A plane had huge difficulties taking off recently in Australia when its computer was programmed with the wrong plane-weight, causing the tail to become massively damaged.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said that it was a human error that caused the incident and it was likely a miscalculation of the thrust needed to lift the plane from the ground. Investigations continue into the accident, which thankfully did not injury any of the Airbus’ 248 passengers. Unfortunately a section of the flights data recorder was ripped off during the incident and was damaged, making the job of confirming the cause very difficult.
The plane was heading down the runway at full speed just like it would during a normal take off. However, when the action was made to pull the nose into the air, nothing happened. More power was diverted to the thrusters and this enabled the front of the plane to tilt upwards, but the rear remained scraping along down the take off strip. Devastating damage was done to the end of the runway and to the planes back end, and the noise could be heard for miles around. Numerous runway LEDs signs were wiped out and all the rear beacon lights on the plane were lost.Full power was requested by the captain and the plane lifted from the tarmac but it was of course it could no longer continue on to its destination.Before the plane could land again at the same airport, it was required for safety reasons to eject its fuel out at sea.
Modern planes are fitted with lots of different computer systems and have miles and miles of cable that can go wrong. However, director of aviation safety, Julian Walsh has stated that it seems human error was the primary cause. “Someone was not focusing when they entered the flight details and they were not double checked” Walsh said. He went on to commend the actions of both pilot and co-pilot, who have both now resigned
Tags: crash | electronics | flying | planes | takeoff
