![]() ![]() As the pilot flying calls those responses, he assumes responsibility for flying the aircraft and the radio. The Captain was the pilot flying, Richard de Crespigny, and the initial response is ECAM actions. ASChan: When you have this many crew on the flightdeck, what is the division of responsibilities in tackling the problem? Who does what? DE: The Airbus system is you have a pilot flying and a pilot, non-flying. The first officer had the presence of mind to start a stopwatch and it was obvious that that 30 second period had passed, so we (as in the operating crew) proceeded to shut the engine down as per the ECAM requirements. The time condition re-set itself to another 30 seconds. During that 30-second period the message reconfigured to an ‘engine fire’ momentarily and then went back to the ‘turbine overheat’ message. That requires the thrust lever to be reduced back to idle with a time condition, which is round about 30 seconds and wait for the turbine temperature to settle. The first one was ‘Engine 2 turbine overheat’. Very soon after departure we had a number of ECAM (electronic centralised aircraft monitor) messages. ![]() Standing up and looking over the first officers shoulder, it was quite obvious we had a major problem with our No2 engine. In my position in the second observers seat, so I didn’t have a good view of the instrumentation at that stage. ASChan: What were you and the crew’s first awareness of the problem? How did you notice it from the masses of messages you must have had?ĭE: The first thing, of course, was the noise that alerted us to something had gone wrong. As we were climbing and accelerating – basically completing our acceleration stage to clean configuration, passing through around about 7,000ft, the No2 engine, without any warning, exploded. Taking off to the south-west out of Singapore requires a left turn, tracking out towards the Indonesian island of Batam. ASChan: Can you take us through the sequence of events as they happened? DE: We departed normally, the aeroplane was relatively light and consequently used a relatively low thrust setting for departure. The events soon after departure, very soon after departure, required us to return to Singapore. We departed Singapore about 9.30 in the morning on a clear, sunny tropical Singapore day. We took over to operate the service to Sydney, Australia. There was a crew change and basically a refuel stop. It arrived in the morning of Singapore, touching down around 7am. ASChan: Can you give us the background to the flight, weather, time of day? DE: Qantas 32 was the continuation of a flight from UK to Australia via Singapore. So we had a normal crew of three, first officer, second officer and a captain who was undergoing training to become a check captain, under my supervision – so I was the supervising check captain. We had a captain who was undergoing training to become a check captain who was doing a route check on the operating captain. ASChan: In terms of the QF32 flight itself – which seat were you on in that flight? What was your responsibility? DE: My job on the flight was supervising check captain. My training involved an Airbus A330 endorsement and fly that aircraft type (as it turned out for two years) mainly because the A380 was a little bit late from Airbus, and then the type conversion from 330 to 380 which was a lot easier than the 747 to A330 conversion. As the A380 was a new type, and we were a launch customer, they required us to have some Airbus experience. ASChan: What does the conversion training to A380 consist of? DE: In my position I was a check pilot on the 747-400 and part of the requirements were to have some Airbus experience for Australian CASA (Civil Aviation and Safety Authority). I’ve flown the Boeing 767, 747 Classic and 747-400, Airbus A330 and now the Airbus A380 for the past two years. ASChan: Can you tell me about your background? How long have you been at Qantas? DE: I joined Qantas in 1984 – nearly 27 years I’ve been flying. We put a few questions to Captain Evans on his amazing story. With the Cabin Service Manager (Michael Von Reth) this team boasted some 140 years of experience and over 71,000 flight hrs – a significant factor in the successful outcome of the incident. ![]() The other flight deck crew were Richard de Crespigny (Pilot in Command, 15,000hrs), Harry Wubben (Route Check Captain, 20,000hrs) Matt Hicks (First Officer, 11,000hrs and Mark Johnson (Second Officer 8,000hrs). At the time of the incident he was in one of the observers’ seat, and thus had a ring-side view of the drama as it unfolded. ![]() Captain David Evans is a Senior Check Captain at Qantas with some 32 years of experience and 17,000hrs of flight time. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |