Hey, everyone. Jason Schappert here of MzeroA.com,
back with you in Part 3 of four of our 7700 series for Facebook and YouTube.
More great content on the podcast.
Online ground school members are getting two great webinars a week
now on Tuesday afternoon.
So, just some great content out there for you all.
Also, don't forget at the live stream at the end of this month.
Today, we're talking about Air China 006.
And this accident, or, I guess, really incident,
has no fatalities to really relate to.
But, again, it relates so well to United Flight 173 in the sense that
even professionals make mistakes.
I'll set it up for you as we simulate everything.
So, let's dive into that here now.
The aircraft had departed Taipei at 1622H local time.
The accident occurred 10 hours into the flight.
The Boeing 747 was just 350 miles northwest of San Francisco,
cruising at an altitude of 41,000 feet.
The captain had 15,500 flight hours.
The first officer, more than 7,700 flight hours.
And the flight engineer had approximately 15,500 hours of flight time.
The accident occurred while the main crew was on duty in this situation here.
Obviously, on this long of a flight, we have a relief crew here as well.
But, the main crew, all those hours,
all that experience was flying at the time.
The sequence began with a loss of thrust to the number four engine.
That engine had failed twice during previous flights:
while at cruise at 41,000 and 43,000 feet.
In each of those cases, the engine was restarted
after descending to a lower altitude.
The maintenance response to the logbook entries
that noted the problems included things like
an engine inspection, fuel filter drainage and replacement,
vane controller inspection and replacement,
water drainage from the mock probes, and other filter replacements.
None of those acts fixed the recurrent problem
of the number four engine.
The flight engineer attempted to restore power to the engine
but didn't close the bleed valve as required by the checklist procedure.
After the flight engineer announced the engine had flamed out,
the captain instructed him to restart it and ordered the first officer to request
a clearance for a descent from 41,000 feet.
According to flight manual, engine restart is unlikely to succeed above 30,000 feet.
The attempt failed.
Meanwhile, airspeed is continuing to decrease.
The autopilot has rolled the control wheel to the maximum left limit
of 23 degrees as the speed decreases even further.
The plane begins to roll to the right, even though the autopilot was maintained
the maximum left roll limit.
By the time the captain disconnects the autopilot,
the airplane had rolled over 60 degrees to the right,
and the nose is beginning to drop.
Ailerons and flight spoilers were really the only means available
for the autopilot to keep the wings level,
as the autopilot does not connect to the rudder during normal flight.
To counteract the asymmetrical forces
created by the loss of thrust from the number four engine,
it was essential for the pilot to manually push on the left rudder.
However, the captain failed to use any rudder inputs at all before or after
disconnecting the autopilot.
So, imagine that now.
The autopilot has its maximum left limit of 23 degrees.
It's just to kind of hold off this 60-degree
bank to the right with a nose dropping,
you disconnect the autopilot,
take away the 23 degrees of pressure in the other direction.
Whereas, that nose is going to really snap around now
and your feet are flat on the floor.
You're not even applying any rudder pressure.
You see where this is going to end up and you see how this little kind of
cloud layer here spatial disorientation is starting to set in.
Our story continues.
As the plane descends through the clouds, the captain's attention was drawn to
the altitude indicator which displayed excessive bank and pitch.
Because the altitude was so irregular, the captain incorrectly assumed
the indicators to be faulty.
So, without visual reference due to the clouds
and having rejected the information on the altitude indicators, there's many,
the captain and first officer experienced spatial disorientation.
His altitude indicator was literally--
I mean, picture it's just pointing at the earth, essentially,
just about upside down.
And he looks at it and goes, "There's no way.
Something must be wrong with the altitude indicator.
That's not even a possible value to show up on an altitude indicator.
There's no way the airplane is in that situation right now.
It must be wrong."
Literally, as he was quoted to say,
"I thought the altitude indicator was just incorrect, that it, too, was faulty."
And thus, the story continues.
Only after breaking through the bottom of the clouds at 11,000 feet
was the captain able to orient himself and bring the airplane under control,
leveling out at 9,600 feet.
They had descended 30,000 feet in two minutes.
While all onboard experienced G-forces as high as five Gs.
There are actually reports of a broken ankle
and severe bruising and head trauma from the passengers on board.
The cockpit crew had believed that all four engines had flamed out,
but the NTSB found that only engine number four had failed.
After leveling out the three remaining engines were supplied normal thrust
a restart attempt brought number four back to use.
They begin climbing
and reported to air traffic control the condition was now normal,
because, obviously, they were asking
and they wish to continue on to Los Angeles.
However, they noticed now their landing gear was down
and the main hydraulic system was empty.
The G-forces were so abrupt,
it literally ripped the landing gear down into place
and sucked out all of the hydraulic fluid.
Now, because they didn't have sufficient fuel to reach Los Angeles
with this increased drag as they couldn't bring the gear up either,
they diverted to San Francisco, they declared an emergency
and the plane landed without further incident.
However, let me show you a photo of the plane.
You're going to wonder how did it even land.
There's our horizontal stabilizer, missing 40% of it, just broken off.
They were lucky they could even flare in that land in that 747 just to do that.
Five Gs, the crew, and the passengers all experienced literally breaking bones.
It was so abrupt.
Here's a 747 just about upside down, losing 30,000 feet in two minutes.
So, let me ask you that.
Why did Air China lose 31,000 feet in under two minutes?
Was it just because it was a rapid descent?
Was it because they lost engine number four?
Was it because of poor [unin] ?
What was the issue here?
Let me know in the comment box.
I want to know that.
But I would argue,
maybe, it's lack of experience; maybe, their instruments were wrong.
I don't think it was any of those things.
I mean, maybe those play a little role but their instruments weren't wrong.
They were showing the truth.
I don't think it was a lack of experience, because this crew had a lot,
15,000 flight hours the captain had,
and still susceptible to spatial disorientation.
I think, they had a syntax error.
What's a syntax error?
My IT professionals know what a syntax error is.
You can have all the right ingredients but something's done in the wrong order.
Well, our syntax error started very early on
when they try to restart at 41,000 feet
when the flight manual said, "No, it needs be done at 30,000 feet."
They did all the right things.
They just did it in the wrong environment, perhaps, causing an error.
From there, they just fell behind at the airplane
and that descent continued.
And they weren't flying the airplane.
You hear me say this so often.
I wish every single student would learn to fly like an old J-3 Piper Cub.
And then, for your instruments,
step up to the beautiful Aven [unin] systems or G1000 systems.
Whatever you're flying, then, step up to all that amazing technology,
so you have a skill set,
some stick and rudder skills to truly fall back on.
That's just one man's professional opinion, though.
I don't know everybody follows that.
So, leave me a comment below this video.
Why did Air China lose 31,000 feet in about two minutes?
Listen, I also hope you'll join me March 26th for our JFK Jr Live recreation.
We're going to show you everything here.
Brand-new simulations, everything else.
Some great new content.
It's March 26 at 3 p.m. on the MzeroA.com YouTube or Facebook pages.
Please, be sure to subscribe and like those pages
so you get those updates.
RSVP is in the description below.
Also, Sun ‘n Fun.
If you'll be at Sun ‘n Fun.
It's coming up, too, here.
We'll be in Hangar D, Hangar Delta.
At 12:00 p.m. on the Saturday of the Sun ‘n Fun,
my good friend Steveo1Kinevo will also be in the booth as well.
I hope you'll swing by, say "hi" to him and myself as well.
We'll be there all week, though.
Looking forward to seeing you all.
Can't wait to read your comments on Facebook, on YouTube, on MzeroA.com.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
And most importantly, remember, that a good pilot is always learning.
Have a great day, guys. We'll see you.
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