SAA delayed reporting near-disaster at Cape Town airport by 8 days

Grant said:
i'm standing right behind you - breathing down your neck.

but am unsure why you may be looking for me - i'm not a pilot.
i can help if you need some info on cardioplegia, post-perfusion syndrome, roller vs centrifugal cardio-pulmonary bypass pumps , ecmo etc - but not flying an airbus
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Apologies; I fall back on "old" as an excuse; a case of mistaken identity.
 
Gordon_R said:
You are absolutely correct about the process, and the captain's authority. However, for the purposes of this thread you left out a critical part: If the passenger and cargo load, plus the fuel requested, exceeds the maximum takeoff weight, then some tough choices have to be made; like bumping off a few passengers who have already boarded, or leaving their luggage behind. This is not a decision that can be made solely by the captain, which was my original point.
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Yes, the captain doesn't decide or care what gets offloaded in order to take his desired fuel. He just advises dispatch during flight planning to restrict the zero fuel weight. He also does not have to accept the aircraft if he is not happy.

Actually, it shouldn't go as far as having to offload anyone or anything. Cargo is normally the first thing that doesn't get loaded, then luggage, then some poor sods who'll be advised of their fate before boarding.
 
Would love to see the report when it comes out.

Apparently there was a retired captain, most probably from SAA, on the flight and he went up to the cockpit and helped out to bring the plane down.

They should have looked at the weather report before taking off, there was bad weather in Cape Town and both alternative airports, this should have made them carry enough fuel to return to Bloemfontein.
 
dillinger said:
Would love to see the report when it comes out.

Apparently there was a retired captain, most probably from SAA, on the flight and he went up to the cockpit and helped out to bring the plane down.

They should have looked at the weather report before taking off, there was bad weather in Cape Town and both alternative airports, this should have made them carry enough fuel to return to Bloemfontein.
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Did they depart from bloem?
 
wingnut771 said:
Did they depart from bloem?
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No, pilots need to explain why they load extra fuel. So if they looked at the weather report they would have seen that Cape Town had bad weather and both of the alternative airports as well, then their next option is Bloem so you load fuel for such a round trip.
 
dillinger said:
No, pilots need to explain why they load extra fuel. So if they looked at the weather report they would have seen that Cape Town had bad weather and both of the alternative airports as well, then their next option is Bloem so you load fuel for such a round trip.
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WTF do you do in Bloem after you land?

Is it not better to fuel for OR? How much further is that? 10 mins?
 
dillinger said:
Would love to see the report when it comes out.

Apparently there was a retired captain, most probably from SAA, on the flight and he went up to the cockpit and helped out to bring the plane down.

They should have looked at the weather report before taking off, there was bad weather in Cape Town and both alternative airports, this should have made them carry enough fuel to return to Bloemfontein.
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It would be crazy for airline pilots to not look at the weather before departing, so I'm sure they did so. Still don't know why they didn't take more fuel. Perhaps the forecast was inaccurate.

If the 3rd pilot story is true then I'm guessing he would have been on the jumpseat because if he was sitting in the back then he would have been ignorant about the whole situation.
 
wingnut771 said:
WTF do you do in Bloem after you land?

Is it not better to fuel for OR? How much further is that? 10 mins?
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The first thing you do is be glad you are no longer in the sky.
Then you either figure your own way to the final destination or wait for the next available safe flight.
 
Rumple4skin said:
It would be crazy for airline pilots to not look at the weather before departing, so I'm sure they did so. Still don't know why they didn't take more fuel. Perhaps the forecast was inaccurate.

If the 3rd pilot story is true then I'm guessing he would have been on the jumpseat because if he was sitting in the back then he would have been ignorant about the whole situation.
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Are you as sure when you hear SAA DEI pilots almost crashed taking off with covid vaccines (germany?) but because the plane was so advanced (basically idiot proof) it took over and prevented the crash. Can't remember what they did wrong. Iirc, they were too slow or too heavy to too something, basically just amature hour darwin awards situation but just scraped through on the edge of physics and survived and then kept it a secret for a few months until the truth finally came out when head office (airbus? boeing?) finally got around reading the email the plane sent and questioned CAA, which was when CAA questioned SAA.
 
wingnut771 said:
Are you as sure when you hear SAA DEI pilots almost crashed taking off with covid vaccines (germany?) but because the plane was so advanced (basically idiot proof) it took over and prevented the crash. Can't remember what they did wrong. Iirc, they were too slow or too heavy to too something, basically just amature hour darwin awards situation but just scraped through on the edge of physics and survived and then kept it a secret for a few months until the truth finally came out when head office (airbus? boeing?) finally got around reading the email the plane sent and questioned CAA, which was when CAA questioned SAA.
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Yeah the numb skulls put the wrong take-off weight into the flight computer which then calculated speeds too slow for safe flap retraction and they almost stalled during climb out.

Still, would be quite unusual for pilots to not check one of the most important things during flight planning. Yeah I guess it's possible if both became complacent or are just incompetent. Maybe I'm naively giving them the benefit of the doubt.
 
Rumple4skin said:
Yeah the numb skulls put the wrong take-off weight into the flight computer which then calculated speeds too slow for safe flap retraction and they almost stalled during climb out.

Still, would be quite unusual for pilots to not check one of the most important things during flight planning. Yeah I guess it's possible if both became complacent or are just incompetent. Maybe I'm naively giving them the benefit of the doubt.
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DEI (BEE)
 
wingnut771 said:
Are you as sure when you hear SAA DEI pilots almost crashed taking off with covid vaccines (germany?) but because the plane was so advanced (basically idiot proof) it took over and prevented the crash. Can't remember what they did wrong. Iirc, they were too slow or too heavy to too something, basically just amature hour darwin awards situation but just scraped through on the edge of physics and survived and then kept it a secret for a few months until the truth finally came out when head office (airbus? boeing?) finally got around reading the email the plane sent and questioned CAA, which was when CAA questioned SAA.
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The aircraft weight in the flight computer was 90 tons less than the actual weight. Things started to go wrong on takeoff when the flaps were retracted and the aircraft went into alpha floor protection. The crew blamed the whole incident on a software bug, saying that the automatic ACARS message was sent out incorrectly. The message went to Airbus, Rolls-Royce and the SAA dispatch. SAA only reported it to the CAA three weeks later once the ACARS message came to light.

https://mentourpilot.com/the-aircraft-lied-saa-airbus-a340-90-ton-miscalculation/
 
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