Teller1900
En-Route
I found this VERY interesting in lieu of of the BA accident we've been talking about since Friday.
We were climbing out of Hyannis, Ma on a maintenance ferry flight tonight, just a little before 2300. We hear American 100 Heavy check on with BOS Center at FL270 for 350, but they ask to stop at FL330 to trouble shoot something. Of course BOS Center tells them to maintain 330, and asks if they need assistance. They reply "not quite yet, we just need to stop here while we formulate a plan." This made us perk up a bit.
About five minutes later, AA100 calls backs and says they need to return to JFK. BOS Center gives them a turn to PARCH to join the last bit of the Kennebunk Arrival into JFK, and asks again if they need assistance.
"Standby," is all that 100 Heavy says back. Now theres some concern in the voice of the pilot, "is that...what was the intersection for American 100?"
Boston gives him the phonetic spelling and a descent to FL300. It takes the pilots about a minute to read back the turn and descent...it sounds like they have their hands full.
A few minutes pass, BOS Center is busy with a lot of heavies coming in and out of US airspace. Finally, during a break in chatter, he asks American 100 if they need to dump fuel. They respond in the affirmative and BOS Center tells them that they are "cleared to commence fuel dumping, and descend at pilot's discretion to FL180." About 2 minutes later, American 100 tells them that they've started dumping fuel, and are leaving FL 310 for lower. BOS Center asks again, if they need assistance.
"Umm [background noise]...ya" there's some chatter in the background and they release the mic. "Ya, Boston Center, American 100 Heavy, we'd like to declare an emergency now...we're going to have to. We're getting indications of a compressor stall, and they're reporting smelling smoke in the cabin."
Boston acknowledges their declaration and offers them PD to 12,000 now, and a turn direct KBOS. American advises them that they're going to stay high for a little while longer because they still have 40,000 lbs (that's right, forty thousand pounds) of fuel to dump. At this point, they had already been dumping for 10-15 minutes. They weren't joking about being heavy tonight. Another five to ten minutes pass, and BOS Center hands them off to another sector. We put the new freq in our number 2 com and keep listening. BOS Center asks if they'll "need the men and equipment for their landing?"
"Standby," is all American 100 says. There's a lot of noise and chatter in the background. This boys sound really busy. Now a different voice: "American 100 Heavy, ya, we'd like to get the equipment, just in case."
Boston gives them a few more vectors, but pretty soon we're out of range for our radios. Of course, as soon as we got back to Augusta, we looked up American 100 on flight aware. They had left JFK, and only made it as far as the Cape when they got the turn back to New York. The airplane...A Boeing 777-200 bound for London's Heathrow airport.
I realize this may be a stretch, but a BA 777 falls short of the runway because of myserious engine problems, then three nights later another 777 makes it a half hour into their Atlantic crossing before having compressor stalls? Even if they're unrelated, this is bad week for Boeing.
We were climbing out of Hyannis, Ma on a maintenance ferry flight tonight, just a little before 2300. We hear American 100 Heavy check on with BOS Center at FL270 for 350, but they ask to stop at FL330 to trouble shoot something. Of course BOS Center tells them to maintain 330, and asks if they need assistance. They reply "not quite yet, we just need to stop here while we formulate a plan." This made us perk up a bit.
About five minutes later, AA100 calls backs and says they need to return to JFK. BOS Center gives them a turn to PARCH to join the last bit of the Kennebunk Arrival into JFK, and asks again if they need assistance.
"Standby," is all that 100 Heavy says back. Now theres some concern in the voice of the pilot, "is that...what was the intersection for American 100?"
Boston gives him the phonetic spelling and a descent to FL300. It takes the pilots about a minute to read back the turn and descent...it sounds like they have their hands full.
A few minutes pass, BOS Center is busy with a lot of heavies coming in and out of US airspace. Finally, during a break in chatter, he asks American 100 if they need to dump fuel. They respond in the affirmative and BOS Center tells them that they are "cleared to commence fuel dumping, and descend at pilot's discretion to FL180." About 2 minutes later, American 100 tells them that they've started dumping fuel, and are leaving FL 310 for lower. BOS Center asks again, if they need assistance.
"Umm [background noise]...ya" there's some chatter in the background and they release the mic. "Ya, Boston Center, American 100 Heavy, we'd like to declare an emergency now...we're going to have to. We're getting indications of a compressor stall, and they're reporting smelling smoke in the cabin."
Boston acknowledges their declaration and offers them PD to 12,000 now, and a turn direct KBOS. American advises them that they're going to stay high for a little while longer because they still have 40,000 lbs (that's right, forty thousand pounds) of fuel to dump. At this point, they had already been dumping for 10-15 minutes. They weren't joking about being heavy tonight. Another five to ten minutes pass, and BOS Center hands them off to another sector. We put the new freq in our number 2 com and keep listening. BOS Center asks if they'll "need the men and equipment for their landing?"
"Standby," is all American 100 says. There's a lot of noise and chatter in the background. This boys sound really busy. Now a different voice: "American 100 Heavy, ya, we'd like to get the equipment, just in case."
Boston gives them a few more vectors, but pretty soon we're out of range for our radios. Of course, as soon as we got back to Augusta, we looked up American 100 on flight aware. They had left JFK, and only made it as far as the Cape when they got the turn back to New York. The airplane...A Boeing 777-200 bound for London's Heathrow airport.
I realize this may be a stretch, but a BA 777 falls short of the runway because of myserious engine problems, then three nights later another 777 makes it a half hour into their Atlantic crossing before having compressor stalls? Even if they're unrelated, this is bad week for Boeing.
