Aer Lingus A330 - serious inflight failure

Henry Ford III

Was this covered here? Can't find it if it was. How serious was this?

An Aer Lingus Airbus A330-300, registration EI-ORD performing flight EI-125 from Dublin (Ireland) to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was enroute at FL330 overhead Iceland around 15:08Z (watch Eyjafjoll's ash plume on the satellite image south of Iceland) when the airplane encountered moderate turbulence. The crew did not notice any problem and continued the flight to Chicago O'Hare, where the airplane was directed into two holding patterns on approach due to traffic congestion. The airplane landed safely on O'Hare's runway 28 about 7 hours after the turbulence encounter.

A post flight inspection revealed, that two aileron castings had completely fractured during the flight. The return flight was cancelled as a result, the airplane remained in the United States undergoing repairs for 16 days.

FlutterinBantam

Shit happens:cool:

Dacian

Stuff on planes break....its aas simple as that. The trick is to minimise these breakages.

I quote with my italics: "The crew did not notice any problem and continued the flight to Chicago O'Hare, where the airplane was directed into two holding patterns on approach due to traffic congestion. The airplane landed safely on O'Hare's runway 28 about 7 hours after the turbulence encounter.

A post flight inspection revealed, that two aileron castings had completely fractured during the flight."

Blue Punto

I read about this last week or so

Just wondering

How many of these castings are thereon the aileron,I presume there are a few more than two

pclancy

The crew would have checked the aircraft after securing from the turbulence and contained the flight as there would have been no reason not to do so. The airplane was still completely flyable and i'm correct the aileron in question (and the spoiler beside it) would have still be working.

There is an AAIU investigation into this I believe so lets keep speculation within some kind of logical boundry. Looks like metal fatigue. I'm sure its not the first time stuff like this has happened.

Henry Ford III

I think I read somewhere that Airbus had issued an advisory/warning on these components before this incident.

Dacian

Henry Ford III wrote: »

I think I read somewhere that Airbus had issued an advisory/warning on these components before this incident.

And considering the safety record of EI I am sure they followed the directions of the advisory. If this was a problem beforehand the flight from DUB would not have happened.
They are not Ansett with their ignoring B767 advisories........

Run_to_da_hills

Henry Ford III wrote: »

The return flight was cancelled as a result, the airplane remained in the United States undergoing repairs for 16 days.

If it had been a Boeing stuck on US tarmac it would have been repaired a lot quicker than 16 days, what were they doing, rebuilding the plane?.

John_Mc

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If it had been a Boeing stuck on US tarmac it would have been repaired a lot quicker than 16 days, what were they doing, rebuilding the plane?.

That's a bit of a broad statement, and one made without any insider knowledge to back it up I'd say :rolleyes:

Celtic Mech

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If it had been a Boeing stuck on US tarmac it would have been repaired a lot quicker than 16 days, what were they doing, rebuilding the plane?.

Thats some statement there! Im sure your knowledge of Aircraft Structural Damage is immense. With that failure...you are not able to see any damage/deformation caused to the rear spar of the wing. If this was out of allowable tolerances, its then into getting Airbus Design Approval for a re-design/repair. These things dont happen overnight. Same goes for any manufacturer....be it Airbus, Boeing etc.

Foggy43

Yes! There are 2 B777-200's grounded at LHR. One since June 15th waiting engine replacement and structural repairs. In both cases the left engine turbines called it a day and did some damage as they exited the exhaust.

In the Aer Lingus case you will not get those compnents on a shelf in a bonded store. I would think they had to be manafactured then shipped to USA.