Did anybody read in today’s Daily Mail about a first time flyer who heard a large bang and witnessed a 4ft/2ft hole appear in the wing of the Air2000 B767 during takeoff from Orlando Sanford?
The aircraft, bound for Manchester, had a tyre explosion on takeoff causing tread to be catapulted up ripping a hole in the wing and ‘knocking a spoiler off'(the words of an AMM spokesperson!)
The man…who was obviously very worried when he witnessed the event held in his fear until the seatbelt signs were turned off at FL80. He was praised by the airline for quietly telling the cpt without drawing anybody else’s attention to the incident.
This story made me laugh…but it is a shuddering reminder of the fatal Concorde accident.
Regards
Ben
By: Benair316P - 29th May 2002 at 18:57
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
The Pilot was unaware of the incident until the guy alerted him. I found it funny that he waited until the seat-belt sign was off!
I do think the press over did it a bit. Apparently some tread came lose from the tyre now and it would seem realistic that it took a panel out rather then making a puncture hole or ripping a spoiler off. The AMM spokesman did say it was a spoiler though.
If the tyre did explode surely the flight deck would be alerted to a tyre pressure situation—-yes, the lack of it! Ahhh yes, and if it was a spoiler that was missing then yes…what about the hydraulics…
I don’t think it was as serious as the papers described it and the only reason the cpt returned to SFD was because he didnt fancy making a pond crossing with whatever type of injury the aircraft had recieved!
Lovely touch ‘The Mail’, keep it up!
Regards
Ben
By: KabirT - 29th May 2002 at 08:30
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
well terrible expereince for the first time flier. ABout the wind flow and disturbence, it all depends at what hight the a/c was. If it was around 30,000 ft really it wont cause a big disturbence as the air is very thin. But the a/c of course will loose altitudeas when the air passes through the whole, the honey-comb structure of the B767 wing which controls alot of external air pressure, will get effected. Also if the a/c looses altitude rapidly the speed bug window will open up automaticaly. But not a good experience 🙂
By: kev35 - 28th May 2002 at 22:18
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
I did see a photograph of this in one of the dailies a few days ago, might have been the Mirror.
I think the article described the hole as being about 20 inches by 10 and was straight edged, it didn’t look like anything had punched through it. It looked more like a panel was missing than anything else. The length of the hole (20 ins) ran up the wing from the trailing edge. I would have thought spoilers ran along the wing?
Whatever it was, I don’t think I’d have been so calm!
Regards,
kev35
By: Dazza - 28th May 2002 at 20:47
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
I’m pretty sure that if a ‘hole’ 4ft by 2ft was indeed punched through the wing then the airflow would be quite severely disturbed causing some if not a lot of vibration, also if it took out a spoiler surely there would be some form of hydraulic leak from the damaged actuators which the captain would be aware of in the cockpit?
Regards, Dazza.
By: dan330 - 28th May 2002 at 20:22
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
It would be strange to look out and see this, although I think “hole in the wing” may be a bit of a press over-reaction.
how would this have affected the aircraft’s performance later on into the flight?
The spoiler is just the part of the wing that comes up to break the air flow and slow the aircraft down. Therefore, if the spoiler being missing isn’t a problem aerodynamically (the aircraft carried on to 8000 ft without knowing anything, so it probably wasn’t) then it won’t cause a problem during the cruise. Some aircraft use the spoiler to slow down during the descent and if this was the case on this flight, the crew would have noticed if one side was slowing and the other wasn’t, but I don’t think it could have caused a fatal accident or anything like that.
Air 2000 763’s aren’t having a very good time at Sanford, I read in the Orlando Sentinel a few weeks ago when I was over there that another AMM 763 had made an emergency landing, can’t remember the problem on that one though.
By: Bhoy - 28th May 2002 at 19:46
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
‘without drawing anyone else’s attention to it’… As if a hole in the wing isn’t pretty obvious to anyone in a window seat…
By: T5 - 28th May 2002 at 19:34
RE: Air 2000 ‘holy’ flight!
The problem obviously wasn’t seen or affecting the aircraft’s performance up until the passenger alerted the captain, how would this have affected the aircraft’s performance later on into the flight? Mid-Atlantic would have been hell, nowhere to turn to!
Great info anyway.. thanks Ben.
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May 28, 2002 at 7:22 pm