an a330 departs toronto for lisbon with 306 people on board august 23 2001 under the command of captain robert pieche and fo dirk diager. the takeoff is normal atc clears them south of the normal route due to congestition. the crew do a fuel check and nothing is unusual. the first sign of trouble is an oil pressure warning and an oil temp warning which is confusing and doesn’t tell them anything on its own. they contact maitence who don’t know anything about the issue. the crew believe its a computer error. the fuel imballance warning comes on next with the right being lower than the left by quite a bit they say they should transfer fuel using the crossfeed valve if its not a leak the crew do it but unfortunately they are facing a massive fuel leak in the right engine. they are still 300 kms from land the crew are confused about the warnings and thinks its an error. there is no warning about a possible leak but the fo realises the fuel is dropping fast but with a flash light they can’t tell the leak when looking. they realise they can’t make lisbon and request diversion due to a fuel problem to azores which is over 300 kms away the crew declare a fuel emergency. the pilots until 613am believe its a computer bug when the right engine fails they don’t fix the crossfeed and in fact put no 1 at full power and request a lower altitude. they are still 135nms from the airport when they contact them the crew struggle for 10 minutes but think its a computer problem still but the first officer is starting to believe what is true. at 626am the plane loses its other engine but if it all goes well can glide to a runway but the margin is tight so they think they might have to ditch in the ocean which would be a disaster if they have to. the crew must manuver the plane to keep the plane in the air to glide to a runway. the crew can’t see the runway even though they should. the crew face another problem with the speed going very fast so even though they could land on the runway they face a cliff if they don’t stop which is barely better than a ditching so even though the runway is long. they get the gear down manually and against the odds land safely in azores blowing tyres and barely stopping breaking the gliding record set in 1983 by an air canada flight. the checks show the plane had definately had a leak. they investiagte the recent maitence 5 days before the flight when they didn’t fix the engines pipes properly even though a mechanic was worried the superviser told him to clear the plane to fly. the pilots also get some of the blame for their handleing of the emergency including the crossfeed valve activation.
next time a pilot is sucked out will he survive.
Harrison’s world 