(additions to this article can be found on the bottom of this post)

Several aviation sources have described the accident on March 20 as the closest thing to a major aviation disaster Australia has ever experienced and say the passengers and crew are lucky to be alive.

“It was as close as we have ever come to a major aviation catastrophe in Australia,” one senior official said.

The plane — carrying up to 215,000 litres of highly flammable aviation fuel — was less than 70cm off the ground when it crashed through lights almost 200m from the end of the runway.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has placed it in the most serious category of aircraft mishap available to it — an accident, rather than an incident.

An ATSB investigation update shows the accident was labelled a “significant event” by investigators, who also listed damage to the aircraft as “substantial”.

“During the take-off the aircraft’s tail scraped the runway surface. Subsequently smoke was observed in the cabin,” the report says.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has confirmed that the flight — EK407 to Dubai — almost failed to become airborne and barely made it over the airport perimeter fence, half a kilometre away.

Damage to the $220 million plane is so severe that the airline is considering writing it off rather than repairing it.

The fully-laden Airbus A340-500 was believed to have been travelling about 280km/h when it reached the end of the runway without becoming airborne.

At the last minute, the two pilots “rotated” the plane — or pulled its nose up into a steep ascent — causing its tail to crash into the end of the runway.

Despite its steep climb, the plane was still so low that it wiped out strobe lights that were only 70cm high and positioned 170m from the end of the runway.

It then took out an antenna, believed to be near a small building, before barely making it over the 2.44m wire perimeter fence.

THE French-built aircraft remains in the John Holland aircraft hangar at Melbourne Airport, a temporary patch placed across the damage under its tail.

Passenger Roman Korobitson, who was heading to Moscow via Dubai, said the plane took too long to get off the ground.

“I would imagine we were pretty close to the end of the line when it took off,” he said.

His wife, Irina, saw several passengers become “extremely frightened” by noise and smoke.

The Sunday Herald Sun investigation can reveal:

THE plane used all of the 3657m-long runway 16, but failed to become airborne in time to take off.

THE pilots pulled the aircraft up steeply at the end of the runway, a manoeuvre known as “rotating”, causing the tail to drag along the ground.

THE pilots — who are not Australians — were interviewed by investigators the day after the crash, but have now left Australia and have resigned from Emirates.

THE possibility that an error was made while inputting data to the plane’s computers has been

identified by investigators as a line of inquiry.

INVESTIGATORS are also examining whether the plane took off at full thrust, or whether reduced thrust, which can reduce wear on the aircraft and cut noise, was being used.

A spokeswoman for Emirates said: “Emirates cannot comment on the investigation as it is still underway.

“However, we can confirm that the aircraft involved in the incident remains at Melbourne Airport and has been moved to a new location within the airport to assist in these continuing investigations.”

Airbus A340-500s are designed for long-haul flights and to withstand heavy cargo, fuel and passenger loads. They also have reinforcement to protect against the possibility of a tail-strike, which are extremely rare in Australia.

However the force on the accident on March 20 is understood to have damaged the tail-strike protection and caused significant structural damage to the aircraft.

THE Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it expected to release its preliminary report by the end of April. A spokesman for the ATSB said all crew, including the two pilots, had been interviewed in Melbourne the day after the accident.

The ATSB is understood to have seized data relating to the accident, including the “black box” flight recorder and video of the accident shot on cameras that monitor Melbourne Airport’s runways. Runway 16 is a north-south runway and EK407 was taking off to the south, towards the suburb of Keilor, about 10.30pm, when the accident happened.

The pilots were able to climb out over Port Phillip Bay, where they circled to dump fuel. They made an emergency landing at Melbourne Airport about 11.15pm and passengers reported smoke in the cabin.

‘WE WERE all terrified and the crew were terrified, but no one would tell us what had happened,” one British tourist said.

Aviation officials said the pilots were not required to pass Australian pilot training standards. However, they are required to reach international standards and Emirates’ pilot training and competency standards are almost identical to those in Australia, safety officials said.

Aside from damaging three strobe lights, EK407 also took out a navigation antenna owned and operated by air traffic controllers Airservices Australia. The antenna is thought to be about 180cm high and is positioned 350m from the end of runway 16.

Aviation expert Dick Smith said something had gone badly wrong.

“It’s the closest thing to a major aviation accident in Australia for years,” he said.

“The people (passengers) are incredibly lucky, it was an overrun where the plane didn’t get airborne.”

Mr Smith said Emirates was a “very good airline” and it was strange the pilots had resigned immediately after the accident.

“Emirates’ standards are very high and they have a lot of Australian pilots,” he said. “What I’m startled by is that there hasn’t been a more immediate announcement. We should get some urgent advice from the ATSB. This is one of the most serious accidents you can imagine.”

A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman confirmed the size of the strobe lights, which are on a grassed area between the end of the runway and the perimeter fence, which runs alongside Operations Rd.

“The height of the runway strobe lights is 0.7m above ground level,” she said.

Source: HeraldSun.com.au

ADDED: photo’s of damaged tail:

Pilot ‘barely slept’ day before Emirates near-disaster

The pilot of an Emirates plane that came close to crashing at Melbourne Airport with 225 passengers on board had barely slept the previous day, reports say.

The pilot had also been instructed to take off at reduced power to save money on fuel, News Limited newspapers say.

“This is all about the money,” a source told News Limited.

Investigators examining the near-catastrophe at Melbourne Airport last month are exploring whether fatigue was a factor after being told the pilot had barely slept the day before the flight.

Emirates pilots are permitted to fly a maximum of 100 hours each 28 days and the pilot was also almost at the legal threshold of the number of hours he was able to fly.

Emirates has issued a statement saying safety was a top priority for the airline and refuting the claim that pilot fatigue had been a factor in the incident.

The airline said that taking off at reduced power is a standard industry procedure, and was “commonly practiced by many airlines for enhanced operating economics and increased long-term reliability”.

“Reduced power take off does not impact the safe departure of the aircraft as a margin of 15 per cent is always built into the calculation,” the airline said.

The two pilots involved in the March 20 accident were forced to resign 48 hours after they were flown back to Dubai.

Source: Theage.com.au

Added May 5th 2009:

 

Tired pilots plea

THREE Emirates pilots have spoken out about fatigue problems at the airline, saying passenger safety is under threat.

The pilots, who all currently fly for the airline, spoke separately to the Sunday Herald Sun to outline concerns about fatigue, morale and management of the United Arab Emirates-based airline.

“I don’t want to see a smoking hole in the ground with an Emirates tail on it, but the way we’re going that’s highly probable,” one pilot said.

The men’s concerns came after the Australian Transport Safety Bureau made a preliminary finding that fatigue did not appear to be a factor in the accident of an Emirates jet at Melbourne Airport on March 20.

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• Take-off procedures: Airline beefs up its safety checks
• Editorial: Questions of safety

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The comments by the ATSB came even though the pilot had barely slept in the day before the accident and had flown 98.9 hours in the previous month.

He was allowed to fly a maximum of 100 hours.

One pilot insisted fatigue was a major problem for ultra-long-haul pilots, who were averaging 90 hours of flying time every 28 days and often reaching their maximum allowable limit.

The pilots who spoke to the Sunday Herald Sun asked for their names to be withheld, fearing repercussions from the airline.

Australian and International Pilots Association president Barry Jackson said Qantas ultra-long-haul pilots flew significantly fewer hours than their Emirates colleagues.

While they had a limit of 100 flying hours in 30 days, compared with Emirates’ 100 hours in 28 days, they usually averaged 60-70 hours.

Mr Jackson, a serving Qantas pilot, said Emirates’ long-haul flying policy was “a lot tougher on their pilots”.

“They would be working a lot harder than us,” Mr Jackson said.

One of the Emirates pilots urged the ATSB to examine the crew records of the pilot and first officer in charge of EK407, the flight that almost crashed at Melbourne Airport after the wrong numbers were entered into the plane’s computer.

He said all pilots were being worked incredibly hard as Emirates struggled through the global economic crisis.

“If there is going to be a fatigue-related accident, it is probably going to be Emirates,” he said.

Emirates has grounded four other pilots as a result of near-fatal blunders in the past month.

In Ghana, an Emirates crew typed the wrong take-off calculations into their aircraft when they took off from Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

The problem was discovered because the plane took off too low and a noise complaint was lodged when the plane flew over the presidential palace, a no-go zone.

In England, an Emirates flight lined up to land on the wrong runway at Manchester.

The pilot did a “go-around” – but tracked the wrong course as he climbed away from the runway.

“When people are tired, these mistakes happen,” a second Emirates pilot said, referring to the Melbourne accident.

“There is a huge issue with fatigue.”

A third pilot questioned whether Emirates took seriously the contents of any air safety reports filed by pilots.

Source: HeraldSun.com.au

Added May 5th:

Airline beefs up its safety checks

EMIRATES has added extra safety checks to its take-off procedures in a bid to prevent a repeat of the near-fatal tail strike of a passenger jet at Melbourne Airport.

The company said it had installed a second laptop into each of its 327 aircraft to avoid a repeat of the Melbourne incident on March 20, when incorrect data was loaded into the plane’s computers, causing it to set an inadequate take-off speed.

Senior Emirates managers Alan Stealey, Andrew Parker and Tim Jenkins strongly denied claims the airline had a problem with fatigue or that it ordered its pilots to take off at reduced power to save fuel.

But they refused to say why the two pilots involved in the Melbourne incident had been forced out of the company before a preliminary report was released, insisting they had resigned.

“I can’t go into that, it’s confidential between an employer and an employee, all I can repeat is they offered their resignation and the company accepted,” Mr Stealey said.

Mr Parker said the company rejected suggestions that fatigue had been an issue in the accident.

“We certainly don’t accept that premise and I think the ATSB also emphatically stated for this particular event that’s not the case,” he said.

Mr Stealey also rejected the fatigue claims.

“We get advice on when crews should eat, sleep, be awake, drink coffee, avoid coffee, do exercise, try and sleep, to give a rest strategy for that crew,” he said.

“We use PDAs, similar to Blackberries, where they have an alertness test and we can actually measure just how alert they are all through their flight and during their lay-over as well.

“Finally, we ask them to complete diaries.

“We then put it through and send it to one of our consultants who is an ex-NASA alertness specialist in the US.

“He validates the information we gave to him . . . we are quite comfortable saying that fatigue, we do not believe fatigue was an issue with this particular event.”

Mr Stealey said Emirates pilots averaged 75 flying hours a month over a year-long period – a figure disputed by pilots, who said they average 90 hours a month and often reach their maximum allowable limit of 100 hours.

“Emirates’ record speaks for itself in that it has a 98 per cent pilot retention rate and every month has more than 1000 new pilot applications from pilots wishing to fly for Emirates, including many Qantas pilots,” he said.

Mr Stealey said the error at Melbourne had slipped through four layers of checks designed to pick up any inaccuracies, a situation he described as “perplexing”.

The badly damaged aircraft remains in a hangar at Melbourne Airport, but the company said it would be repairing it.

Source: HeraldSun.com.au