I got this from a friend: This is the plane that was hit near Baghdad. I work with someone who's wife works for Ead's who is owned by Air Bus. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. Finally, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. Subject: Testimony to an A300B4-DHL IRAQ To those of you who are wondering what happened to the DHL A300B4 coming out of Baghdad last Saturday, take a look. Aircraft was hit at 8000 FT, lost ALL hydraulics and therefore had no flight controls, actually did a missed approach using only engine thrust and eventually (after about 16mins) landed heavily on runway 33L at Baghdad. This was fortunate because with no steering the aircraft veered of the runway to the left, had they landed on 33R veering to the left would have taken them straight into the fire station. The aircraft then traveled about 600 meters through soft sand taking out a razor wire fence in the process, see LH engine pic, and came to rest almost at the bottom of the sloping area between the runway and a taxi way. All three crew evacuated safely down the second slide, the first one tore on the razor wire. I flew in with a team on Tuesday in one of our Metros and some special equipment we'd had made locally in Bahrain and some provided by Airbus. Using a USAF D9 Caterpillar pulling a 100 meter cable fitted to the back end of each bogie and a nice new aircraft push back tug with a towbar on the nose gear, we were able to remove the aircraft just on dusk on Tuesday night and towed it to an Iraqi Airways graveyard on one side of the terminal. We stayed overnight in the USAF camp on the airport and went back to the aircraft on Wednesday morning to allow the insurance survey to be completed and then secure the aircraft. Basically, LH engine rotates in a fashion, has ingested lots of razor wire and is knackered. RH engine has seized, probably from ingesting loads of sand at maximum reverse thrust and inlet cowl has unacceptable lip damage, probably from hitting the razor wire fence posts. The No 8 axle appears to be cracked as the wheel sits at an odd angle. The bulk of the damage is the LH wing. About 3 meters of rear spar is missing in front of the outboard flap, the wing has bulged upwards and downwards where the initial explosion appears to have occurred, one O/B flap track is hanging in the breeze and one has a small piece of flap still attached, the rest of the flap is nonexistent. The pics show the huge crack that has occurred to the rear spar inboard of where the spar has burnt away, possibly from loads on the wing during the landing process. The front spar appears to be intact. The point of entry pics show where a projectile entered Tank 1A, which was full of fuel, and, after it ignited, proceeded to burn away at the spar. The fuel tank ribs in the area directly in front of the O/B flap are burnt almost 50% through. The crew obviously did a fantastic job in getting the aircraft back on to the ground and one can only assume that it was most fortunate that they were not aware of the state of the wing as they could not see it from the cockpit. It also says a lot for the structure of the aircraft that it withstood the impact of the (whatever is finally determined to have hit it). I'm sure there will be lots of other photos and videos flying around the net, but at least these ones are genuine. The worst part for us was the airport was shut down on Wednesday and we had to be driven in an armour-plated Landcruiser Troop Carrier from Baghdad to Balad, 60 miles to the north, from where we flew back to Bahrain in our Metro again.
Wow, thanks for sharing. It is a miracle no one was hurt/killed. I am no aviator but I would assume flight manuevers became extremely difficult when that wing and hydraulics were hit.
There's a small blurb about it in this week's Newsweek. They put it in to highlight the risk Bush took flying into Iraq.
Thanks for sharing Art and Mark. I saw hte pictures a few days ago on airliners.net but forgot to mention them here. You know, I have never liked Airbus as much as Boeing, but this accident is a testiment to the A300's design and most importantly, the pilots skills. It takes QUITE a pilot to fly a plane that large with thrust alone. I only know of a few successful (or semisuccessful) landings in similar conditions with no flight controls: this one recently, the United DC-10 several years back, and a few more.
Surprised some missed this particular news. Whenever something/anything happens with a plane of these proportions, I'm always amazed at how calm pilots are when communicating information post-incident, yet still piloting and talking like they're giving the local farm report. "Hit by missile, we're on fire, (Yawn) Over." 'Roger that.' "Losing altitude, wing appears ready to fall off. Over." 'Roger. Over.' "Landing in (Yawn) Hostile Territory. O(Yawn)ver" 'Roger...'
WAX....... LMAO .......i have had SEVERAL under the table job offers to go " OVER THERE" and work on this and that as a aircraft tech. i have several very close friends who are there now..... you would not believe the stuff that is going on over there that is not reported or not " allowed" to be reported to the american public and the world. its better we dont know somethings..... this way we can sleep well at night.... ( i dont ) !!!!!! great thread!!!!!!!