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Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:06 am This story didn't make it on the US News
A new AIrbus 340-600, the largest airplane ever built, sits just outside its hanger in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime.
Enter the Arab Flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-up prior to delivery to Etihad AIrwars in Abu Dhabi. The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.
Then they took all Four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit, because they had all four engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off, but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.)
Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air.
The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing foward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totalling it.
The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown due to the news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere.
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