From a retired USAF Col now flying 777s:
Just a quick update with what I know about the Malaysia 777
disappearance. The Boeing 777 is the airplane that I fly. It is a
great, safe airplane to fly. It has, for the most part, triple
redundancy in most of its systems, so if one complete system breaks (not
just parts of a system), there are usually 2 more to carry the load.
It’s also designed to be easy to employ so 3rd world pilots can
successfully fly it. Sometimes, even that doesn’t work…as the Asiana
guys in San Fran showed us. A perfectly good airplane on a beautiful,
sunny day…and they were able to crash it. It took some doing, but they
were able to defeat a bunch of safety systems and get it to where the
airplane would not help them and the pilots were too
stupid/scared/unskilled/tired to save themselves
There’s many ways to fly the 777 and there are safety layers and
redundancies built into the airplane. It is tough to screw up and the
airplane will alert you in many ways (noises, alarms, bells and
whistles, plus feed back thru the control yoke and rudder pedals and
throttles. In some cases the airplane’s throttles ‘come alive’ if you
are going to slow for a sustained period of time) All designed to
help. But, it’s also non-intrusive. If you fly the airplane in the
parameters it was designed for, you will never know these other things
exist. The computers actually ‘help’ you and the designers made it for
the way pilots think and react. Very Nice.
Now to Malaysia . There are so many communication systems on the
airplane. 3 VHF radios. 2 SatCom systems. 2 HF radio systems. Plus
Transpoders and active, ‘real time’ monitoring through CPDLC (Controller
to Pilot Data Link Clearance) and ADS B(Air Data Service) through the
SatCom systems and ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and
Reporting System) thru the VHF, HF and SatCom systems. The air traffic
controllers can tell where we are, speed, altitude, etc as well as what
our computers and flight guidance system has set into our control
panels. Big Brother for sure! However, most of these things can be
turned off.
But, there are a few systems that can’t be turned off and one, as
reported by the WSJ, is the engine monitoring systems (not sure what the
acronym for that is, but I’m sure there is one….it’s aviation…there has
to be an acronym!). The Malaysia airplane, like our 777-200s, use Rolls
Royce Trent Engines (as a piece of trivia….Rolls Royce names their
motors after rivers….because they always keep on running!) Rolls Royce
leases these motors to us and they monitor them all the time they are
running. In fact, a few years back, one of our 777s developed a slow oil
leak due to partial equipment failure. It wasn’t bad enough to set off
the airplane’s alerting system, but RR was looking at it on their
computers. They are in England, they contact our dispatch in Texas.
Dispatch sends a message to the crew via SatCom in the North Pacific,
telling them that RR wants them to closely monitor oil pressure and temp
on the left engine. Also, during the descent, don’t retard the throttle
to idle…keep it at or above a certain rpm. Additionally, they wanted
the crew to turn on the engine ‘anti ice’ system as that heats some of
the engine components.
The crew did all of that and landed uneventfully, but after landing and
during the taxi in, the left engine shut itself down using it’s
redundant, computerized operating system that has a logic tree that will
not allow it to be shut down if the airplane is in the air…only on the
ground. Pretty good tech. Anyway, the point was, that RR monitors
those engines 100% of the time they are operating. The WSJ reported
that RR indicated the engines on the Malaysia 777 were running normally
for 4 to 5 hours after the reported disappearance. Malaysia denies
this. We shall see.
Parting shot. If you travel by air, avoid the 3rd world airlines. Their
operators and maintenance are substandard. Substandard when traveling
by Bus or Boat isn’t so bad when the engines quit. You just stop on the
water or by the side of the road. Not so in airplanes. My piece of
advice….if traveling by air use 1st world airlines. So, that leaves
USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe, Japan and just a
few others. Avoid the rest….just my opinion. If you get a real deal on
air fare from ‘Air Jabooti’…skip it. Oh, there are a lot of the
‘developing’ countries that use expatriate pilots from the 1st world.
Emirates and Air Jordan come to mind and are very safe. As is Cathay
Pacific. Air Pakistan and Egypt Air…not so much. Do the research or
just drop me a note. I’ll give you my opinion.
And don't EVER get in an Airbus!!
That is all!
[ signed ]
A retired Boeing 767 captain friend agrees with him regarding Airbuses -
DWM.
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