Airbus Updates No.137

Accident: UPS A306 at Albuquerque on Mar 22nd 2011, hard landing

By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 15:46Z, last updated Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 15:47Z A UPS United Parcel Service Airbus A300-600, registration N173UP performing flight 5X-797 from El Paso,TX to Albuquerque,NM (USA) with 2 crew, touched down very hard while landing on Albuquerque's runway 26 at 20:24L (02:24Z Mar 23rd). The crew initiated a go-around, tower ordered a go-around, the airplane was vectored for another approach this time to runway 03. The aircraft landed without further incident about 10 minutes later and vacated the runway. No injuries occurred. The FAA reported that post flight inspection revealed substantial damage to the airframe and rated the occurrence an accident. Incident: Air Canada A320 at Los Angeles on Mar 15th 2011, bird strike By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 21:05Z, last updated Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 21:06Z An Air Canada Airbus A320-200, registration C-FDST performing flight AC-790 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Toronto,ON (Canada) with 146 people on board, was climbing through 400 feet AGL out of Los Angeles' runway 24L in instrument meteorological conditions (low visibility procedures were in effect at LAX) when the left hand engine (CFM56) surged repeatedly in rapid succession accompanied by compressor stalls. The engine rolled back to about 80% N1 with substantial yawing of the aircraft. The engine automatically recovered about 3-5 seconds later with no ECAM warning, an acrid odour developed in the cabin. Due to the weather conditions the crew decided to divert to Ontario,CA (USA), both engines appeared to be operating normally with no unusual vibration. The aircraft landed safely in Ontario about 30 minutes after departure, stopped on the runway and shut both engines down. After inspection by emergency services the right hand engine was started and the aircraft taxied to the apron. The Canadian TSB reported a visual inspection revealed evidence of a bird strike in the #1 engine fan cone and showed damage to the guide vanes aft of the N1 fan. Bird remains were on the engine cowling and several engine components. A borescopic inspection showed damage to the low and high pressure compressors. The engine was replaced. Incident: Delta A333 at Amsterdam on Mar 24th 2011, deflated tyre before landing By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 14:23Z, last updated Thursday, Mar 24th 2011 21:25Z A Delta Airlines Airbus A330-300, registration N815NW performing flight DL-264 from Minneapolis,MN (USA) to Amsterdam (Netherlands), was on approach to runway 06 at about 4000 feet at 10:49L (09:49Z) when the crew reported they had indication of a deflated tyre. A massive response by emergency service including the dispatch of helicopters and the medical trauma team was initiated. The airplane continued for a safe landing on runway 06 about 5 minutes later and taxied to the gate. The emergency services were called off. Delta Airlines said, they don't know how the emergency response came together. There was just low pressure in one of the tyres. Public records of the Dutch emergency services show, that at 10:49L the alert was received by the emergency service call center, a message stating "luchtvaart ongeval" (aviation crash) specifying an aircraft with more than 250 people on board was subsequently sent out nationwide which triggered the massive emergency response fearing another accident like the Turkish Airlines, see: Accident: Turkish Airlines B738 at Amsterdam on Feb 25th 2009, landed on a field