Wonders of the Modern World

Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines

A couple of months ago a dear friend handed me QF32 by Richard De Crespigny (Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2012).  It is the account of the ill-fated A380 Qantas flight out of Singapore in November 2010. 

Most of us have more than a passing interest in commercial aircraft, since we all use them from time to time.  For the period of time we are up in the skies most of us are conscious somewhere in our minds that our lives are entirely dependant upon a machine that ought not to be sustained in the air, apart from natural laws and engineering design.  There is so much that could go wrong.  There is, thus, a sense in which our lives are suspended until we return again in safety to terra firma.  Consequently, most of us have a deep respect for those professionals flying and working in aircraft. 

Four minutes out of Singapore on the 4th November, 2010 QF32 hit big trouble.
  An engine, a Rolls Royce Trent, exploded.  Engine 2 caught on fire.  Shrapnel ripped through the plane, mercifully missing all living 469 souls on board.  But the airplane was terribly compromised.  Vital flight systems and back ups were lost or destroyed. 

Captain De Crespigny matter of factly catalogues after the event what had happened:

The 1-metre diameter, 160 kilogram turbine fractured into many pieces that punctured their way through the engine housing, exiting the engine faster than 1.5 times the speed of sound. These pieces then impacted with the engine cowl, fragmenting into smaller pieces, creating a wall of shapnel--a "cluster bomb" that cut through the ing like it was butter and sprayed the fuselage with pieces of steel, alloy and carbon fibre.  Shapnel even hit the top of the 24 metre-high (eight story) tail section. 

One large chunk pierced straight up through the top of the wing, ripping out flight controls and obliterating every wire [by which the plane is controlled and aviated] in the leading edge.  Another large piece flew horizontally across the underside of the fuselage, slitting through the plane's belly and cutting at least 400 wires and numerous services.  The third significant piece travelled back, splintering into five pieces that holed the forward wing spar, creating devastating shockwaves and carnage within the fuel tanks.  (Ibid., p. 321f)

Of course this was no known at the time.  In the meantime the pilots had to continue to fly the plane and try to land it safely.

No doubt this event and its aftermath will be studied and lectured upon for decades.  No doubt what eventuated is finding its way into pilot training regimes and airline safety practices.  No doubt aviation will become even safer than it already is.  But in the meantime, here are some personal observations from reading this riveting account.

The first is the glory of modern aircraft and aeroplane design.  The elephant in the room which must not be overlooked is that despite such trauma, this largest commercial aircraft continued to fly.  It did not disintegrate.  It kept going.  If the Lord wills, we look forward to flying in one of these remarkable machines some time soon.

Second--and this is the adverse of the first observation--tiny small things malfunctioning can cause  horrendous problems.  There is no room whatsoever for sloppy or sub-standard engineering.  It appears that a stub pipe supplying cooling and lubricating oil within the Rolls Royce engine fractured three minutes after take off.  This is a tiny piece of equipment.  It was found subsequently to be slightly out of tolerance; it fractured, leading to a sequence of effects which ultimately resulted in the engine exploding.

Thirdly, the skill, training, and professionalism of the pilots is a wonder to behold.  As they were flying this crippled aircraft the electronic alerts were so numerous and so frequent they could not be apprehended and appropriately actioned.  Nothing in their training in simulators had prepared the flight crew for such a circumstance.  They had to, as de Crespigny puts it, rebuild the plane by working through the fundamental aviating components and functions to determine what still worked, even though degraded, and then decide how to fly and ultimately land again in Singapore.  It is a demonstration of focused professionalism at its best. 

Everything was a trade off.  They had to keep flying the plane to burn off fuel.  But the fuel pumps which keep the fuel weight in balance in the plane had failed.  So the more fuel they burned the harder it would be to land.  Catch 22--or, as de Crespigny admits,--it was like treading the eye of the needle. 

Such had been the calmness of the flight crew (together with a deliberate decision not to engage too much with the control tower at Changi airport so as not to be distracted) that the Singapore Tower had little idea of what was about to attempt to land on their watch.  The approach controller, Tony Tang later recalled that day:

Tony later spoke of his curiosity after hearing relays of our calls requesting fire services to meet us at the end of the runway, and now he watched to see the plane come into view on its approach.  And then the horrible reality appeared before him.  The terrifying silhouette of our aircraft filled Tony's binoculars and the cold reality of what we faced set it: "I could clearly see the QF32 on finals.  Fuel was streaming from the wing.  I have never seen that before in my twenty-six year career."  (Ibid., p. 248f)

Try landing such an aircraft with on three sub-par engines, most flight controls gone, and malfunctioning brakes--as fuel streamed out on to the ground. 

They did it.  In style.  Like it was something they did every other day.  A truly amazing story. 

If you doubt the safety of commercial air travel--read this book.  It is utterly convincing on that point.  It also raises other, broader questions that continue to be debated in aviation circles today, the most important of which is the debate between computer controlled, fly-by-wire avionics and human controlled avionics.  De Crespigny's perspective is salutary and helpful.  No doubt his voice, along with many others, will be heard on this matter. 

Finally, a big thumbs up to Qantas which has never lost a passenger in all its long history.  One of the reasons is pilot training and professionalism.  It proved up on the 4th of November, 2010 just out of Singapore.