The Training Center
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How a Series of Unfortunate Events Led to Unimaginable Disaster
On July 17, 2007, a commercial A-320 aircraft with 187 passengers and crew on board crashed while attempting to land at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil. The weather conditions were adverse, and the aircraft was operating with one engine reverser deactivated. During the landing, the ground spoilers did not deflect, and the aircraft veered to the left, overran the runway, and collided with a building and a fuel service station. All persons on board the aircraft and 12 people on the ground were killed. The accident caused severe damage to the surrounding area, and the TAM Express building was demolished due to structural damage. -
Could a Circuit Breaker Reset Crash an Airplane?
In December 2014, an Airbus A320-216 aircraft on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore experienced a failure of the Rudder Travel Limiter, which triggered a series of Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring (ECAM) messages. The flight crew performed the ECAM procedure for the first three messages but took different action following the fourth, which resulted in an electrical interruption to the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC) and caused the autopilot to disengage. The aircraft entered an upset condition and eventually stalled, resulting in a crash that killed all 162 occupants.
The investigation found that the cracking of a solder joint caused the RTLU failure, and unresolved repetitive faults occurred due to existing maintenance data analysis. The flight crew's actions and subsequent inability to control the aircraft in Alternate Law were also contributing factors. The Final Report and additional resources, such as a video replay of the accident and articles on stall situations and system resets, provide more information on this tragic event.
