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Air Transat Flight 236
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Air Transat Flight 236
Air Transat Flight 236 was a transatlantic flight bound for Lisbon, Portugal, from Toronto, Canada, that lost all engine power while flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the dark on August 24, 2001. The Airbus A330 ran out of fuel because of a fuel leak caused by improper maintenance. Captain Robert Piché, 48, and First Officer Dirk DeJager, 28, glided the plane to a successful emergency landing in the Azores, saving the lives of all 306 people (293 passengers and 13 crew) on board. This was also the longest passenger aircraft glide without engines, gliding for nearly 65 nautical miles (120 km; 75 mi). Following this unusual aviation accident, this aircraft was nicknamed the "Azores Glider".
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A330-243 registered as C-GITS. The aircraft was just over two years old and was equipped with two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines.
Flight 236 took off from Toronto at 00:52 (UTC) on Friday, August 24, 2001 (local time: 20:52 (ET) on Thursday, August 23), bound for Lisbon, Portugal, with 293 passengers and 13 crew on board. The flight was flown by Captain Robert Piché, who had 16,800 hours of flight experience (with 796 of them on the Airbus A330), and First Officer Dirk DeJager, who had 4,800 flight hours (including 386 hours on the Airbus A330).
The aircraft was a two-year-old Airbus A330-243 registered as C-GITS that had first flown on March 17, 1999,[citation needed] configured with 362 seats and placed in service by Air Transat on April 28, 1999.[citation needed]
It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines each capable of delivering 316 kN (71,100 lbf) thrust. Leaving the gate in Toronto, the aircraft had 46.9 tonnes (103,000 lb) of fuel on board, 4.5 tonnes (9,900 lb) more than required by regulations.
At 04:38 UTC (almost four hours into the flight), the aircraft began to leak fuel through a fracture that had developed in a fuel line to the no. 2 (right) engine downstream of the fuel/oil heat exchanger. At 05:03 UTC, more than four hours into the flight, the pilots noticed low oil temperature and high oil pressure on engine no. 2.
Although these readings were an indirect result of the fuel leak, the pilots had no reason to consider that as a cause. Consequently, Captain Piché suspected they were false warnings and shared that opinion with Air Transat maintenance control centre in Montreal, which advised them to monitor the situation.
There were other potential indications of fuel problems as well:
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Air Transat Flight 236
Air Transat Flight 236 was a transatlantic flight bound for Lisbon, Portugal, from Toronto, Canada, that lost all engine power while flying over the Atlantic Ocean in the dark on August 24, 2001. The Airbus A330 ran out of fuel because of a fuel leak caused by improper maintenance. Captain Robert Piché, 48, and First Officer Dirk DeJager, 28, glided the plane to a successful emergency landing in the Azores, saving the lives of all 306 people (293 passengers and 13 crew) on board. This was also the longest passenger aircraft glide without engines, gliding for nearly 65 nautical miles (120 km; 75 mi). Following this unusual aviation accident, this aircraft was nicknamed the "Azores Glider".
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A330-243 registered as C-GITS. The aircraft was just over two years old and was equipped with two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines.
Flight 236 took off from Toronto at 00:52 (UTC) on Friday, August 24, 2001 (local time: 20:52 (ET) on Thursday, August 23), bound for Lisbon, Portugal, with 293 passengers and 13 crew on board. The flight was flown by Captain Robert Piché, who had 16,800 hours of flight experience (with 796 of them on the Airbus A330), and First Officer Dirk DeJager, who had 4,800 flight hours (including 386 hours on the Airbus A330).
The aircraft was a two-year-old Airbus A330-243 registered as C-GITS that had first flown on March 17, 1999,[citation needed] configured with 362 seats and placed in service by Air Transat on April 28, 1999.[citation needed]
It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines each capable of delivering 316 kN (71,100 lbf) thrust. Leaving the gate in Toronto, the aircraft had 46.9 tonnes (103,000 lb) of fuel on board, 4.5 tonnes (9,900 lb) more than required by regulations.
At 04:38 UTC (almost four hours into the flight), the aircraft began to leak fuel through a fracture that had developed in a fuel line to the no. 2 (right) engine downstream of the fuel/oil heat exchanger. At 05:03 UTC, more than four hours into the flight, the pilots noticed low oil temperature and high oil pressure on engine no. 2.
Although these readings were an indirect result of the fuel leak, the pilots had no reason to consider that as a cause. Consequently, Captain Piché suspected they were false warnings and shared that opinion with Air Transat maintenance control centre in Montreal, which advised them to monitor the situation.
There were other potential indications of fuel problems as well:
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