Casey Wilson
September 20th 05, 07:00 PM
From today's edition of an electronic Aviation Newsletter (AvFlash):
Pilots Battle Computer For Control Of 777
Stanley Kubrick couldn't have scripted anything more eerie than the
real-life odyssey of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that seemed hell-bent
on crashing itself on a trip from Perth to Kuala Lumpur last Aug. 1.
According to The Australian newspaper, the Malaysian flight crew had to
literally battle for control of the aircraft after something went wonky with
the computerized controls. The plane was about an hour into the flight when
it suddenly climbed 3,000 feet and almost stalled. The Australian Transport
Safety Bureau
<http://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/occurs/occurs_detail.cfm?ID=767> report
said the pilot was able to disconnect the autopilot and lower the nose to
prevent the stall but the autothrottles refused to disengage and when the
nose pitched down they increased power. Even pushing the throttles to idle
didn't deter the silicon brains and the plane pitched up again and climbed
2,000 feet the second time. The pilot was able to fly manually back to Perth
but the autothrottles wouldn't turn off. As he was landing, the primary
flight display gave a false low airspeed warning and the throttles
firewalled again. The display also warned of a non-existent wind shear.
Boeing spokesman Ken Morton said it was the only such problem ever
experienced on the 777 but airlines have been told via an emergency AD
<http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgad.nsf/0/25F9233FE09B613F8625706C005D0C53?OpenDocument>
to load an earlier software version just in case. The investigation is
focusing on the air data inertial data reference unit (HAL for short?),
which apparently supplied false acceleration figures to the primary flight
computer.
Greg Dungan
Fixed Wing Academics
US Naval Test Pilot School
301.757.4145 (office)
301.994.0083 (residence)
240.925.0980 (cell)
Pilots Battle Computer For Control Of 777
Stanley Kubrick couldn't have scripted anything more eerie than the
real-life odyssey of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that seemed hell-bent
on crashing itself on a trip from Perth to Kuala Lumpur last Aug. 1.
According to The Australian newspaper, the Malaysian flight crew had to
literally battle for control of the aircraft after something went wonky with
the computerized controls. The plane was about an hour into the flight when
it suddenly climbed 3,000 feet and almost stalled. The Australian Transport
Safety Bureau
<http://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/occurs/occurs_detail.cfm?ID=767> report
said the pilot was able to disconnect the autopilot and lower the nose to
prevent the stall but the autothrottles refused to disengage and when the
nose pitched down they increased power. Even pushing the throttles to idle
didn't deter the silicon brains and the plane pitched up again and climbed
2,000 feet the second time. The pilot was able to fly manually back to Perth
but the autothrottles wouldn't turn off. As he was landing, the primary
flight display gave a false low airspeed warning and the throttles
firewalled again. The display also warned of a non-existent wind shear.
Boeing spokesman Ken Morton said it was the only such problem ever
experienced on the 777 but airlines have been told via an emergency AD
<http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgad.nsf/0/25F9233FE09B613F8625706C005D0C53?OpenDocument>
to load an earlier software version just in case. The investigation is
focusing on the air data inertial data reference unit (HAL for short?),
which apparently supplied false acceleration figures to the primary flight
computer.
Greg Dungan
Fixed Wing Academics
US Naval Test Pilot School
301.757.4145 (office)
301.994.0083 (residence)
240.925.0980 (cell)