Maybe someone would like to comment on this one.

Had you heard about it before today ????


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THE TALE OF THE ARAB FLIGHT CREW
Written by To The Point News
Friday, 16 May 2008

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 Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine runups, 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 takeoff but it 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 fools the aircraft into thinking it is 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 safetyfeature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.

Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart 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. Coverage of the story was deemed insulting to Moslem Arabs. Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.

   

   

   

Here is another link with further info and photo

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1293784/L/

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Another link

correcting some of the infor in the original article

http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/etihad.asp

OMG , the pictures are amazing, how could they trash a brand new A340 during an engine test . I try to keep up with aviation articles but never saw this one, thanks for posting it T1. There must be more to this, it would be great to read the inquiry report. Do you have any more info on this T1?

CB, if you haven't checked the links, do so..... the first one appears to be some type of aviation forum. Quite a few posts there.

I agree, some amazing and unbelieveable stup .... A BRAND NEW A340, !!!!