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General >> Hangar talks >> Lou - STORIES
https://www.captainsim.org/forum/csf.pl?num=1298308309 Message started by JayG on Feb 21st, 2011 at 5:11pm |
Title: Re: Lou - STORIES Post by LOU on Jan 16th, 2015 at 4:17pm
Airbus Airworthiness Directive (AD)
Lufthansa A321 near Bilbao on Nov 5th 2014, loss of 4000 feet of altitude Incident Facts Date of Incident 05.11.2014 Classification Incident Airline Lufthansa Aircraft Type Airbus A-321 AircraftRegistration D-AIDP Aircraft Photos of D-AIDP A321 A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200, registration D-AIDP performing flight LH-1829 from Bilbao, SP (Spain) to Munich (Germany) with 109 people on board, was climbing through FL310 out of Bilbao about 15 minutes into the flight at 07:03Z, when the aircraft on autopilot unexpectedly lowered the nose and entered a descent reaching 4000 fpm rate of descent. The flight crew was able to stop the descent at FL270 and continued the flight at FL270, later climbing to FL280, and landed safely in Munich about 110 minutes after the occurrence. The French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin that the occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by Germany's BFU. The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Munich for 75 hours before resuming service on Nov 8th. The Aviation Herald learned that the loss of altitude had been caused by two angle of attack sensors having frozen in their positions during climb at an angle, that caused the fly-by-wire protection (computer) to surmise (incorrectly) that the aircraft entered a stall while it climbed through FL310. The Alpha Protection (computer) activated - forcing the aircraft to pitch down, which could not be corrected even by full back stick input. The crew eventually disconnected the related Air Data Units (pull circuit breakers) and was able to recover the aircraft. Following the occurrence EASA released emergency airworthiness directive 2014-0266-E_1 stating: An occurrence was reported where an Airbus A321 aeroplane encountered a blockage of two Angle Of Attack (AOA) probes during climb, leading to activation of the Alpha Protection (Alpha Prot) while the Mach number increased. The flight crew managed to regain full control and the flight landed uneventfully. When Alpha Prot is activated due to blocked AOA probes, the flight control laws (computer) order a continuous nose down pitch rate that, in a worst case scenario, cannot be stopped with backward sidestick inputs, even in the full backward position.( computer is programmed to OVERRIDE pilot inputs). (airplane is screaming towards the ground and the pilot cannot stop this !!) If the Mach number increases during a nose down order, the AOA value of the Alpha Prot will continue to decrease. As a result, the flight control laws(computer) will continue to order a nose down pitch rate, even if the speed is above minimum selectable speed, known as VLS. This condition, if not corrected(by pulling circuit breakers), could result in loss of control of the aeroplane. ( possible resultant contact with ground ) The EASA requires as immediate emergency action that the flight crew operating manuals must be amended with a procedure to keep only one Air Data Reference Unit operative and turning the other two off in following cases: - the aircraft goes into a continuous nose down pitch movement that can not be stopped by full backward stick deflection ( pilot inputs are disregarded by the computer). - the Alpha Max (red) strip completely hides the Alpha Prot strip (black/amber) without increase in load factor - the Alpha Prot strip rapidly changes by more than 30 knots during flight maneouvers with increase in load factor while autopilot is on and speedbrakes are retracted. http://www.aeroinside.com/item/4946/lufthansa-a321-near-bilbao-on-nov-5th-2014-loss-of-4000-feet-of-altitude |
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