There are many components that allow an aircraft to fly. Hydraulic systems, fuel systems and electrical are among the basic components for a successful flight. To achieve enough speed to take off, the aircraft would obviously need an engine. For the engine to function it needs air and fuel. So for me, the basic component needed to achieve flight is fuel. The fuel system is what I'd like to talk about today.
The fuel system consists of a tank, filter and a pump, if required. There are a few more advanced systems that could be included in the fuel system like heaters to help keep fuel from freezing at low temperatures. For now, i'm sticking to the basic idea of the fuel system. More specifically if the fuel pump for a low wing aircraft were to fail, fuel would not be able to get to the engine in order for the engine to power up. Additionally, the pump would not be available to prime the engine during cold weather operation on certain models. There a couple things that could have happened to the pump that would cause the malfunction, a clogged filter or just simply a bad motor.
If the pump stopped running, one thing to check could be a clogged filter and is cheaper to replace a filter than a pump, so check that first. Then I would move onto the pump motor itself if the filter is clear. On the surface of the issue, that should get you in the right direction. But what if you are in flight and you lose your source of fuel to the engine and the pump is working fine during pre-flight? Maybe you forgot to check the water amount in your tank prior to take-off.
With the water in your fuel source, some aircraft fly at incredible altitudes which I mentioned earlier, is very cold; below freezing. With water in your lines and in your fuel system the water will freeze and then in turn causing catastrophic failure for your power plant (Remer, 2017). This is why checking your tank during pre-flight is one of the most important things you can do before take off.
Our story today takes place on July 23, 1983. It is mid-afternoon at the Montreal airport and Air Canada Flight 143 is preparing to depart, on a domestic flight, heading to the also Canadian city of Edmonton, with a brief layover in Ottawa. The aircraft is a Boeing 767-233, a twin-engine wide-body and medium-long-haul aircraft with capacity for up to 290 passengers. It is the first twin-aisle twin jet developed by Boeing, a large aircraft that we can still see flying today. Commanding the device is Captain Robert Pearson who will be in charge of monitoring the flight during this jump. Pearson is 48 years old and has accumulated some 15,000 flight hours. He is accompanied by the first officer and co-pilot Maurice Quintal, 36 years old and 7,000 flight hours, who will be in charge of the controls. The crew is completed by 6 flight attendants. In addition, on flight 143, initially, 25 passengers travel, so the total number of people on board amounts to 33.
Air Canada Flight 143, operated by a Boeing 767-200, ran out of fuel at an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 meters), almost halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton, Canada. The crew was able to glide the plane to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba. At 41,000 feet the aircraft's flight deck warning system began to sound, indicating a fuel pressure problem on the left side of the aircraft. Believing that one of the fuel pumps had failed, the pilots shut it down, assuming that gravity would cause fuel to feed the two engines. The aircraft's fuel gauges became inoperative. However, the flight computer indicated that there was sufficient fuel for the aircraft, but, as it later turned out, the pilots had entered a wrong fuel calculation. Seconds later a second fuel pressure alarm sounded, so the pilots diverted to Winnipeg. A few seconds later, the left engine failed and they prepared for a single-engine landing.
It would take more than a year and a half for the official investigation to exonerate the captain and hold Air Canada responsible for everything that happened. If the fuel load was miscalculated, it was not due to the captain's negligence, but because there was a lack of adequate training in terms of conversion in the different metric systems. In fact, the report praised the crew for their "professionalism and skill." So much so that, months later, the conditions of this flight were recreated in a simulator in Vancouver with different pilots: they all crashed. The official report further added that Air Canada "refused to clearly and specifically designate responsibility for calculating the amount of fuel," concluding that the company "failed to transfer the task of performing that calculation, which was previously It was done by a flight engineer.
Reference
Remer, Dale. Aircraft Systems for Pilots (4th ed). Aviation Supplies and Academics, Inc. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/erau/reader.action?docID=5631254
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario