Clean plane stalls

JASON SILVERII 02feb00

A LIGHT plane forced to make an emergency landing had been cleaned of the effects of contaminated fuel three days earlier.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the forced landing of the Piper Tomahawk piston-engine plane at Point Cook airfield.

The plane's engines cut out at 80 metres, just seconds after take-off on Monday. The aircraft, usually stationed at Essendon Airport, came to rest on grass at the end of the runway.

A student pilot and the instructor, who was flying the plane, were uninjured and the plane was not damaged.

The aircraft's owner, who did not want to be identified, said the plane had been grounded for weeks after using contaminated Mobil fuel.

It was cleaned last Friday using procedures approved by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

He said the plane flew without a problem at the weekend.

The owner said the engine failure could have been caused by dirt or grit left in the engine after it was cleaned.

ATSB's deputy director of air safety investigations, Alan Stray, said the bureau's engineers were scheduled to look at the plane either yesterday or today.

Mr Stray confirmed that contaminated fuel caused a light plane to make an emergency landing at Moorabbin Airport just before Christmas.

The plane, flown by a student pilot, was at 300m when the engine cut. The aircraft was landed safely.

The finding was part of a wide-ranging investigation by the ATSB into the avgas contamination crisis.

Mr Stray said contaminated fuel had been ruled out as the cause of a helicopter accident at Moorabbin airport on December 23.

An investigation of another helicopter accident at Moorabbin on December 9 was continuing.

Both accidents involved pilots practising auto-rotational landings, which require engine power to be retarded to simulate engine failure.

No one was hurt in either accident

Link:

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,2294,276749%255E1243,00.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 01, 2000

Answers

Hey, Carl, look at what else is going on. Excerpt:

"Pilot pleads for action over cabin fumes

A former airline pilot has appealed for action over fumes in the cabin of a widely-flown plane, to avert a possible disaster.

The Mobil Oil company has told a Senate committee its jet turbine oil is not responsible for hundreds of crew members reporting nausea and dizziness when fumes enter the BAE-146 aircraft.

The committee is examining the cause of nausea and neurological illnesses suffered by crew on Australia's fleet of 40 of the aircraft.

Pilot Susan Michaelis permanently suffers head pressure, numbness and cognitive impairment after flying the BAE-146 for three years.

She lost her pilot's licence on medical grounds."

(snip)

link< /a>

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 01, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

...crashes on takeoff ??? "The aircraft was landed safely."

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), February 01, 2000.

Dancr You're right--it is important to differentiate between an incident and an accident. I'm not sure myself, though, where the line is.

This item falls in neither category. Although it could lead to one or the other.

The Courier Mail

"Flight Monitors Fail Sky Check Aviation Editor Neale Maynard

Stressed flight service officers responsible for monitoring planes in uncontrolled airspace have repeatedly failed to tell pilots about nearby aircraft , a safety watchdog says.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has linked more than 20 safety breahes, including near-misses, to stressed, fatigued, and demoralised flight service officers."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 02, 2000.

Good point..I over-stated consequences....better caption probably would have been....engine fails on takeoff forcing emergency landing....I'll take that into account in future captions...

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 02, 2000.