Pictured above is a brand new A340 Airbus, the largest passenger jet airliner ever manufactured for commercial production. Below is the same aircraft that met a catastrophic end when improperly operated by an Arab flight crew.
This particular Airbus was hangered in Toulouse, France, having yet to log a single hour of flight time, and was awaiting the scheduled acceptance and delivery to Eithad Airways of Abu Dhabi. Assigned to conduct the pre-delivery tests, that was to consist of only on-the-ground pre-flight procedures, was an Araba flight crew representing Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies. Having failed to take the time to read the run-up to take-off section of the aircraft's manual, the flight crew throttled up the four engines to full take-off power. Rocketing down the runway the on-board computers activated the take-off warning horn, thinking the empty aircraft had reached maximum take-off speed and rotation of the aircraft into the air should occur immediately. However, since the Arab crew had no intention of actually taking off, the flight controls to set the flaps and slats for that procedure had not been configured for an actual take-off.
To compound an already dire situation, one of the ADAT flight crew deactivated the Ground Proximity Sensor that silenced the take-off alarm. Another wrong decision. This fools the computer into thinking that the aircraft is actually in the air and flying. Automatically all of the aircraft's brakes are released, thus propelling the aircraft at even greater speed toward the end of the runway. Not one member of the seven-man crew recognized the imminent danger that was rushing towards them or they would have throttled back the jet engines from their maximum power setting. The brand-new aircraft plowed into the blast retaining barrier at the end of the runway, rendering the aircraft a total loss. Nine people on board and one on the ground where injured, three seriously.
The $200 million dollar "mishap" occurred on this past Thursday, November 15th, but a total reporting blackout of the incident was initiated by the major news media in France, deeming the coverage of the story would prove embarrassing and insulting to Muslim Arabs. Well, I can certainly emphasize with that sentiment. The Airbus should have had enough sense on its own not to crash.
Just goes to underscore the old admonishment, "When all else fails, read the instructions."
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