SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

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TheGreenGoblin
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SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:40 am

When SAA flew the A346 to Brussels to fetch the vaccines the crew did their own loadsheet. They miscalculated the TOW by 90 tons, as in 90 tons less. By the grace of God it limped into the air. When the crew started retracting the flaps it went into alpha-floor.

The aeroplane sent an AIMS report to SAA, who sent it to CAA, who decided to assist SAA in covering it up.

Unfortunately for them, the aeroplane also sent an ACARS to Airbus and to Rolls Royce who want to know why the aeroplane went into alpha floor after take-off. So the cat is out the bag.
From FlyAfrica Magazine...
Alpha Floor is a low speed protection (in normal law) which is purely an autothrust mode. When activated, it provides TOGA thrust. As the aircraft decelerates into the alpha protection range, the Alpha Floor is activated, even if the autothrust is disengaged. Activation is roughly proportional to the rate of deceleration.

... at low speeds, if a rapid avoidance manoeuvre is required to avoid terrain, windshear or another aircraft, it is safe to rapidly pull the sidestick fully aft and/or bank and hold it there. The aircraft will pitch up to max Alpha, engage TOGA thrust and climb away.

Note that this protection is only available under normal law and is lost under alternate law.

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:43 am

Control your speed during climb.

Caught by a spotter...
No one expected to see this bird anytime here soon here, or well just an A346. It was initially planned a week earlier but never showed up. It was planned again on the 25th of February and we all thought it was again a good "joke". Seems not when we saw it popping up on FR24. Was planned at 07AM but during its taxi it returned back to its stand, due to a problem - in our eyes it was again canx. 2 hours later it popped up again on FR24, and finally took-off for BRU. SAA4272 swooping in for a 25L arrival from Johannesburg on a cargo flight chartered by the South-African GVT to pick up some vaccines. For sure one of the highlights already of 2021 at BRU..
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/10085087
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:48 am

More information coming to light. An initial inquiry meeting was scheduled for this past Tuesday, 16 March. This meeting was postponed until Thursday 18 March, to be attended by SACAA & SAA.

Reports from within the establishment indicate the crew involved refused to attend the meeting. They’re claiming the event never occurred. The race card was played. They claim (are you ready for this?) “the aircraft lied.”
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#4 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:06 pm

90 tons is a lot of vaccine!

PP

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#5 Post by ian16th » Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:23 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:06 pm
90 tons is a lot of vaccine!

PP
They actually carried only 80,000 doses.
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#6 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:26 pm

And that 90 tonnes was in excess of the calculated load.

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#7 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:51 pm

A 340 seems like bit of overkill for that relatively small number of doses. :-?

PP

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#8 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:56 pm

The vaccines might have been contained in refrigerated transport containers.

Was it AZ or Pfizer?

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#9 Post by Mrs Ex-Ascot » Mon Mar 22, 2021 4:21 pm

Who let the NR pilots do their own load sheet ? 8-} @-)

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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#10 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 4:55 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:51 pm
A 340 seems like bit of overkill for that relatively small number of doses. :-?

PP
Good point. All to do with politics. SAA has just been bailed out by the public purse and the politico's want to show the money is being used for "the good of the nation!" Political posturing in terms of a political show flight, that nearly ended in a big smoking hole!
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#11 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:00 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 4:55 pm
PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:51 pm
A 340 seems like bit of overkill for that relatively small number of doses. :-?

PP
Good point. All to do with politics. SAA has just been bailed out by the public purse and the politico's want to show the money is being used for "the good of the nation!" Political posturing in terms of a political show flight, that nearly ended in a big smoking hole!
Deny, denial...
Claims that the South African Airways (SAA) flight dispatched by the SA government to transfer a consignment of COVID-19 vaccines was an expensive exercise, are devoid of the truth, asserts the Department of Public Enterprises.
In a statement on Friday, the department said these claims seek to sabotage the role of SAA Cargo in the national effort to transport vaccines and other valuable cargo into the country.

“Once again a minority of SAA pilots tried to protect their own self-interests and pockets by attempting to discredit a flight to transport vaccines back into the country to protect health workers from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the statement.

The department said the flight to Brussels also serves as a test relaunch of the SAA Cargo business.

“Many airlines around the world, including Lufthansa and Ethiopian, have intensified their cargo businesses while the passenger loads declined sharply, in order to bring in revenue. There will be many such flights by SAA in the months to come. This will also include transport of vaccines from manufacturers to African countries during the next months,” said the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).

It added that for many years, SAA has proved that the cargo business has merit and value to serve the interests of customers and the country’s economic development.

“The Brussels flight to bring back the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is proof that a restructured and well-managed airline operated in a professional and sustainable manner can support key economic sectors – including travel, tourism and even cargo to solidify South Africa as an African gateway to international markets,” said the Department of Public Enterprises.

The DPE said the relaunch of the cargo business serves many purposes among these being an increase in volumes of cargo transported by SAA into and out of South Africa.

It would also ensure that sovereign logistics capacity is sustained – just as when repatriation flights were used to bring back home South Africans stranded in various parts of the world under level 5 lockdown.

“Over time cargo will become a profitable business. Partnerships with private sector will be considered at the appropriate time. These flights will become commercially viable.

“The current flight carried goods to Brussels and will bring back the vaccine and more cargo on the return leg and this was to ensure that the flight and the overall operation is cost effective,” said the DPE.

In an update on its website this week, SAA said that it will resume local and regional passenger flights at the end of April, and international flights at the end of October. Qantas also announced yesterday that its international flights – including the route to Johannesburg – will start at the end of October by which time all Australians are expected to be vaccinated.

– SAnews.gov.za and SAA

https://www.sapeople.com/2021/02/26/cla ... ises-dept/
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#12 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:17 pm

Some detail on the A340-600

and a sensible comment from here... the mistake was numerically big but they were not near MAUW (or so it is surmised) so not as close to a "smoking hole" as I might have been apt to think.
My opinion (based on very few facts in this instance but on previous similar incidents reported around the world and peculiar to the 340-600)

I think the alpha floor event happened when the slats were retracted during the acceleration phase after take-off.

Airbus was made aware of an anomaly that occurred intermittently (as far as I'm aware only on 340-600's).

In short, after engine start during the electrical power transition from APU to engine generator power, this anomaly would cause the FMGS to decrease the weight entered during preflight by 90 tons. This didn't affect the "V" speeds as they are manually inserted. So V1, VR and V2 speeds are correct for the aircraft weight.

The issue arises with the computed "F, S and Green Dot" speeds. The FMGS uses the weight entered during the preflight to calculate these speeds. However the FMGS now thinks its 90 tons lighter so the speeds are significantly less. When the aircraft reaches the auto flap retract speed (F speed) the flaps retract from position 1 to 0 (not a major issue yet unless you are very heavy). However when the aircraft accelerates past the S speed and the slats (high lift devices) are retracted - the large change in angle of attack (alpha) will trigger the alpha floor protection (the auto thrust system automatically sets Go- Around thrust).

In this incident, because they were relatively light, the net result would more than likely have been a reduction in the rate of climb to below 500'/min. You would need data points spaced closer together to identify exactly when the alpha floor was triggered. The Flight Data recorder would have this information.

Airbus are aware of the issue and when I last flew the 600 (5 years ago) they hadn't resolved it but had implemented a SOP work around which required a physical check of the weight data after engine start and re - entering the correct data if it had changed.

Hope this provides some more insight into how this incident can occur.
https://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopi ... 7&start=60
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#13 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:45 am

I guess the point to note here is that a similar error was made by crew of a whiter hue back in the day at Johannesburg and SAA should have ensured that Standard Operational Procedures were updated, given the known Airbus A340-600 issue, and that the relevant cross check procedure should have been followed by this crew. Organizational and/or crew failure... embarrassing for all concerned. Man is mortal, ***** happens. the grave yawns wider etc. etc. 😉

SAA's reason for the flight was dubious, based upon government diktat's and was not commercially sound, and the whole affair was brought into public focus by the ACARS, and the subsequent SAA/SA CAA collusion in attempting to cover up the incident, wholly reprehensible.
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#14 Post by Woody » Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:00 am

Doesn’t seem likely to happen again in the near future :-o

https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sa ... y-20210322
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#15 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:08 am

Woody wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:00 am
Doesn’t seem likely to happen again in the near future :-o

https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sa ... y-20210322
Well Woody, that is depressing, as is this news, for me that is. You should be home free... :p

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/covid ... les-925986
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#16 Post by ian16th » Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:35 pm

From African Pilot:
SAA probed after ‘extraordinarily dangerous’ take-off

The SAA flight that collected the country’s second batch of COVID-19 vaccines from Brussels last month experienced an ‘extraordinarily dangerous’ event on take-off, which was reported to the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) three weeks after the event. The Airbus A340-600, which was originally barred from take-off the SACAA for reasons including that the SAA pilots did not have the recent flight hours required, eventually flew to Brussels on 24 February after receiving an unprecedented number of exemptions from the authority, 13 in total.

There have been multiple reports in the past week which indicate that the recent flight by SAA V 1.5 from OR Tambo to Brussels and back experienced an Alpha Floor event during the flight. An Alpha Floor event (described in layman’s terms below) is the equivalent of a conventional (non-fly-by-wire) aircraft experiencing the onset of a stall. Alpha Floor is a low-speed protection (in normal law) which is purely an auto thrust mode. When activated, it provides TOGA thrust. As the aircraft decelerates into the alpha protection range, the Alpha Floor is activated, even if the auto thrust is disengaged. Activation is roughly proportional to the rate of deceleration. At low speeds, if a rapid avoidance manoeuvre is required to avoid terrain, windshear or another aircraft, it is safe to rapidly pull the sidestick fully aft and / or bank and hold it there. The aircraft will pitch up to max Alpha, engage TOGA thrust and climb away. Thankfully for the intervention of the advanced computer systems on-board the SAA Airbus A340-600, this prevented what could have been more serious incident. Please note that this is a developing story and as more information comes to hand, I will publish the outcome.
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#17 Post by Woody » Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:54 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:08 am
Woody wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:00 am
Doesn’t seem likely to happen again in the near future :-o

https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sa ... y-20210322
Well Woody, that is depressing, as is this news, for me that is. You should be home free... :p

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/covid ... les-925986
If I’m planning to rent you my apartment,then we’ve both got valid reasons for travel :-bd
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#18 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:28 pm

You intrigue me.. :-bd
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Re: SAA Vaccine Flight Apha Floor Event

#19 Post by Woody » Thu Mar 25, 2021 3:31 pm

Also known as the Stanley Johnson defence :-bd
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