[Peetwo]

Qatar Miami runway overrun - Err..Ops Normal??

There has been a bit on the QATAR CAA preliminary report.

First this from Planetalking - Qatar issues alarming report about Qatar Airways flight

The damage a Qatar 777 and Miami runway light did to each other

The just released factual interim Qatari report about a serious incident involving a Qatar Airways 777-300ER  in September isn’t something you would like to read while about to board one of its flights...

 
However probably more disturbing was this SMH story today - from the latest recipient of the Aviation Press Club golden gong award Jamie Freed  :

Runway overruns 'happen quite often': Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker


Date December 11, 2015 - 11:39AM


Jamie Freed
Senior Reporter

Happens all the time? Qatar Airways plans to double its flights to and from Australia next year.

Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, which is doubling its flights to and from Australia next year, has claimed runway overrun incidents like one that damaged one of his airline's Boeing 777s upon take-off from Miami in September "happen quite often".

A preliminary report into the Miami incident by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority this week found the runway overrun left a 46 centimetre tear in the aircraft's fuselage, which breached the pressure vessel as well as numerous dents and scratches in the airframe with 18 square metres of damaged skin.

There were 90 individual areas of damage requiring assessment and fixing, as well as some damage to a metal guard on the left landing gear. In addition, there was damage to three of the runway approach lights at Miami International Airport which the aircraft clipped upon take-off before completing its 13.5 hour flight to Doha, Qatar and arriving with damage to the airframe.
The Qatar Airways Boeing 777 damaged by a runway overrun incident clipped the landing lights in Miami. Photo: Supplied

The report found the aircraft, with four pilots in the cockpit, had mistakenly taken off using only part of the runway as they entered via a taxiway due to a misreading of information on a tablet computer. Around 1000 metres of the runway was behind them, and the recorded data from the aircraft showed they overran the runway by nearly 300 metres upon take-off but flew on to Doha, apparently oblivious to the damage.

But Mr Al Baker, rather than taking responsibility for the incident and committing to fixing the airline's procedures, on Wednesday told reporters it was the fault of air traffic control rather than the pilots - in direct contradiction of the report.

According to Flightglobal, he also said: "Such kind of incidents happen quite often, either it is a tail strike on the runway or it is contact with the landing lights."

On the Professional Pilots Rumour Network online forum, the reaction to Mr Al Baker's comments were scathing. 

"This is probably the scariest thing I have seen in aviation in years," one poster said. "An admittance that practices are not just poor but dangerous to anybody travelling."

A second person's post said: "Oh yes... Super normal to overrun the runway and take some approach lights with you. Happens every day. Dangerous? Of course not! A perfectly calculated manoeuvre!"

Runway overruns are a relatively rare occurrence in commercial aviation and in some cases have proven deadly. International Air Transport Association data shows there were 98 runway or taxiway excursion accidents between 2009 and 2013 out of millions of commercial flights during those years. Of those incidents, seven resulted in fatalities, with 191 passenger and crew deaths in total.

In 2009, an Emirates A340 with 18 crew and 257 passengers overran the end of the runway at Melbourne Airport after using incorrect take-off performance parameters. The aircraft became airborne but struck a light and damaged the airport's instrument landing system before returning for an emergency landing. As a result of the accident, which heavily damaged the aircraft, Emirates took a number ofactions to improve its safety procedures.

Qatar, which already flies to Melbourne and Perth from its Doha hub, has announced plans to launch flights to Sydney and Adelaide next year as it looks to better compete against rivals Emirates and Etihad Airways in the local market.

Qatar has won industry accolades for the quality of its in-flight product, but it has also drawn the ire of unions around the globe for its workplace policies. Until this year that included firing female employees who got married or became pregnant within the first five years of their employment. Another concern for staff is a mandatory 12-hour rest rule before shifts, which the company enforces by monitoring employees in company housing, according to Bloomberg.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/runway-overruns-happen-quite-often-qatar-airways-ceo-akbar-al-baker-20151210-glkzi6.html#ixzz3tyhuXfYb
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"..Ops normal, nothing to see here.."- UFB!
 

Update with additional incident courtesy PT.. :

Qatar Airways incidents send it screeching into PR, safety crises

Ben Sandilands | Dec 12, 2015 7:29AM |

Qatar has been flying A350s like this for almost a year

It is astonishingly how quickly Qatar Airways has been plunged into a PR nightmare over two serious incidents involving a Boeing 777-300ER and an Airbus A350-900.

The latest involves a rejected takeoff at JFK on an inaugural return flight to Doha, in which it appears that the Airbus A350 had started to roll down the wrong runway.

That incident is reported in detail, and with a video from within the cabin, in this Fairfax report.

An earlier incident at Miami Airport, in which a Qatar 777 stayed on the ground for 300 metres past the end the runway in a botched take-off which saw the jet extensively damaged without somehow coming to the notice of its pilots, is dealt with in this earlier report in Plane Talking.

The harsh facts about the conduct of that flight are set out in a Qatar safety inquiry report that most certainly didn’t shield the state owned carrier from the enormity of the situation that flight was in as it continued for 13.5 hours with a pierced pressure vessel to its destination in Doha.

We need to be clear about several things, contrary to statements made by the airline or its CEO.

Had the 777 incident at Miami happened at the city end of the main runway used for such heavy long haul flights at Sydney the jet would have been destroyed, and it would have been at severe risk of a similar outcome headed south over Botany Bay because of the drop down to the water beyond the end of the runway in that direction.

Qatar Airways was very lucky with the airport layout at Miami and the lack of things to hit in that 300 metres of open space that the 777 traversed at high speed before beginning to climb away from the ground.

The serious of that situation, and the amazing ignorance of its pilots of the true situation their jet and its passenger were in all the way to Doha, rings a very loud warning to all and sundry about the state of safety culture and operational excellence at Qatar Airways in relation to that flight.

But it also requires an open mind as to what happened at JFK. This may not have been the fault of the airline. The responses of the pilots to the apparent error were clearly immediate and highly professional. The causes of that incident may lie elsewhere, and they require the same diligent and fearless inquiry that was shown in the Qatar safety authorities preliminary factual release concerning the Miami incident to bring out the truth.

&..courtesy 'The Points Guy' - Watch This Aborted Takeoff During Qatar’s First A350 Flight from the US By: Zach Honig

MTF...P2