Emirates A-380 Emergency Landing

[Aviation Delight]

Yesterday we had major rain and strong winds which led the to following.

After making an emergency landing at the Ottawa
airport Friday afternoon when it nearly ran out of fuel, an Emirates
Airlines Airbus A380 was back in the air heading for Toronto following a
two-hour delay.Flight UAE241 carried more
than 530 passengers, and was originally scheduled to land at Pearson
International Airport at 6:45 p.m. before being rerouted because of wind
and torrential rains.However, the pilots
called in a Mayday to flight traffic controllers at Ottawa’s
Macdonald-Cartier International Airport shortly before 5 p.m. and made
an emergency landing at about 5:30 p.m. The plane departed about two
hours later at 7:50 p.m. after being refuelled. It was expected to
arrive in Toronto two hours after its originally scheduled touchdown.Officials
blamed a day-long downpour in the Toronto area for the flight
diversion, pointing out that the rain has caused havoc at Toronto’s
Pearson Airport, including the rerouting of the Emirates flight.“It’s
been a difficult day for operations,” said spokeswoman for the Greater
Toronto Airport Authority “A few flights have had delays.”One
of those flights was UAE241. Flight data from the website
flightaware.ca shows the Airbus A380 circling several times over Toronto
before heading to Ottawa.The pilots requested
an emergency landing because the airliner was running low on fuel.
Ottawa firefighters and paramedics responded to the call.<div style="overflow: ; color: rgb0, 0, 0; : rgb255, 255, 255; text-align: left; text-decorati&#111;n: n&#111;ne; border: medium n&#111;ne;">

</div>

[Polynesian Airlines]

Might be a leak in those wing cracks...<div>
</div><div>But in all seriousness good thing it had enough to make it to Ottawa. Must have been seriously low to declare it an emergency... should the pilots have let get that low to begin with??</div>

[Aviation Delight]

They were probably hoping for clearance into YYZ but with the weather never came at the time. I know around the time of arrival it was very windy and heavy rain at the time.

[ALITALIA_747]

This incident reminds me of the Avianca B707 which was put into a holding pattern over NY and actually ran out of fuel crashing! Thankfully, this aircraft had enough to land at an alternate airport!
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>On another note, Emirates are taking the term cattle class to a new level! 530 passengers! Would that be a majority single class layout?</DIV>

[Aviation Delight]

Yes they were luck that Ottawa a runway just long enough. Not sure what else around would have had a long enough runway. Montreal would have if they had enough fuel to get here or they have had to divert to a US airport.

[ALITALIA_747]

This could have been a disaster!! Emirates have had a few VERY close calls! Here in Melbourne, one of their A340-500's nearly went down on take off! The EK pilot, mis calculated the weight etc and the aircraft just lifted off the ground, taking out runway lights! The aircraft sustained major damage and had to be flown back to Dubai at low altitude a few months later!

[Guest]

Yes they were luck that Ottawa a runway just long enough. Not sure what else around would have had a long enough runway. Montreal would have if they had enough fuel to get here or they have had to divert to a US airport.

I was going to say Mirabel would have been a wise place to land, it's got very long runways to cater for the size of the A380. I just find it very, very odd that they can get to such a critical situation to declare a Mayday, surely they wouldve known of the weather whilst enroute and could have made alternative arrangements so the aircraft could land somewhere safely and give some comfort to its passengers. There's Halifax, Montreal, Boston, to name a few, all have long enoung runways and more importantly are able to cater for such a large volume of paxs.

Like the incident in Melbourne that John mentioned, they definately have systemic issues inside their operational culture... lack of logical decicion making particularly related to an aircraft's handling and performance. I see it as utter irresponsibility, and not something they should be proud of, especially operating such a large bird with 500+ paxs.

Here's some news on the incident: www.avherald.com</span>

An Emirates Airlines Airbus A380-800,
registration A6-EDD performing flight EK-241 from Dubai (United Arab
Emirates) to Toronto,ON (Canada) with 530 people on board, was on
approach to Toronto, when the aircraft was instructed to enter a holding
due to traffic congestion as result of weather. After holding for about
25 minutes the aircraft was vectored for a final approach to Toronto's
runway 15R and was cleared to land on runway 15R, however, the crew
needed to go around from about 600 feet AGL due to a wind shear alert,
takeoff clearance for another aircraft on 15L was cancelled due to the
go-around and a landing clearance on runway 15L was cancelled as well
prompting another aircraft to go-around. The crew decided to divert to
Ottawa declaring emergency indicating they might need to cut into their
final fuel reserve of 30 minutes in case of any delays. The aircraft
climbed to FL230 enroute to Ottawa,on approach to Ottawa the crew
reported 6.3 tons of fuel/14000 lbs of fuel on board and cancelled their
emergency under the condition that they were vectored directly for a
RNAV approach to runway 14. The aircraft landed safely on runway 14
about 50 minutes after aborting the approach in Toronto with more fuel
than final reserve remaining and after coming to a stop discovered they
needed to backtrack the runway all the way long to be able to turn off
to the apron causing another approach to Ottawa to be delayed.

Weather
conditions at Toronto Airport were difficult throughout Jun 1st, tower
reported winds from 110 degrees around 30 knots gusting up to 40 knots
and there were multiple wind shear alerts, also instructing a number of
arrivals to go around due to oncoming strong gusts. As a result, a
number of aircraft involving domestic and international arrivals needed
to declare minimum fuel.
</span>











Edited by: dasheight

[Polynesian Airlines]

This could have been a disaster!! Emirates have had a few VERY close calls! Here in Melbourne, one of their A340-500's nearly went down on take off! The EK pilot, mis calculated the weight etc and the aircraft just lifted off the ground, taking out runway lights! The aircraft sustained major damage and had to be flown back to Dubai at low altitude a few months later!

<div>
</div><div>woow thats a serious accident. Didnt know about this one.</div>

[ALITALIA_747]

This could have been a disaster!! Emirates have had a few VERY close calls! Here in Melbourne, one of their A340-500's nearly went down on take off! The EK pilot, mis calculated the weight etc and the aircraft just lifted off the ground, taking out runway lights! The aircraft sustained major damage and had to be flown back to Dubai at low altitude a few months later!

<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>woow thats a serious accident. Didnt know about this one.</DIV>

<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Yeah mate, they came very very close to crashing! Here is the ATSB report on the incident! </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/1358013...012_prelim.pdf</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Here are the first two paragraphs of the report!</DIV>
<DIV>
At 2231 Eastern Daylight-saving Time, an Airbus A340-500 aircraft, registered A6-ERG, commencedthe take-off roll on runway 16 at Melbourne Airport on a scheduled, passenger flight to Dubai, UnitedArab Emirates with 257 passengers, 14 cabin crew and four flight crew. The takeoff was planned as areduced-power takeoff and the first officer was the handling pilot for the departure.
At 2231:53, the captain called for the first officer to rotate. The first officer attempted to rotate theaircraft, but it did not respond immediately with a nose-up pitch. The captain again called ‘rotate’ andthe first officer applied a greater nose-up command. The nose of the aircraft was raised and the tailmade contact with the runway surface, but the aircraft did not begin to climb. The captain then selectedTOGA on the thrust levers, the engines responded immediately, and the aircraft commenced a climb.</DIV>
<DIV></DIV>

[Guest]

Just reading the report, my gosh they were extremely, and i mean extremely lucky in Melbourne to get airborne! Although it did cause a fair bit of damage from the tail strike, i wonder how hard was the copilot trying to pull the joystick... that reminds me of this Youtube video of an IL76 departing Canberra, funny commentary, but on a serious note, its risky..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O20fo...F6F97D37582FA4

[Polynesian Airlines]

Gee that videos crazy, only JUST made it off the runway!

[Aussie_Flyer]

I doubt it was a serious emergency, rather a cautious alert.

Point of inquiry; What does a pilot have to do in the airlines to divert? Would they have to declare minimum fuel?
For example could the 'divert' occur within the first 1/2 of the flight for little/no reason? Assuming that they are diverting to the alternate.

A flight instructor once told me, "If something goes horribly wrong just declare the emergency. At least they're paying attention to you. And the worst thing CASA (Our Regulatory authority) can do is death by 1000 cuts [Paperwork]" [img]smileys/smiley2.gif[/img]

[Polynesian Airlines]

Yeah thats my thoughts exactly, should he have let get that low to declare it to be an emergency. my thoughts are no but im not pilot.