summary
- Ural Airlines plans to fly the Airbus A320, which ran aground after making an emergency landing, from the airfield.
- The airline has tested the aircraft’s engines and found that no maintenance or modifications are required, but further tests and inspections are planned.
- The recovery process includes inspecting the aircraft structure, preparing it for temporary storage, and removing seats to reduce weight. The airline has advised that it could take several months to remove the aircraft from the site.
Ural Airlines is preparing to fly an Airbus A320 from its airfield after making an emergency landing last month. This is the first time such a recovery has been attempted, but many questions remain about how it got there in the first place and whether the recovery effort will be successful.
An unconventional departure
Russian airline Ural Airlines has confirmed plans to fly an Airbus A320 from its airfield after it made an emergency landing and ran aground on September 12, 2023. telegram channel This week I’ll be posting various photos of the preparation work being done on the plane, as well as comments about the different options available.
Photo: Lukas Wunderlich/Shutterstock
Ural Airlines said that in tests carried out on the aircraft’s two CFM International CFM56 engines,No modification required” The carrier also said that following the unconventional landing position, the engine flow section had been changed.Repeated inspections confirmed that soil and straw had been removed.. ”
The airline also marks the aircraft asPerform landing gear testing, component testing, and additional aircraft design research. ”
This statement is “A detailed inspection of the aircraft structure and preparation for storage are being carried out.Plans also include dismantling the seats to make the aircraft lighter.” he adds.
Ural Airlines has previously indicated that the removal/recovery of the aircraft from the site could take several months (possibly until the ground freezes in the upcoming winter season). Work has already begun to temporarily store the narrow-body twin jet at its current location.
Why is the A320 in the field?
A 17-year-old Ural Airlines A320 with registration RA-73805 was operating domestic flight U6 1383 from Sochi (AER) to Omsk (OMS), Russia, when a hydraulic failure was reported during approach to final destination. . There were 165 passengers and crew on board the flight.
After performing a missed approach, or “go-around,” the crew allowed the aircraft to climb to 18,000 feet and then return to Novosibirsk Airport (OVB), which has a longer runway to facilitate landing, presumably without using a runway. ) chose to change destination. Systems such as brakes and spoilers.
The crew’s initial calculations were that the aircraft should have had enough fuel to reach the alternate airport. However, a hydraulic failure prevented the crew from retracting the main landing gear doors, increasing fuel consumption during turns, a problem exacerbated by stronger-than-expected headwinds during the flight.
Realizing that they would not be able to reach Novosibirsk, the crew landed in a wheat field with the landing gear extended. The location is reportedly on the outskirts of the rural village of Kamenka, about 180 kilometers from Novosibirsk.
broader issues may be involved
It is widely speculated that the incident occurred because Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made it difficult for Russian airlines to procure spare parts for commercial aircraft. However, Ural Airlines denied having faced any such problems or using non-aircraft. We provide certified spare parts to keep your aircraft in flying condition.
However, this is not the first incident of this kind to befall Ural Airlines.
Photo: Fasttailwind / Shutterstock
A similar incident occurred in August 2019, when another plane operated by Ural Airlines landed in a cornfield near Moscow. The Airbus A321 involved in the incident suffered a twin engine failure after being hit by a bird strike. The aircraft suffered extensive damage and was ultimately dismantled at the site where it landed.
Fortunately, all passengers and crew survived and the captain was considered a hero. However, as with more recent incidents, experts say the pilots could have handled the situation differently and, in both cases, could have made better decisions at critical points on both flights. He suggested that landing outside the airport could have been avoided.
Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov/Shutterstock
What are the possibilities?
No attempt has ever been made to fly a large passenger plane from a wheat field. For this reason, the airline industry is keeping an eye on how recovery efforts will proceed.
Any takeoff attempt would be difficult and dangerous, even with minimal fuel and the seats (and possibly other parts of the interior) removed. First, foreign objects can enter the engine, which can cause damage and loss of power.
Photo: Ural Airlines
Second, the additional friction from the dirt surface can significantly increase the required takeoff distance as the aircraft struggles to gain speed to take off.
Finally, rough ground can cause the collapse of the gear, which will definitely abort recovery attempts, and if damaged will prove costly to repair, and in some cases This could end the life of the aircraft.
What do you think about the plan to fly the A320 from the airfield? Let us know what you think in the comments.
