United Airlines jet overshoots runway after losing power

[Jacob P]

Busy day with lots of aviation news today!

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/united-airlines-jet-overshoots-runway-after-losing-power/story-e6frfq80-1226033811147

[Jason H]

http://media.smh.com.au/flight-497---cockpit-audio-2288055.html?from=newsbox

The article includes a video of the recording between ATC and the aircraft. Sounded like there was a mad rush to get equipment off the longest runway so it could land.

Somewhat scary situation I bet.

[Philip Argy]

Sounds to me like they had to land on the shorter RWY 19 because RWY 10 could not be cleared in time. After UA497 landed, New Orleans had no operational runway, with 19 'fouled' and 10 not yet cleared for operational use.

CVR contents will be interesting!

NTSB has sent a team to investigate: http://www3.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2011/110404_2.html

[Philip Argy]

************************************************** **********
NTSB ADVISORY
************************************************** **********

National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594

April 7, 2011

************************************************** **********

FIRST UPDATE ON NTSB INVESTIGATION INTO UNITED AIRLINES
RUNWAY EXCURSION INCIDENT IN NEW ORLEANS
************************************************** **********

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to make
progress in its investigation of United Airlines flight 497,
which returned to the airport on April 4, 2011, in New
Orleans, shortly after take-off due to automated warnings of
smoke in the equipment bay. The airplane's nose wheel exited
the side of runway 19 upon completing the landing roll and
an emergency evacuation was conducted.

The NTSB team, comprised of 3 NTSB investigators and
representatives from the designated parties and advisors,
arrived on scene April 4 to document and examine the
aircraft and retrieve the data and voice recorders. Two
other NTSB investigators, specializing in operational
factors and maintenance factors, traveled to various
locations to review pertinent documentation and records and
conduct interviews.

After documenting the condition of the equipment in the
electronics bay, investigators applied limited electrical
power to various systems on the airplane. At this time, the
preliminary examination has not revealed any signs of
burning, indications of smoke or other anomalous system
findings.

The NTSB operations group completed interviews of the flight
crew yesterday. The crew indicated that, at about 4000 feet,
the airplane's electronic centralized aircraft monitoring
(ECAM) system provided an autothrottle-related message, then
an avionics smoke warning message, accompanied by
instructions to land. Despite receiving this message,
neither crew member recalled smelling smoke or fumes during
the flight.

The captain indicated that he used the electronic checklist
for the avionics system smoke warning indication, which
included shutting down some of the airplane's electrical
system. The crew reported that the first officer's display
screens went blank, the ECAM messages disappeared, the
cockpit to cabin intercom stopped functioning, and the air-
driven emergency generator deployed. The captain said that
he took control of the airplane at this point and managed
the radios while the first officer opened the cockpit door
to advise the flight attendants of the emergency and their
return to New Orleans airport.

The crew also noted to investigators that they requested
runway 10 for landing, but were told the runway was not
available due to the presence of construction vehicles. The
captain said that he was able to use the airspeed,
altimeter, and attitude information on his primary flight
display during the return to the airport, and that he
ordered an evacuation after landing.

As previously reported, the airplane's forward right slide
did not properly inflate during the emergency evacuation.
After examining the evacuation slides, investigators found
that the aspirator for the forward right-hand slide was
partially blocked. The aspirator component is the mechanism
for inflating the slide during an emergency evacuation.
Investigators have retained the slide for further
evaluation.

Preliminary reports provided to investigators suggest that
the flight attendants did not smell or see smoke in the
cabin, but observed the cabin lights turn off and the
intercom system cease to function during the flight.
Interviews of the cabin crew will be conducted after the
investigators complete their on-scene work to more
thoroughly document the cabin crew's observations and
communications throughout the flight and emergency
evacuation.

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder
(FDR) arrived at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. on
April 5 and were successfully downloaded. The CVR is of good
quality and captured approximately 7 minutes and 30 seconds
of the incident flight. The FDR contained in excess of 25
hours of data and captured approximately 18 minutes of data
relevant to the incident flight. Both the CVR and FDR
stopped recording data prior to landing.

Investigators will remain on scene to complete their
evaluation of the airplane and documentation of other
factors in the incident.

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