NationStates Jolt Archive

3rd Squadron C-240 Goes Down in Flames

It was an overcast day in the city of E'gris, as a single C-240 'Pallas' from the 3rd Squadron of the supersonic cargoes was making a routine troop movement delivery into the city. Its job today was to rotate out a hundred and twenty soldiers, and send in another hundred twenty.

Tower control to Pallas One, clearance for landing.

The cargo banked towards the runway, lowered its flaps, and tuned down the thrust. The runway was getting closer...but something did not feel quite right.

"Sir," said a junior officer in the cockpit (he was training for a cargo pilot, and was watching the crew of three fly). "Why are we descending so - "

'Quickly' never got out. The aircraft made a violent jerk as a chunk of metal caught in the right engine, completely setting it aflame. The left engine was already out - but unknown to the crew.

Forty feet from the ground and ten feet from the runway, the C-240 crashed into the ground, and its engines exploded, tearing off both its wings.

Fires erupted in the cockpit...as emergency exit systems were automatically deployed and soldiers frantically began to scramble out.

----


DDA Defense Agency Building

Defense Minister Brian Dredon was interrupted from his speech by a junior officer, who whispered an urgent piece of news into his year.

"My God," he said out loud, startling his audience. He promptly left the podium.

-----

"We have another Pallas down?"

"Yes sir."

"Any survivors?"

"We don't know sir...the Pallas is designed to have excellent emergency exit systems, but the engines caught aflame, and electrical failures started fires in the cockpit. The entire head of the aircraft is separated from the rest, the wings are down...that's all we have at the moment."

"Christ..."

----
Office of Jean Wilkins

Jean Wilkins had been assigned to be the head engineer in charge of investigating the earlier C-240 crash. A prototype that had been performing satisfactorily in United Elias unexpectedly crashed just before landing...

Another member of the time, Eric Martin, delivered a requested packet of information. Wilkins flipped through it. It was the test results from engine material - inside the airframe itself, right over the engine - and was quite shocked.

"Dear god..."

The metal used for that particular part in the 3rd Squadron's batch was undeniably faulty, and there was no denying it. Samples from the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th squadrons yielded results almost exactly the same - and wildly different from the 3rd Squadron's.

---

"The thing is," said Brian Dredon. "If the left engine was already out, why didn't the crew realize it?"

"Sir, we're still trying to figure it out. The black box is being recovered and there are at least twenty survivors right now...we believe it is a system failure."

"Okay. Tell the investigation team to run system and avionics tests."

"Yes, sir."

OOC: good luck on your 2000th post!

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE - Department of Aviation Safety (DAS)




The initial enquiry board has concluded that the investigation into the catasprophic failure of airframe UE-595604 should focus on the aircraft's powerplants, in addition to the plane's flight management computers. From initial eyewitness statements and instrument recording data, the board belives that the aircraft suffered an engine failure while it was on short final, just forty seconds prior to landing. At the time, due to the adverse weather coinditions, the crew had elected to use the autoland system to complete the approach and we know that the system was enagged at the time of the failure. The system, faced with this severe malfunction then immediately initiated compensatory measures by raising the nose in order to abort the approach while using the rudders and the other engine to quickly turn away from the glideslope. However, the system overcompensated and the aircraft, having been forced into a steep turn at the same time as the nose was raised, stalled. Although the flightcrew immediately attempted to recover, it was too late and the aircraft descended rapidly, nose up, into the ground. The wreackage co-oberates this theory as the forward sections of the fueselage are spread in a smaller debris field than the trailking edge of the wings and the vertical stabilisers.

Our recomendations are to continue the investigation focusing on these two systems during which all of the active C-240 fleet should be grounded. We believe that the problems are resolvable and considering thst the proposed EA-240 will ude Elias avionics and engines, this incident should not affect the decision to license build the design.


INCIDENT RECOMMENDATIONS REPORT 3/04/04

Upon further investigation into the loss of C-240 type aircraft, tail number UE-595604, the board of inquiry has recommendations to make to the Elias Air Force and other nations who operate or intend to operate this airframe. The problem is two fold, firstly the aircraft's powerplants are suffering from excess fatigue due to the high temperatures of supersonic flight. This, in our opinion is because the engines have been designed for operation on subsonic airframes, and operate from 40%-50%thruist for the majprity of the flight. However, the engines havve been incorrectly flying on thrusts of 60%+ to ensure a cruising speed of close to Mach 1. This has led to overall higher temperatures in the combustion chambers. The powerplants cannot be said to be of high quality manufacture, and therefore this overheating has caused premature fatigue which in turn causes catasprophic engine failure.

The Elias Precision Engineering Corporation which has designed and built powerplants for every single Elias aircraft and ship design as well as hundreds of international projects, has submitted a bid to replace the engines on all Elias models, and also to be offered on all new new build aircraft by The Zoogie People. If the contract is gained, Elias PRecision Engineering will build prototypes with great rapidity and complete certification of the EPE-158. Specifications on the new powerplant type is subjectto change but a thrust rating of 88,000lb+ is expected. COntrary to the existing engines, the EPE-158 iuses the follwoing princpiles to ensure a reliable powerplant taht can be operated at 70%+ thrust for teh entire duration of cruise if fuel payload allows.

-Integrally bladed rotors: In most stages, disks and blades are made from a single piece of advnaced alloy for better performance and less air leakage.
-Long chord fan blades reduce danger of heat related emergency and contribute to engine efficiency.
-Low-aspect, high-stage-load compressor blades: Once again, wider blades offer greater strength and efficiency.
-Alloy high-strength burn-resistant titanium compressor with innovative titanium alloy increases durability, allowing the engine to run hotter and faster for greater thrust and efficiency.
-Floatwall combustor: Thermally isolated panels of oxidation-resistant high cobalt material make the combustion chamber more durable, which helps reduce scheduled maintenance and again improve safety.

Secondly, the aircraft's FADEC (Fully Automated Digital Electronic Control) systems are not correctly programmed or installed. This has meant that the autoland system is not recieving the correct information as to the state of the engines. In the crash that we have studied, the autopilot misinterprated signals from the engine monitoring computers and compensated incorrectly, resulting in the loss of the airframe.

To rectify this, an avvionices redesign is required, which utilises triple rendundnat sensors that all sned information to every part of teh instrumentation and autopilot system so software glitches and any unsual discrepanies are immediately idenftified. An integrated systemal health monitoring interface will also mean that a seperate system routinely checks all the other systems for errors.