SQ 322 Emergency Landing 19/4

[soarbeyond]

I am surprised no one has mentioned this yet.

I was browsing facebook and chanced upon this from a fellow SQTalk member concept|infinit .

Anyway, did some research and found a link.

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/ea...t-4648186.html

A foreword before reading the many comments...Many comments are just gibberish and plain bashing the airline or the aircraft....

[Savage25]

A foreword before reading the many comments...Many comments are just gibberish and plain bashing the airline or the aircraft....

Typical for the HWZ forums. Here's a sample:

• suddenly sho mani post cow 1 appear~?
  
• wooooooooooooooooooooooooah! an a380!
  
• the flt no like not very gd luck...rast time SQ322 also need to make an emergency landing before iirc
  
• Next time post pic or suace before make thread lah
  
• Wa wa wa lai liao lai liao aircraft sexpert come already
  
• The tyres are supposed to spoil for this sort of hard landing but it won't completely break off and the metal rod won't break one.

Actually, I think the last one makes a bit of sense

[CarbonMan]

Yes, the news is reporting that it was a very hard landing when it turned back to SIN, with a few tyres blowing. Wonder if it's due to the weight of the fuel.

[MAN Flyer]

LHR and the 380 not having much luck recently...

Typical for the HWZ forums. Here's a sample:

Same with most general forums these days when you post about a travel incident. Great fun to read though.

[coldastone72]

Tyre burst hard landing not the reason...dont just see news and believe guys...tyre burst becos of heavy aircraft weight and hot brakes issue. Plane diverted back Sin due to pressurisation problem...

[bcmh]

Here are the details and sequence of events as I understand it. SQ 322 (operated by 9V-SKB), scheduled to takeoff at 23:30 on 18 April, took off at 02:24 on 19 April, but then landed back again at 03:04 (Singapore Standard Time). SQ 322D (operated by 9V-SKE) then took off at 11:19 on 19 April and touched down in LHR at 17:05 (British Summer Time) on 19 April. (All times are according to playbacks on flightradar24.com)

As a result of this delay, SQ 306 on 19 April, returned to SIN as SQ 317 without delay, instead of the usual SQ 305. SQ 308 returned to SIN as SQ 305 with a 4 hour delay out of LHR, instead of the usual SQ 321. SQ 318 returned to SIN as usual, as SQ 319. Therefore, SQ 321 on 19 April (departing LHR) is being operated by 9V-SKE, that was operating SQ 322D earlier.

[flyguy]

news mentioned that the plane's 2 air con packs were having problems and imoperative hence the turn back just after 35 mins of flight. It looks like a heavy MTOW landing with the burst tyres - thought that there should be enough time for the plane to circle more and dump fuel enough for it to make a normal landing (?)

[demue]

Hmm not a good week for the A380s. The QF one out of LAX on the way to MEL had to turn back near HNL and landed again in LAX. Apparently two fuel pumps in the same tank failed. 36hrs delay for pax so the SQ incident not too horrible though that's in easily said when not impacted. But better safe.

Btw, if the flight is changed to 322D are the PNRs updated to reflect that in such a case? Just wondering.

[FN-GM]

AVherald report and a picture - http://avherald.com/h?article=47336be8&opt=0

[StefanVXR8]

That's an interesting theory because the air con was working fine once they had got both engines started and we finally took off after being sat for over two hours whilst they tried to start engines 3 and 4.

When we finally took off as an experienced flyer (60 flights in the last 12 months) I felt something wasn't right, aircraft felt imbalanced and had a shudder and vibration on the right, we were also not making any altitude.

The pilot announced we had a pressurisation issue and we were returning to Changi. He made no announcement that we were coming in heavy or classed as an emergency landing and as expected we came in to the fire crew welcome and it felt like there was no engine thrust braking at all.

The pilot then announced we were having the tyres and brakes inspected due to heat, you could certainly smell the brakes inside the upper cabin.

Eventually he announced that 8 tyres had deflated and we were going to get off via air steps and buses, that process took 3 hours.

Eventually after several missed departure times due to further problems getting the tyres changed and the inability to get our baggage off we departed on another flight and the baggage followed later.

The only time the air con wasn't working was when we were sat waiting for the engines to be started. Once they were it was working fine right through to the point we stepped on to the Tarmac.

It was NOT air con problems at all, they had issues starting the engines and the pilot decided to take the aircraft up with 400+ passengers and fully loaded with fuel, within thirty minutes of flight further engine problems developed and we had to return! He made the wrong choice.

Stefan

[FN-GM]

It was NOT air con problems at all,

What evidence have you got to support this? From a technical report it says its a air bleed issue. This supports what your pilot reported and also is linked to the air con.

[sqdazz]

IMO Stefan is an experienced passenger severely lacking in technical expertise

[kevin-sg]

Was there a hard landing?

[SQ228]

IMO Stefan is an experienced passenger severely lacking in technical expertise

Most probably, but he's also probably exhausted and more than a bit ticked off over the whole event, so I'll forgive him.

I've just suffered through three major Deutsche Bahn ICE train faults over the past week, so I get how he's feeling. Long term I will put it in perspective but right now if there was a DB forum like this that I knew of, I'd be on it venting my spleen too...

[yflyer]

That's an interesting theory because the air con was working fine once they had got both engines started and we finally took off after being sat for over two hours whilst they tried to start engines 3 and 4.

When we finally took off as an experienced flyer (60 flights in the last 12 months) I felt something wasn't right, aircraft felt imbalanced and had a shudder and vibration on the right, we were also not making any altitude.

The pilot announced we had a pressurisation issue and we were returning to Changi. He made no announcement that we were coming in heavy or classed as an emergency landing and as expected we came in to the fire crew welcome and it felt like there was no engine thrust braking at all.

The pilot then announced we were having the tyres and brakes inspected due to heat, you could certainly smell the brakes inside the upper cabin.

Eventually he announced that 8 tyres had deflated and we were going to get off via air steps and buses, that process took 3 hours.

[...SNIP...]

Stefan

Thanks for posting, StefanVXR8! Always good to hear unfiltered first person opinions from someone who was on the plane. Appreciated.

I notice that on many of the A380 flights I have been on, the landings (even the ordinary ones) can seem hard. It is partly due to the fact A380's are really quiet on final approach, so the actual landing is quite jarring by comparison.

But it does seem that quite often on the flights I have flown, the A380 lands on the runway quite firmly. From a pax point of view, it is a very different type of landing from, say a 777, with its huge landing gear, which is silky smooth and gentle 99% of the time (You really have to manhandle a 777 for it to land hard.)

If normal A380 landings are like that, I really can't imagine what SQ322's emergency landing would have felt like.