United 747 suffers minor tail damage at HKG
Oct 8, 2013, 9:53 am
#16
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I, for one, hope that they take their sweet time on repairs, and wait until after the government shut-down ends. FAA inspectors are now on furlough, and I'd feel better if some oversight more than self-regulation was applied to this situation.
Oct 8, 2013, 10:19 am
#18
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Oct 8, 2013, 3:20 pm
#23
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My mother has the proximity alert on her jeep and it sadly hasn't stopped her from backing into a building, my father's truck and a tree. She doesn't understand why I won't ride in a car if she is driving.
Oct 8, 2013, 4:26 pm
#25
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Oct 8, 2013, 5:33 pm
#26
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The explosive decompression which occurred as a result of the aft pressure bulkhead failing ripped the vertical stabilizer off. It was because of the loss of vertical stabilizer and consequently hydraulics that the plane crashed (or the hydraulics might have been damaged during the explosive decompression). All this was caused by an improperly repaired tail following a tail strike many years earlier.
You can fly a plane unpressurized, but it's much harder to fly a plane without hydraulics (I think a DHL plane in Iraq was the only jumbo jet to do it successfully). All this to say that it's a fair statement to be worried about an improperly done repair causing problems later. But, I would really hope lessons have been learned and repair procedures are much better now.
You can fly a plane unpressurized, but it's much harder to fly a plane without hydraulics (I think a DHL plane in Iraq was the only jumbo jet to do it successfully). All this to say that it's a fair statement to be worried about an improperly done repair causing problems later. But, I would really hope lessons have been learned and repair procedures are much better now.
Oct 8, 2013, 5:59 pm
#27
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It looks like more than the rudder was damaged at the top of the tail. It would be interesting what internal components within the tail (unseen parts) was damaged/pushed around. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about more damages than the eye can see.
Oct 8, 2013, 6:55 pm
#29
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It appears that way too, but I am obviously no expert on the matter!
Oct 8, 2013, 7:00 pm
#30
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Yeah, that'd be my guess too. According to the fleet status site, only two 747s were in HKG for maintenance, and only one of those (N127UA) had wi-fi. You can sort of see the Wi-Fi dome in one of the pictures I posted. Today was supposed to be (or maybe was?) a test flight. That explains the shuffling of the aircraft.
Last edited by coutura; Oct 8, 2013 at 7:10 pm Reason: la la la