An Air Transat A330 flight from Toronto to Lisbon,was forced to make an emergency landing in Santa Maria in the Azores during a mid atlantic landing,because of a loss of fuel.293 passengers and crew were onboard,9 people were slightly injured.
When the plane landed at the airport, there was a fire which was put out by the fire service.The aircraft’s tyres also burst on landing.Fuel spilled onto the runway and the airport was closed after the incident.
Regards Saab 2000
By: V1 - 27th August 2001 at 02:44
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
The people on board that A330 are very lucky indeed. If was not for the fact that the A330 has a big wing config, it could very well have ditched in the sea. What would have happened if it was something smaller like a 757? It is horrific to imagine.
The A330 in question (don’t know the reg’n) has apparently suffered from fuel leakage in the past, and an Air Transat engineer accompanied each flight prior to the Azores incident, just incase it occured again. Sadly, the engineer was not on the near ill fated flight.
In my previous post I mentioned that the ETOPS certification was pulled. The latest I’ve heard is that it has not been pulled, but has been restricted. I understand that this only applies to the TS A330 fleet.
By: keltic - 26th August 2001 at 18:48
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
It´s early to say what went wrong. A sudden stop in all engines (two, three or four) is almost impossible and it´s more probable external causes, like massive lost of parafin, contamination of it (improper mixtures, water on it and so on. Something similar happened to an IB DC-10 in Santo Domingo after dettecting that the parafine contained huge amounts of water). We have to consider the possibility of it had overflown a volcano (ashes can stop all engines). What is clear is that they have been really lucky after have hovered during 18 minutes. I wonder how difficult is controling a plane with no thrust or power. What could have happened if this had occured more far away from the airport?. It´s quite horrible to think about it.
By: V1 - 26th August 2001 at 16:52
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
All sorts of stuff is now going on with the A330 incident. I’ve heard that the aircraft ‘involuntary’ dumped fuel. All of the main gear tyres burst upon landing, but at least the aircraft made it down intact with no loss of life. ETOPS ops on the Air Transat A330 fleet has now been pulled while the authorities investigate the matter. The A310/757/Tristar fleets are now covering the A330 flights.
By: keltic - 25th August 2001 at 18:40
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
It was a A33O and was due that it run out of parafin.
By: dan330 - 25th August 2001 at 16:10
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
My mistake, one report I saw said it was an A310 but everywhere else says A330.
By: Saab 2000 - 25th August 2001 at 09:06
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
Definately an A330 according to CNN,it had been in service since 1999.The aircraft was forced to glide on to the runway.The captain said that he had only 5 minutes of fuel left therefore it was going have to glide into Lajes in Santa Maria.
The passengers started to panicking when on descent the aircraft hit heavy turbulance.
Regards Saab 2000
By: dan330 - 24th August 2001 at 16:14
RE: TS flight makes an emergency landing
Wasn’t it an A310?
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August 24, 2001 at 1:03 pm