THE Emirates Airbus 330-200 plane, which flew back to Kenneth Kaunda International Airport after the engine caught fire on October 21, has returned to Dubai.
Flight E714 flew to Dubai on Wednesday night after a successful engine replacement and configuration by a team of 11 Emirates and some local aircraft engineers.
Sources have also disclosed that the new engine had to be ‘re-fixed’ because it was causing vibrations on the plane when being tested.
The source said the engine was not properly cushioned and tightened and that it has a high speed of rotation requiring precision tightening and cushioning to prevent vibrations.
He said the engine was later dismantled and tightened and configured for the second time before “ground-running” (testing) the aircraft.
“They succeeded and left on Wednesday night after they were satisfied it could fly back to Dubai and from what we hear, that plane is destined for refurbishment. it is a highly computerised aircraft,” the source said.
The sources said the fault on flight E714, which u-turned mid-flight 30 minutes after take-off could have been fatal if the blade which ripped through the engine nacelle had hit elevators on the tail plane.
The Airbus 330-200 carrying 135 passengers and 15 crew members took off from KK International Airport around 23:00 hours and reached an altitude of 34,000 feet above sea level.
One source also said the blade, which snapped off the propeller and ripped through the engine cover scathed the tail fin to which the radar is attached.
“They were extremely lucky that the flying blade did not affect the elevators, so they still found route and direction back to Kenneth Kaunda International Airport,” he said.
Elevators are attached on the tail plane and are responsible for turning (or banking and tilting) the plane in a particular direction using aerodynamics.
[pullquote]He said the local aircraft engineers were allegedly treated as ‘spanner boys’ while watching Emirates engineers fixing the engine.[/pullquote]
The source said the scathed part on the tail fin was successfully patched up by the team, which included engineers, air frame and avionic experts.
He said the core engine is the one that caught fire and that there is information that both engines stopped momentarily as the plane struggled to glide.
The source said the core engine is responsible for powering generators for electrical operations and firing of engine two.
“The engine can however be restarted in the case of failure by engine one as the plane glides….how long this takes depends on the pilot’s response and alertness,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources said local aircraft engineers were not directly involved in the replacement and configuration of the engine.
The source said the local engineers were eager to learn and get their hands on replacing the engine in collaboration with the Emirates team.
He said the local aircraft engineers were allegedly treated as ‘spanner boys’ while watching Emirates engineers fixing the engine.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
so what? Emirates can go for all we care
MWIKACHILETAKO KUNO NAKAMBI.
ba LT, thanks for the lecture on how a plane flies but its quiet boring to say the least.
They bring b.u.l.l s.h.i.t in Zed. What do they take us for?
But this reporter is dull. Being a spanner boy is a very good learning position. Most of car mechanics we have in this country just started as spanner boys, they’ve never even gone to school. And what makes our engineers think they have the right to touch the Emirates engine? That’s just not how it works guys. Tha fact that you were even allowed to get close, to me, its good enough.If you didn’t learn anything then you are just a problem yourself.
The point of local engineers being used as spanner boys should not worry us. As an engineer, we dont take chances just because one ins an engineer but you need to work through with them to ascertain their competence especially that this plane almost killed people. They just had to be careful and let our engineers be patient and they will be exposed later. You only delegate where you dont doubt someone, why should they cry as engineers? They understand it fully well.
If is a local Zambian plane owned. what could have happened????
Just asking……
so did the local engineers who r not Emirates people expect to be given the whole job? wake up.
Mpangula, if it was a local plane, depends who handles the repairs and the complex of the problem. We might even have experts apart frrom our local engineers for some tasks.
Remember our engineers have perfomed well outside and they are also experts were they are. So the impression created when they are here sometimes is not valid but we understand the set up.
The so called “emirate engineers” could have been Zambia engineers working in Dubai, so what is your point LT reporter? Zambian engineers are spanner boys? You are so dumb! Watching how to attach an engine to a plane? Who would be thrilled by that?
This report is a typical reflection of zambian mind set of fear and inferiority complex. advanced electonically, spanner boys, emirate engineers, zambian engineers. The article is full of unecessary description and phrases that all show the complex. ba’star.ds.
Dear Dr Bwa#11. I totally agree with you. A lot of Zambians have a a very low self esteem and sickening inferiority complex. Is it lack of exposure or what? If I wasn’t a Zambian or didn’t know any better, I would have concluded it is inborn. Very idi0tic reporting.
Hello ba LT,
I think your reporting is pathetic. The issue here is the aircraft was repaired,an engine replaced and plane flown back to Dubai. Why talk about spanner boys? Let us respect ourselves and our people plz,don’t think you know a lot.
What is DCA doing about this engine catching fire? What are the passengers saying about this,will they stop using EK like they stopped using Zambezi? Or is it a case of them NOT been Zambian hence Zambians will continue using them?
I remember Zambezi was grounded by Kenny Silawve because of cancelling flights under the so called schedule integrity but we are waiting to see what DCA will do to EK as this was more serious.
I am sure most of those Engineers have experience only that the guys who came had more experience. Note that, it wasnt just putting the engine back, but also investigations along the process. Why fully involve someone who will not be around to submit findings. This is not the end of it but just the beginning. The Zambian Engineers have just added another section to there experience. Remember we do not have enough planes to learn from all sorts of incidents, whereas our friends have similar incidents (reported or not)
Intresting i just love physics,emirates engineers had to come due to the task sensitivity, inspiring our own engineers acted as spanner boys and their names taken to dubai, they may be called for training this will improve practical exposure, if accredited we may handle such tasks,Congratulations lads…
Lets just face face the facts. As a nation we do not have an airline or even aeroplanes as advanced as the Emirate plane. I quite sure the best brains we had during the Zambia Airways era have either died or migrated for greener pastures. Even during the Zambia Airways period I am quite confident that the maintenance and repairs of the planes were done by the manufactures of the crafts as part of the service contract. I am not saying Zambians are not smart enough do aeronautical engineering. I am sure there are many Zambians out there in foreign countries fixing or even designing planes. But our current technological levels in the country do not permit us to handle such problems!
its good that they collaborated with the zambian engineers but it would have made sense if they were not only spanner boys but also thinkers, cause you can not tell me that they are aircraft engineers and they have never touched a plane’s engine before.
THEY BRING ROTTEN ENGINES (AIRCRAFT) TO ZAMBIA WHERE. THEY CAN’T TAKE THE SAME TO EUROPE, AMERICA OR ASIA. THEY DON’T GIVE A DAMN IF ZAMBIANS OR PASSENGERS TO ZAMBIA DIE AS LONG AS THEY HAVE MADE MONEY. WERE THEY TOLD THAT ZAMBIA AIRWAYS CORPORATION NEVER HAD AN ACCIDENT IN THEIR OPERATION LIFE TIME DUE TO VERY HIGH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF MAINTENANCE?
Please take some time to read before you bring your emotions to the table like you have here. Ignorance is a very bad thing. Emirates have only recorded two incidents before this one and non of them have been fatal. The first happened in SouthAfrica on April 9th 2004 where a pilot error caused the plane to overshoot the takeoff zone and consequently hit the lights at the end of the runway. Even though he managed to take off successfully he was forced to return as a safety precaution. The second happened in 2009, March in Australia due to some unknown objects striking the tail of the aircraft on takeoff. Again the pilot managed to take off but returned as a precautionary measure. This incident in Zambia is only the 3rd in the long history of this air carrier. Accidents happen.
Those who don’t think Emirates is good enough should use Zambezi! I think we should learn to appreciate that Emirates is a world class airline. They cannot put a bigger plane such as the Airbus A380 on the Lusaka/Harare route because the number of travellers are quite low and the airport is incapable of handling large aircrafts. Learn to appreciate instead of just criticising and yet you don’t have any better!
Churchil once said ” Loose lips sink big ships”. This was true then as it is now. The source of your information has a tendency to exeggerate and butter issues. It is normal in the aircraft maintenance engineer’s profession for even the most highly qualified to work as assistant to an engineer who has been specifically trained on the particular aircraft. Secondly, Zambian engineers who are not employees of Emirates nor employees of a fully approved maintenance organisation cannot take the lead in a job task requiring Quality Procedures and Approval of Emirates.
Reporter: the elevators are not for turning or banking the plane, the change the pitch orientation (nose up and down) of a plane making it go up or down or during flare when landing.
Ati turning and banking the plane! kikikikiki
Airbus, rotten? Those are newer planes.
It was just an accident. Air France plane that crashed from Brazil was new. A brand new Kenyan Airways plane crashed in Cameroon.
Ba reporter, please save us the embarrassment, ever since when did plane turbine engines have propellers, check your facts, unless you are talking about something else:(:
Reality hurts… i guess all you pipo responding to this reporter are engineers. Leave the reporter alone, Why hate for stating facts. YESS… Zambian engineers are so sub-standard. What do u expect from a ZASTI graduate? the infrastracutre is so bad that they can hardly lay their hands on a computer! it is the reason why we have power outages every day. ZESCO is staffed with ill qualified engineers… our road infrastracture is so bad coz our engineers cant do a simple road. talk of water, they cant even lay a water pipe.they cant do anything! all they know is sit in offices and browse and now you expect them to repair a big plane! STOP DREAMING AND START WORKING….. SHAME!
Why blame Emirates for using their engineers….we should be blaming ourselves for getting excited about turning our airport into a mere top-over, these deals don’t add value to us no skills transfer or skills updating. Let me put this way if you owned a fleet of state of the art buses that go to Liliongwe from Lusaka via Chipata and one of them broke down in Sinda would you let a mechanic there work on it of course not… you would send your own engineers from Lusaka work on it. Aircraft pilots and engineers have to updated yearly on the latest tweats to these new engines if you were trained on DC10..you are as good as a dinosaur.
Turn the KK international airport into regional hub not a stop-over let these guys invest in us not syphon money from us.
Wake up!!
* latest tweaks
It was an honour for zambian spanner boys to get pictures, and have a hand on Emirates, and people like Number 21, go to hell with your theories, a Jounalist is NOT A PROFESSION IN AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE, but just report what engineers tell them.
That’s why you need an inquisitive mind of a 5 year old to be a smart investigative journalist.
FYI Emirates has a sleek and lean business model and it involves dumping passengers in Dubai their HQ for a few hours whilst in transit so as you spend your hard-earned dollars in their duty-free shops by so doing they have turned that airport into a regional hub of the Middle-East.
We get excited about all these airline companies coming in Lsk and creating unskilled jobs like check-in staff, customer service staff etc…and fail to see the bigger picture. The British are currently debating on expansion of Heathrow via a new terminal to stimulate future economic growth in 10 years time and in Zambia are still excited about our small airfield KK airport and have definitely shelved plans to expand it.
Wake up people!
local engineers being used as spanner boys is not an issue you don’t take unnecessary risks in engineering when you are responsible and this was a very sensitive, an aeroplane engine is one of the most precise mechanical engines on the planet,at least they even learnt something on how to put an engine on super jambo jet
Our engineers did not need to touch or even hand stuff to the Emirates team. You have to be trained and certified for that type of engine to do even a bolt tight. So nothing wrong in my opinion to have these guys do what they did. Why rist a million plus Dollar piece of technology with people that can only work on a 1968 Cessina Caravan which “Satana fly” with Oliver Ewin? So boys, your time will come if you really want to be an engineer on that type of configuration.