Don't know if I should be laughing at this or not

The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single hour of airtime. ? Enter the flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.

The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft.  Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.

The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had all 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off but the aircraft had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.) Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm.

This fooled the aircraft into thinking it was in the air.

The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward. The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.

Not one member of the seven-man crew was bright enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.

The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown for there has been a news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere.

It might not be a laughing matter but it is kinda funny...Darwin Awards aside...

Hmmmmm looks expensive with a serious ass kicking. 

This accident happenned on 15 November 2007
Hopefully, there were not dead people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A340

the irony of adat

maybe it wasn't fully fueled but good thing
that didn't catch fire

Big Oops , wonder what happened to those guys

Judging by the state of the cockpit I would say that they didn't survive or were very badly injured

Man what a total screw-up !!

MM.

The first post does not say all the truth, though
There were at least 2 persons from airbus company on board
From the official airbus site:

Airbus reports that of the five injured people, three remain in hospital. Two were released between yesterday night and this morning. Of the three persons remaining in hospital, one is an employee of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT), a service provider for Etihad Airways, and two are Airbus employees.

Click to expand...

http://www.airbus.com/en/presscentre/pressreleases/pressreleases_items/07_11_16_accident_airbus_facility.html

I can't mention any names but some asian country ordered some warships to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. When the ships were delivered they realised that they neither have any trained staff, nor the know-how to operate them. Doh!

I'm pretty sure the largest passenger aircraft ever built is actually the Airbus 380. Maybe the 340 was it in November 2007, but not now if it ever was.

It is not clear if the airbus crashed by human mistake,
This could has been a computer failure, a computer decision that took priority over human decision

There has been a case where a car (Renault or Peugeot, I don't remember) accelerated by itself in a french highway,
and it was not clear if it was human or on board computer system failure too.

Too much AI in controls imo, think about Terminator

First, sorry dont't mean to turn this thread in youtube links but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKBABNL-DDM&feature=related
Bruce Dickinson flies the A320, seem to be pretty hmm.. "intelligent" plane also.
-samih

okgb said:

the irony of adat

Click to expand...

Yes  ;D  It was in the cards and to be expected really.  Should have had at least 3 backups sitting in the closet!

Seriously, I hope the crew are relatively unscathed

;D

also notice the firemen in the last shot. tight fitting uniforms seems like a very bad idea if you are actually near a fire.