Air Astana loss of control

I heard about that yesterday and will be curious to hear what happened.
 
Ok, in this event, I am officially amazed that the pilots managed to conclude the flight alive.
 
SCCutler said:
Ok, in this event, I am officially amazed that the pilots managed to conclude the flight alive.
Click to expand...
Flight was 90 minutes!!!

From Wired:
KC1388.png
 
Last edited:
Reversed aileron controls seldom result in good outcome. Kudos to the pilots who had to fight their instincts to land safely.

What happened to "verify controls free and correct" by the maintainers post maintenance and the flight crew during preflight? I'd think this would be especially important with the airplane just out of maintenance.
 
Stan Cooper said:
Reversed aileron controls seldom result in good outcome. Kudos to the pilots who had to fight their instincts to land safely.

What happened to "verify controls free and correct" by the maintainers post maintenance and the flight crew during preflight? I'd think this would be especially important with the airplane just out of maintenance.
Click to expand...

I'll bet the MX provider has a delivery checklist that covers that, AND the crew had their own preflight AND OCF (operational check flight) procedures that covered it too.
 
Stan Cooper said:
Reversed aileron controls seldom result in good outcome. Kudos to the pilots who had to fight their instincts to land safely.

What happened to "verify controls free and correct" by the maintainers post maintenance and the flight crew during preflight? I'd think this would be especially important with the airplane just out of maintenance.
Click to expand...
In every larger plane that I've been in, the controls were checked for 'free', but not 'correct', as they couldn't be seen. This appeared to be a ferry flight out of maintenance, so if the controls were reversed, it was a recent occurrence. I can't believe that this ended well.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
In every larger plane that I've been in, the controls were checked for 'free', but not 'correct', as they couldn't be seen. This appeared to be a ferry flight out of maintenance, so if the controls were reversed, it was a recent occurrence. I can't believe that this ended well.
Click to expand...
It looked from the ERJ 190 arrangement diagram that the ailerons might be visible from the flight deck windows, but I texted a buddy who flies ERJ 175s and he said you could just barely see the wingtips, but not the ailerons, so you're right. You'd think that for the first flight out of a month or so in maintenance, they'd have a ground crew check to make sure they were 'correct' before taking off.
 
You can’t see the ailerons, but there’s a flight control synaptic page we used while doing the check that ensures the control surfaces move in the correct direction. Not sure if this company’s SOP was to look at that page, but the info is there.
 
kayoh190 said:
You can’t see the ailerons, but there’s a flight control synaptic page we used while doing the check that ensures the control surfaces move in the correct direction. Not sure if this company’s SOP was to look at that page, but the info is there.
Click to expand...
One would think that relatively important; it's hideously difficult to fight thousands of hours of 'turn yoke left to bank left'.
 
if that is what happened, it is incomprehensibly amazing they were able to regain control (get it level then stay off the ailerons, use rudder for direction control).
 
Having watched many RC planes that had the ailerons reversed crash shortly after take off it's amazing they made it more than a few seconds.
 
Im due for my first annual on my plane. Was in a club for years before i had my own, and always had had a “renters mentality” never gave it much thought. I now think about things more, and realize I always should have ... But i just watched Mike Buschs video on post maintenance checklists, in light of my first annual, and i am absolutely planning on doing that...
 
The "controls free and correct" in the checklist before taking the runway is a formality for me. I check that as part of my pre-flight checks before the plane leaves the hangar. I move the control surfaces while looking at the yoke. Haven't found a problem yet, but that doesn't mean that I'll stop.

I asked a pilot at DEN some years ago how they did this on their 737s. He said they have indicators that tell them that the control surfaces are doing what they command as they can't see them from the cockpit. He didn't say what happens if the indicators are lying to them. "Trust, but verify!"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top