62
votes
Accepted
Why didn’t the Captain of Cathay Pacific flight 780 shut down engine 1 and land with a more reasonable speed?
You can find the full incident report here and this topic is touched upon briefly, but in short they had little to no time to entertain any other options but a full speed landing.
It was not until ...
- 102k
60
votes
Why didn’t the Captain of Cathay Pacific flight 780 shut down engine 1 and land with a more reasonable speed?
Engine #2 wasn't doing its job either
Had the situation just been engine #1 stuck at high thrust, with engine 2 normally controllable, than what you describe would be a reasonable response to the ...
42
votes
Why can't an Airbus A330 dump fuel in an emergency?
To supplement Jimmy's answer, if they had to land right away, they could have; it just would've resulted in an overweight landing being recorded, and which on most airliners triggers a special ...
- 136k
26
votes
Why does the wing root of the A330 have a pronounced twist?
Short answer:
To create a funnel for all the air streaming towards the fuselage.
Slightly longer answer:
Air approaching a swept wing will be accelerated towards the area with the lowest pressure and, ...
- 237k
25
votes
Accepted
How do pilots detect fuel contamination in flight?
If fuel contamination is suspected (because of engine control system fault indications, slow engine responses or rapid engine pressure ratio (EPR) fluctuations), there is an associated checklist ...
- 84.5k
25
votes
Accepted
Why didn't the A330neo and A320neo share the cockpit of the A350?
The short answer is that it's what the market wanted. There is always a lot of discussions between the airlines and manufacturer's before Airbus or Boeing commits to building a new aircraft. In ...
- 20.2k
24
votes
Why didn’t the Captain of Cathay Pacific flight 780 shut down engine 1 and land with a more reasonable speed?
From the incident report section 1.1.4:
a. At 0519 hrs during the descent to a cleared level of FL230, ECAM
messages “ENG 1 CTL SYS FAULT” and “ENG 2 STALL” were annunciated
within a short ...
- 54.4k
24
votes
Why can't an Airbus A330 dump fuel in an emergency?
I think the characterization that it's "too heavy to land safely" is erroneous; the fuel burning is probably out of circumspection and to allow for a better safety margin. The runway length may also ...
- 11.1k
16
votes
Accepted
Why is the horizontal stabilizer root interface designed this way?
It is a seal- to prevent entry of air into the stabilizer mounting area. For aircraft with trimmable horizontal stabilizers (THS), there is an opening to the rear of the aft bulkhead to allow for the ...
- 101k
15
votes
Why didn't the A330neo and A320neo share the cockpit of the A350?
To add to Gerry's answer (and this will be slightly too long for a comment), there is a huge disadvantage to drastically changing the cockpit when going from an A320 to the A320 NEO or from a B737-300 ...
- 53.6k
13
votes
Accepted
Why did AF447 never return to normal law?
If the system detects anomalies for more than about ten seconds, alternate law becomes locked in for the remainder of the flight.
The system detected a change in the median value of the three ...
- 28.7k
12
votes
Accepted
What other circumstances may cause the autopilot to trip out?
What other circumstances may cause the autopilot to trip out?
There are numerous circumstances, a few at random
pilot presses the autopilot disconnect pushbutton.
applying force to control-stick ...
- 26.4k
12
votes
Why didn’t the Captain of Cathay Pacific flight 780 shut down engine 1 and land with a more reasonable speed?
Aside from what Unrec. and GdD point out, even if the other engine had been running perfectly...
A frequent problem with twin engine airplanes is shutting down the wrong engine. Nobody ever ...
12
votes
Accepted
What is this probe on the Airbus A330 engine nacelle?
On the Rolls-Royce TRENT 7XX-8XX and RB-221-5XX, that is the "Engine Breather Outlet".
Cite: https://www.scribd.com/doc/283987010/A330-ATA-71-80-RR-Trent-700-L3-e-pdf# (page 44)
Possibly ...
- 476
11
votes
Accepted
What are these small propellers in the A330 MRTT's wings?
Those two locations you circled out are the under-wing refuelling pods, mounted on pylons (where, I suspect, the A340 outboard engines would be).
You can find a picture of them on the A330 MRTT ...
- 865
11
votes
Accepted
What is the occasional crackling sound on an A330?
I have recently flown on a China Eastern A330-200 from Shanghai to Beijing and that noise was heard around 10.000 feet both on the way up and on the way down. It sounds awful! Everybody was rather ...
- 126
11
votes
What’s the difference between an AIRSPEED LOW warning and a STALL warning?
Referring to one manufacturer's nomenclature and systems:
The "AIRSPEED LOW" caution occurs shortly after the speed drops below the Minimum maneuver speed. The Min Maneuv spd is ~30% above ...
- 1,625
10
votes
Why does the A330 sit nose-down on the ground?
For one reason or another, the main gear was made longer that originally planned and it was decided to avoid the cost and weight also extending the nose gear to match. The nose down angle while ...
- 136k
7
votes
Why weren't the Airbus A330 engines designed with a system to stop their fans?
Based on general engineering principles, there are multiple reasons why such a locking device could be unhelpful at best, and dangerous at worst:
It would be one more system that adds weight and ...
- 778
7
votes
Accepted
When evacuating after a rejected takeoff, what is the minimum distance you should be from the plane and which direction should you run?
First and foremost, you follow the directions of the flight crew and any emergency services you encounter. This takes precedent over anything anyone else tells you. Failing to do so may put your life ...
- 3,569
7
votes
Accepted
Why is the A330/A340's alpha-floor protection disabled above mach 0.53?
Try to see it this way: ALPHA FLOOR is a protection function of the AUTO THRUST SYSTEM, and it protects the aircraft from excessive speed decay. It does not primarily protect the aircraft from ...
- 500
6
votes
Accepted
How was the 'bump' removed from the Airbus P2F?
The A330 P2F features a fully-powered Cargo Loading System (CLS) that is perfectly capable of loading/unloading even the heaviest pallets even with the aircraft "on the tilt". Therefore, no 'tilt ...
- 3,781
6
votes
Why do different sites list different lengths of the lower deck bulk cargo compartment for the A330-300?
Some airlines have different specs. I can't comment on the examples you've given but one example I have encountered is on the A340-300.
The airline I worked for had conventional LD3 loading where the ...
- 4,576
6
votes
Is the A330F main deck cargo compartment pressurized? If not, what is the purpose of the structural cargo access door?
The wall is a rigid barrier behind the supernumerary section that serves two purposes.
The first purpose is protect the supernumerary area and cockpit from cargo shifting forward during an accident. ...
- 2,639
6
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't the A330/A340 have a stickshaker?
Having flown the 737 (with a stick shaker) and A320 (without a stick shaker) for several years, two things come to mind:
The aural warning is VERY loud and distinct. I can hardly imagine that anyone ...
- 500
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible