Aircraft incidents have been on the rise as of late, partially indicative of the wearing state that aircraft are currently in as maintenance works get impacted by the continuing supply chain issues. Earlier this month, a Batik Air Airbus A330-300 added to the statistic after affected by a hydraulic leak, forcing the flight crew to declare an emergency.
An anxious descent toward Medina
The Airbus widebody in query was registered PK-LEM, a virtually six-year-old aircraft belonging to Indonesian carrier Batik Air and currently on wet lease to Saudi low-cost carrier flynas. On the day of the incident, June twelfth, the aircraft was operating as flynas flight JT5146.
It was alleged to be a scheduled nonstop service from Moroni Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport (HAH) in Madagascar to Medina Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Airport (MED). The A330 took off from Moroni at roughly 17:34 that day and would uneventfully fly the marginally over five-hour journey to Medina when something happened during its approach.
While descending toward Medina, the flight crew suddenly declared an emergency upon reporting that certainly one of their three independent hydraulic systems, primarily the green hydraulic quantity, was reading zero. In the course of the declaration of emergency, the flight crew stated they might not have normal brakes to work with during landing because it is certainly one of the crucial systems powered by green hydraulics.
Getting stuck on the runway
Nonetheless, the flight crew and PK-LEM continued their descent and safely landed on runway 18 at roughly 22:40 the identical day. But all was not well after the anxious arrival at Medina since the widebody aircraft quickly became disabled on the runway. Given how the aircraft still had two working hydraulic systems, comparable to the blue and yellow, there was no reason for it to change into stuck on the runway.
But based on Saudi Arabia’s Aviation Investigation Bureau, the intense incident got here to a grinding halt on the runway because the whole lack of the green hydraulic system made normal braking unavailable, forcing the flight crew to use emergency braking. Attributable to the usage of emergency brakes, all tires subsequently showed zero pressure on the electronic centralized aircraft monitor.
Photo: Cahyadi HP | Shutterstock
Even so, it does seem strange for the final word reliance on emergency brakes, given how the blue hydraulic system could have provided alternate braking, not to say the blue and yellow hydraulic systems provided for spoilers and flaps. And the Airbus A330’s hydraulic system was designed such that losing a single hydraulic system will typically only end in significantly minor issues.
Bottom line
Nonetheless, it was fortunate that PK-LEM managed to land safely, and nobody was reportedly injured. While the reason behind the green hydraulic leak has not yet been identified – albeit suspected to be from the nose gear, it seems the widebody remains to be undergoing maintenance and repairs, as flight schedules are still canceled. Hopefully, the Airbus widebody will get back within the skies soon.