E170 Emergency at ABE

[Flying Illini]

I was hanging out at Lehigh Valley Aviation this afternoon waiting for our airline flight out after flying in just before noon when all of a sudden a reporter with a camera shows up in the parking lot. I'm thinking this has something to do with the tornado (sounding) siren that had been going off for several minutes. The wx was crap with gusty winds and pouring rain as the cold front was moving through. Well, then the PA state police show up. Hmmm. So I am standing there in the vestibule when this E170 lands...followed by rescue vehicles. They made the turnoff and taxied in with emerg. vehicles in tow. Turns out they had flap trouble.

That event just broke up the hell that was my day today. Turns out our flight to CVG was cancelled which meant we werent going to be connecting to CMI from there. With a little sweet talk the ladies at the ticket counter were able to get us on a United (does Air Willy operate under the call sign United?) flight to ORD where we thought we would just get a rental car and drive down to CMI. So we hustle to the rental car busses and hop on one. At the last stop before heading to the lot, the driver starts asking people about their reservations. We say we don't have one to which he replies, "We don't have any more cars." Ok, so we get off that bus and try ALL of the other busses, no cars...anywhere. So we go back inside to the courtesy phones and call every rental car agency. No cars. So we get the 1-800 numbers to all of the rental agencies from our dispatch. They say there are no cars (at any company) in the greater Chicago area till after X-mas. Crap. So I get the crazy idea to try ORD Signature. No luck. Last ditch effort now, I call Signature MDW (where we go 3-4 times a week). They scrounge up a Hertz car for us (this at 10pm at night). Thanks Kathleen! Great, now we just need to get there. We ended up in a "limo" (actually a lincoln town car) and head south. Well, we finally get there, grab what may have been the last rental car in chicago and drive home. A crazy day to say the least.
...oh yeah, I forgot the part about being commando and the TSA guy checking down the front of my jeans...oops. With the pooring down rain my uniform was soaked. No problem, I brought some jeans and a sweatshirt to travel home in. But wait, my socks and shoes are soaked, no problem, I brought new socks and tennis shoes. But wait, my boxers were soaked...PROBLEM! I didn't bring a change of those. And this wasn't just a "wet," these were soaked as in dripping and they got pretty darn cold and I didn't have an effective way of drying them out. So I decide the best course of action is to remove them. Great idea, I'm dry and warm.
Of course I get selected for the Super Screening and of course I remember to remove all possible metal detector triggers...except one. My belt. The buckle makes it through the walk through machine but not the hand wand. So I'm commanded to unbuckle and turn down the top of my pants. Well, with not belt, the pants started to hang low. I did my best to keep them up and conceal things as I turned down my waistband but I don't think it was a good enough conceal job. Oh well, TSA guy says I'm good and I think I'm in the clear. WRONG. I foolishly left my mini-leatherman in my flight bag. It's got a knife blade on it. So I'm given the option of leaving security to go priority mail the leatherman to myself, which I do. But now I have to go BACK THROUGH THE SAME SCREENING WITH THE SAME **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** TSA AGENTS (they weren't busy, two people went through while I was at the mailbox...TWO!) I go through the whole process again (but this time I took off my belt!) but now all of my possesions (including my soaked uniform) get wanded for explosives. Luckily no false positives and I am able to get going.

What a day. I"m just glad to be home, even though it is 2am.

 

[U-I pilot]

That sucks man. Glad to hear you made it back though. Thats what you get for the seatbelt in the Archer trick
See ya around CMI in jan!

 

[LearLove]

"So I am standing there in the vestibule when this E170 lands...followed by rescue vehicles. They made the turnoff and taxied in with emerg. vehicles in tow. Turns out they had flap trouble. "

Yes we've been getting a certian EICAS message as of late that requires some QRH (checklist) stuff which leads to having to declare an emerg. The emerg. part is basically a "cover your a$$" thing and does nothing but result in a call to TOC and the Capt. filling out extra paperwork. Just the standard teething problems with a new plane.

Sorry to hear about your TSA run-in with the ABE dorks. I know, I was based there for several years.

 

[Seahawker01]

Just thought I would take a sec to do some 170 bashing. So did you hear they renumbered the plane? It is now the E-180 it pushes back does a 180 and comes back to the gate. Seriously though I have seen a false lave smoke alarm, several gear problems, and one that really scares me an un-commanded shutdown on take off roll. And my favorite the airplane actually though it was flying when the crew started the apu at the gate, evidently set off every alarm in the thing. I understand they are a new plane and some bugs to work out but I don’t buy the manufactures excuse “it just a software glitch”. I can’t believe the plane has not been grounded but I think in a few years we will discover the FAA is on the take.

 

[T-Gates]

Just thought I would take a sec to do some 170 bashing. So did you hear they renumbered the plane? It is now the E-180 it pushes back does a 180 and comes back to the gate. Seriously though I have seen a false lave smoke alarm, several gear problems, and one that really scares me an un-commanded shutdown on take off roll. And my favorite the airplane actually though it was flying when the crew started the apu at the gate, evidently set off every alarm in the thing. I understand they are a new plane and some bugs to work out but I don’t buy the manufactures excuse “it just a software glitch”. I can’t believe the plane has not been grounded but I think in a few years we will discover the FAA is on the take.

I hate to burst your bubble, but every airplane has teething problems. I think if the airplane was so unsafe that it was a real threat to public safety, pilots would be refusing to fly them left and right. And mechanics would be refusing to sign off MX checks. Is everyone on the take??

No wait, I think the NSA is conspiring for a Brazilian coup of the American government to overthrow Bush and destabilize the dollar. Yeah...and the 170 is the trojan horse of the Brazilian Army! Yeah!

 

[KigAir]

I hate to burst your bubble, but every airplane has teething problems. I think if the airplane was so unsafe that it was a real threat to public safety, pilots would be refusing to fly them left and right. And mechanics would be refusing to sign off MX checks. Is everyone on the take??

I seem to remember an incident involving an AirBus at the Paris Airshow some years ago where the crew was performing a flyby and attempted to go around but the plane decided to land. Killing all on board.

 

[JAFI]

KingAir said: "I seem to remember an incident involving an AirBus at the Paris Airshow some years ago where the crew was performing a flyby and attempted to go around but the plane decided to land. Killing all on board."

Yes, I understand the test pilot had pulled 13 circuit breakers in the cockpit for some reason. Not a good idea in an Airbus. He disabled the go around mode on the throttles. When he pushed the go around switch, guess what, nothing happened. And I don’t think any one died on that pilot induced landing into the trees. I do not have the accident report so I do not know the injuries/deaths.

High tech aircraft are great, but you have to work the bugs out, it does take time.

 

[9GClub]

Yep, it was a -320 in France back in '88. Low altitude pass-turned-landing courtesy of the computer. Crew apparently tried to add power but got no response, and the plane belly-flopped into the trees. As far as I know, however, 133 of 136 pax survived.

Why they had 136 people onboard is a question for another day.....

 

[GravityHater]

Here is a link to the Paris Airshow Airbus accident with a description. Pretty reliable info I think.
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1988/1988-27.htm

here, you can see it for yourself:
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/Airbus320_trees.mpg
or
http://www.simradar.com/Feature/2315/Airbus_Crash_in_Airshow.html
or
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/Airbus320_trees.mpg

 

[EagleRJ]

Every new aircraft has had teething problems during the first few months on line. Some have had far more problems than others. The E-180 joke reminds me of the Embraer 145 when it was first launched- 145 stood for "flies Once every Four or Five days"! I was expecting problems with the 170 too, since certification was delayed by about a year and a half due to numerous avionics and systems integration issues.

The E-145 has gotten better, but it is what it is- a cheaply built, cheaply designed aircraft with the lowest possible acquisition cost. It's not just Embraer aircraft either- the Canadair CRJ-700 is having several serious reliability problems, some of which were discovered- and fixed- on the 50-seater!

 

[Donsa320]

Yep, it was a -320 in France back in '88. Low altitude pass-turned-landing courtesy of the computer. Crew apparently tried to add power but got no response, and the plane belly-flopped into the trees. As far as I know, however, 133 of 136 pax survived.

Why they had 136 people onboard is a question for another day.....

Hey, guys, how many times does that A-320 accident have to be explained? The airplane did exactly what the lamebrained checkpilot asked it to do. He had configuered it for landing and then made the approach to the 2500ft long grass strip. With the throttles in the IDLE detent he went below 100 ft radio altitude with the intent to demonstrate "Alpha Floor" which would put the engines back up to take-off power "automatically" to protect against stall. But of course the feature is INHIBITED below 100ft radio altitude. You could never land for god's sake if it were not! When he saw that power was not coming up he placed the throttles in the TOGA detent. The engines had come up to about 85% power when they started contacting the trees at the end of the strip. He had the stick way back but the "Alpha Protection" feature would not let him increase the pitch attitude more as he was slow, about 100kts, and close to stall. He complained about that at the hearing, guess he still did not understand that!

The checkpilot's two serious errors were; not leaving the throttles in the climb detent which would at least have kept him at managed airspeed (Vref in this case) and secondly; decending below 100ft radio altitude and still expecting "Alpha Floor" which was in fact inhibited at that point.
The Alpha Floor demo was nonsense anyway. The airshow crowd could not have distinguished why the power was coming up for the go-around in the first place.

He did give them quite a show anyway though, huh?

Happy Holidays

-D.C.

 

[Seahawker01]

I hate to burst your bubble, but every airplane has teething problems. I think if the airplane was so unsafe that it was a real threat to public safety, pilots would be refusing to fly them left and right. And mechanics would be refusing to sign off MX checks. Is everyone on the take??

No wait, I think the NSA is conspiring for a Brazilian coup of the American government to overthrow Bush and destabilize the dollar. Yeah...and the 170 is the trojan horse of the Brazilian Army! Yeah!

In response to T-Gates
“I hate to burst your bubble, but every airplane has teething problems.”
I understand that but come on you have to admit a brand new airplane sitting at the gate thinking its flying is kind of humorous. Or maybe we were just cracking up due to hypoxia?

“I think if the airplane was so unsafe that it was a real threat to public safety, pilots would be refusing to fly them left and right. And mechanics would be refusing to sign off MX checks.”
I seem to remember the FAA grounding most of the 737’s a while back but right up to that point pilots kept flying even after several crashes.

“Is everyone on the take??”
Have you read the newspaper lately?

“No wait, I think the NSA is conspiring for a Brazilian coup of the American government to overthrow Bush and destabilize the dollar. Yeah...and the 170 is the trojan horse of the Brazilian Army! Yeah!”
Have you been reading Tom Clancy again?


I run across a lot of the Emb guys but I am moving to an airline with CRJs. I’m a little curious as to what problems the 700s are running into. The ones I see seem to move ontime.