This spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest
passenger airplane ever built, sits just outside
its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single
hour of airtime..
Enter the flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft
Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests
on the ground, such as engine run-ups, prior to
delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi ..
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.
Then they took all four engines to takeoff power
with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the
run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an
empty A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the
cockpit because they had All 4 engines at full
power. The aircraft computers thought they were
trying to take off, but it had not been configured
properly (flaps/slats, etc..)
Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the
circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor
to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into
thinking it is in the air. The computers automatically
released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing
forward.
The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety
feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
Not one member of the seven-man crew thought of throttling back the engines from their
max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new
aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.
The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown
due to the news blackout in the major media in
France and elsewhere. Because........
Coverage of the story was deemed insulting.
Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.
One French Airbus: $200 million dollars
Flight Crew: $300,000 Yearly Salary
Unread Operating Manual: $300
Moral of the story :
Read the Operators manual FIRST.No matter how skilled you think you are, always keep up with technology -
