Maverick Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Malaysia Airlines A330 took off with pitot covers on… JULY 21, 2018 Malaysia Airlines Airbus A330 flight MH134 returned to Brisbane Airport, Australia due to airspeed indication failure during take-off on 18 July 2018. The flight MH134 bound for Kuala Lumpur departed Brisbane Airport at 23:31 LT with the pitot covers on, and reported loss of air speed and returned to Brisbane Airport after 40 minutes into the flight dumping fuel. According to passengers, the flight made a hard landing at 00:33 LT and the aircraft suddenly came to a stop on the runway. Apparently the crew couldn’t measure the landing speed and made a hard landing damaging its nose wheel. In a post-landing announcement, the Captain announced, the aircraft was unable to taxi and was waiting to be towed to the terminal because the landing gear door was opened. http://newsinflight.com/2018/07/21/malaysia-airlines-a330-took-off-with-pitot-covers-on/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Not noticing the pitot covers is pretty bad but even worse is continuing a take-off with no valid speed indication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 I read elsewhere that Malaysian’s SOP for Brisbane is for the covers to be left in place until just before pushback because of the prevalence of mud wasps who love to build nests in pitot tubes and static ports. The engineer is supposed to pull the covers and bring them to the flight deck when they present the final sign-off of the tech log. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 What is worse is taking off with the "Gust-Locks" still on... http://www.aviation-history.com/video/twin.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conehead Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Maverick, where’d you find the pictures of the pitot covers installed? I’ve been looking for these without success... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 http://avherald.com/h?article=4bb4f5b3&opt=0 https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/611306-mas-a330-bne-leaves-pitot-covers.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conehead Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Thanks, I had a look soon after the incident was reported (Friday?) but couldn’t find them at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Quote ATSB issues advisory on pitot tubes after MAS 330 incident Aug 30, 2018 Chen Chuanren A CCTV photo showing two of the three pitot tube covers still attached to the A330 during push back. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a safety advisory following an incident in July in which a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Airbus A330-300 was forced to turn back to Brisbane Airport because of three attached pitot tube covers. In a preliminary report released by the ATSB, the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight took off July 18 from Brisbane Airport with three of its pitot tube covers still attached to the aircraft. During preflight inspections, neither the ground crew nor pilots spotted the covers with “Remove Before Flight” streamers. The aircraft took off even as the pilots detected an airspeed anomaly during the takeoff roll. After declaring a PAN (emergency) call because of unreliable airspeed indications, the crew reviewed several checklists, troubleshooted and prepared for an approach back to Brisbane. The flight crew turned off the three air data reference systems, which derive airspeed information from the affected tubes. The action disabled normal powered landing gear extension, so they only could be deployed through gravity. This resulted in the loss of nose steering and the aircraft had to be towed after an overweight landing. No one was hurt in the incident. In 2015, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority recommended using pitot tube covers in Brisbane after a series of tube blockages from nests made by wasps and mud daubers. The ATSB reiterated its recommendation on the usage of pitot tube covers and stressed that “if covers are used, ensure there are rigorous procedures for confirming that covers are removed before flight.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blues deville Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 The best solution for pitot covers, gear pins, etc are longer streamers attached making them harder to miss before pushback/departure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 26 minutes ago, blues deville said: The best solution for pitot covers, gear pins, etc are longer streamers attached making them harder to miss before pushback/departure. ... and making sure someone doesn't stuff the flags up into the nose gear well - which happened once in my past life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Decades ago, in DND the pilots removed the covers, gear pins, tank pins, and control locks but some brass hat changed that because he felt it was the ground crew's responsibility and now the new kids probably don't know where 1/2 the stuff is attached on the airplane. Wonder if anyone ever thought to put one more line on the checklist, or perhaps even the Capt could call the ground man after receiving push back clearance, " CONFIRM all pins and covers removed ?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blues deville Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 19 minutes ago, J.O. said: ... and making sure someone doesn't stuff the flags up into the nose gear well - which happened once in my past life. This one wasn’t stuffed. Just not unwrapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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