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Had SA Airways (SAA) Vaccine Flight SA 4272 crashed early February 25, it could have decimated the gated community of the Serengeti golf course, just south of the OR Tambo International Airport.
A little later, Irene and the leafy eastern suburbs of Pretoria might have been on fire, but the official version of what happened that night is still elusive, as both SAA and the Civil Aviation Authority maintain that they adhered to protocols. air safety.
“There was never any chance that the aircraft had crashed,” says an SAA pilot, who wishes to remain anonymous.
“The systems of the Airbus A340-600 would never have allowed it, and that is why the computer system reached its maximum momentum immediately when the flight had an obstacle on the ascent.”
The pilot added that the episode would have lasted around 30 seconds, and this was not the first time an in-flight challenge of this nature had occurred on the aircraft type.
“There are flaws in some aircraft systems,” he said, “but there are so many backup systems and checks and balances that safety is almost never compromised.”
In this case, the 90-ton takeoff weight miscalculation (as reported in some media) was not the result of pilot error. Instead, he noted, the crew did not follow their checklist protocols and this was likely the culprit.
“The Airbus A340-600 has a particular system failure, not yet resolved, in which 90 tonnes of weight is deducted from the weight of the aircraft as shown on the screens.
“This happens after all the data is entered and then at startup all of a sudden the gross weight of the aircraft is different by quite a large margin.”
Exactly 90 tons, each time. The manufacturer took the failure seriously enough that checking an aircraft’s gross weight with other checks and balances was made mandatory prior to takeoff.
The Citizen has established that there have been around 10 pilots in SAA alone who have experienced this phenomenon.
“When it happened to me, I had to take pictures of the wrong gauges, submit lots of documents related to the flight, and write a full report on what could have resulted in a similar incident,” said the pilot.
“The rules are that within 72 hours of any reportable incident, the Civil Aviation Authority must be notified.”
Three weeks later, just because both the aircraft and engine manufacturers were automatically notified of any incidents and consulted, the events of that night came to light.
“Of course, SAA also receives an automatic notification, but for some reason or another it was silenced without success.”
The pilot calculated that the crew might not have been fully aware of what was happening as it was happening.
“Suddenly, the alarms and warning lights would have gone off, and probably some frantic conversations in the flight deck.”
If the checklist was not followed, the crew would have had no idea that their gross weight was incorrect.
“The flight management system on board uses that data, along with other inputs to calculate when the flaps or slats [leading edge flaps] retract and at what speed. Of course, with the wrong gross weight uncorrected, all calculations would have been skewed. “
This raised the question of what the CAA waivers were related to. According to an industry expert, the agency would not renounce airworthiness or any technical problem, “so it must have something to do with the validity of the pilot training or the validity of the license.”
The CAA did not respond to questions about the incident at the time of publication and neither did the SAA, except to note that it would await the outcome of an internal investigation.
However, the SAA issued notes that the pilots followed all required processes and procedures.
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