rfonseca
12-05-2003, 06:16 PM
To those of you who are wondering what happened to the DHL A300B4 coming
out of Baghdad last
Saturday, take a look.
http://www3.telus.net/public/tlc2/projectpage
QUOTE
Aircraft was hit at 8000 FT, lost ALL hydraulics and therefore had no
flight controls, actually did a missed
approach using only engine thrust and eventually (after about 16mins)
landed heavily on runway 33L at
Baghdad. This was fortunate because with no steering the aircraft veered
of the runway to the left, had they
landed on 33R veering to the left would have taken them straight into
the fire station.
The aircraft then traveled about 600 meters through soft sand taking out
a razor wire fence in the process, see
LH engine pic, and came to rest Almost at the bottom of the sloping area
between the runway and a taxiway.
All three crew evacuated safely down the second slide, the first one
Tore on the razor wire.
I flew in with a team on Tuesday in one of our Metros and some special
equipment we'd had made locally in
Bahrain and some provided by Airbus. Using a USAF D9 Caterpillar pulling
a 100 metre cable fitted to the
back end of each bogie and a nice new aircraft pushback tug with a
towbar on the nose gear, we were able to
remove the aircraft just on dusk on Tuesday night and towed it to an
Iraqi Airways graveyard on one side of
the terminal.
We stayed overnight in the USAF camp on the airport and went back to the
aircraft on Wednesday morning to
allow the insurance survey to be completed and then secure the aircraft.
Basically, LH engine rotates in a fashion, has ingested lots of razor
wire and is knackered. RH engine has
seized, probably from ingesting loads of sand at maximum reverse thrust
and inlet cowl has unacceptable lip
damage, probably from hitting the razor wire fence posts.
The No 8 axle appears to be cracked as the wheel sits at an odd angle.
The bulk of the damage is the LH wing. About 3 metres of rear spar is
missing in front of the outboard flap, the
wing has bulged upwards and downwards where the initial explosion
appears to have occurred, one O/B flap
track is hanging in the breeze and one has a small piece of flap still
attached, the rest of the flap is
nonexistent. The pics show the huge crack that has occurred to the rear
spar inboard of where the spar has
burnt away, possibly from loads on the wing during the landing process.
The front spar appears to be intact.
The point of entry pics show where a projectile entered Tank 1A, which
was full of fuel, and, after it ignited,
proceeded to burn away at the spar. The fuel tank ribs in the area
directly in front of the O/B flap are burnt
almost 50% through.
The crew obviously did a fantastic job in getting the aircraft back on
to the ground and one can only assume
that it was most fortunate that they were not aware of the state of the
wing as they could not see it from the
cockpit.
It also says a lot for the structure of the aircraft that it withstood
the impact of the (whatever is finally
determined to have hit it).
I'm sure there will be lots of other photos and videos flying around the
net, but at least these ones are genuine.
The worst part for us was the airport was shut down on Wednesday and we
had to be driven in an
armour-plated Landcruiser Troop Carrier from Baghdad to Balad, 60 miles
to the north, from where we flew
back to Bahrain in our Metro again.
I trust you will all appreciate just how lucky these guys were.
Regards,
Ashley.
Ashley Northcott,
Technical Director,
DHL International Aviation,
Bahrain.
UNQUOTE
Taken from the AirCar forum at Yahoo.
out of Baghdad last
Saturday, take a look.
http://www3.telus.net/public/tlc2/projectpage
QUOTE
Aircraft was hit at 8000 FT, lost ALL hydraulics and therefore had no
flight controls, actually did a missed
approach using only engine thrust and eventually (after about 16mins)
landed heavily on runway 33L at
Baghdad. This was fortunate because with no steering the aircraft veered
of the runway to the left, had they
landed on 33R veering to the left would have taken them straight into
the fire station.
The aircraft then traveled about 600 meters through soft sand taking out
a razor wire fence in the process, see
LH engine pic, and came to rest Almost at the bottom of the sloping area
between the runway and a taxiway.
All three crew evacuated safely down the second slide, the first one
Tore on the razor wire.
I flew in with a team on Tuesday in one of our Metros and some special
equipment we'd had made locally in
Bahrain and some provided by Airbus. Using a USAF D9 Caterpillar pulling
a 100 metre cable fitted to the
back end of each bogie and a nice new aircraft pushback tug with a
towbar on the nose gear, we were able to
remove the aircraft just on dusk on Tuesday night and towed it to an
Iraqi Airways graveyard on one side of
the terminal.
We stayed overnight in the USAF camp on the airport and went back to the
aircraft on Wednesday morning to
allow the insurance survey to be completed and then secure the aircraft.
Basically, LH engine rotates in a fashion, has ingested lots of razor
wire and is knackered. RH engine has
seized, probably from ingesting loads of sand at maximum reverse thrust
and inlet cowl has unacceptable lip
damage, probably from hitting the razor wire fence posts.
The No 8 axle appears to be cracked as the wheel sits at an odd angle.
The bulk of the damage is the LH wing. About 3 metres of rear spar is
missing in front of the outboard flap, the
wing has bulged upwards and downwards where the initial explosion
appears to have occurred, one O/B flap
track is hanging in the breeze and one has a small piece of flap still
attached, the rest of the flap is
nonexistent. The pics show the huge crack that has occurred to the rear
spar inboard of where the spar has
burnt away, possibly from loads on the wing during the landing process.
The front spar appears to be intact.
The point of entry pics show where a projectile entered Tank 1A, which
was full of fuel, and, after it ignited,
proceeded to burn away at the spar. The fuel tank ribs in the area
directly in front of the O/B flap are burnt
almost 50% through.
The crew obviously did a fantastic job in getting the aircraft back on
to the ground and one can only assume
that it was most fortunate that they were not aware of the state of the
wing as they could not see it from the
cockpit.
It also says a lot for the structure of the aircraft that it withstood
the impact of the (whatever is finally
determined to have hit it).
I'm sure there will be lots of other photos and videos flying around the
net, but at least these ones are genuine.
The worst part for us was the airport was shut down on Wednesday and we
had to be driven in an
armour-plated Landcruiser Troop Carrier from Baghdad to Balad, 60 miles
to the north, from where we flew
back to Bahrain in our Metro again.
I trust you will all appreciate just how lucky these guys were.
Regards,
Ashley.
Ashley Northcott,
Technical Director,
DHL International Aviation,
Bahrain.
UNQUOTE
Taken from the AirCar forum at Yahoo.