The Test Flight That Went Horribly Wrong | Airbus Industrie Flight 129

Donations are never expected but appreciated: paypal.me/miniaircrash
Join My Discord: https://discord.gg/rhDgbc9

747 Footage: Boeing
A330 Image: Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding
This is the story of Airbus industrie flight 129, on the 30th of june 1994, airbus was putting the brand new airbus A330-300 through its paces. That round of test flights were to certify the autopilot of the plane to the CAT III standards. For that purpose they carried out go arounds and approaches with the plane. Earlier in the day the captain had carried out two go arounds with a simulated engine failure. All of this testing took place at toulouse airport, airbus has a manufacturing facility nearby.

After that they landed the plane. The next thing they had to test was an engine failure during a takeoff. To do this they'd take off and then they'd shut down an engine and its corresponding hydraulic circuit to simulate a failed engine. In addition to that the center of gravity of the plane would be at the extreme aft limit. By the way aft means towards the tail or stern, so in this context it means that the center of gravity would be further back than usual.This test would be the worst of the worst case scenarios, that's usually how aircraft testing is done. There's this video on boeing's channel where theyre testing a 747-8. They're testing the plane to see how the plane would handle a rejected takeoff and for the test the plane was at its max takeoff weight and they were using worn out brake pads, really a worst of the worst situation, which makes sense if the plane survives that it can handle anything that the real world can throw at it.

So once in the air, they would see how the plane would handle with a failed engine. The pilots needed to see how the plane would behave during the take off, how would it nose up, what would it be like to fly? How would the speed be affected during the takeoff? .After getting that data. the pilots would make an engine out approach and land the plane.

With that the plane lined up with runway 33 and the crew prepared for the engine out test, the trim was set and the crew did the math for the flight. For the first takeoff the captain was the one to pilot the plane this time the first officer would be the one at the controls and the captain would shut the left hand engine down to simulate an engine failure. With that the plane took off, their initial attempts to engage the autopilot was unsuccessful. The first officer was exerting a tiny amount of force on the side stick and so it did not engage.

As this happened the plane climbed and gained speed, soon the plane's nose had fallen from 29 degrees to 25 degrees. With the plane in the predetermined configuration the captain pulled back power on the left hand engine and shut off its hydraulic lines to simulate an engine failure.
But as they did that the plane pitched up, the nose rose from about 25 degrees to 32 degrees and as it did the plane bled off its airspeed. All the way down to 100 knots, this was well below the 118 knots needed for flight. The plane started to roll to the left due to the thrust asymmetry and so the captain immediately pulled the right engine back as well, to keep his plane under control. The nose of the plane began to drop and the pilots were getting control of their plane back, but unfortunately they didn't have the time or altitude to recover, the plane crashed. None of the 7 people on the plane survived.

With the test plane in pieces it was up to the investigative board to figure out what had gone wrong. As always they looked at the state of the plane, to see if the plane was mechanically sound before the flight. Nothing looked off, as far as they could tell the plane was alright, it was fit to fly. But they found slight issues in the preflight preparations. They didn't have a formal pre-flight briefing before the flight, but the investigators were certain that the pilots knew what they had to do. And for most of the flight the crew performed brilliantly. The first take off by the captain went off without a hitch even thought the center of gravity was near the aft limit. This may have made them confident in the abilities of the plane.

Видео The Test Flight That Went Horribly Wrong | Airbus Industrie Flight 129 канала Mini Air Crash Investigation