW2.

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Hornet33
The reason I say this is because acourding to the pilot he tried to move the thottle controls while they still had the auto thottle engaged.

That would just disengage the autothrottle, which is a feature, not a leading cause to a bug.