Qantas Flight 1

Infobox Airliner accident|name=Qantas Flight 1
Date=September 23 1999
Type=Runway overrun in storm
Site=Bangkok, Thailand
Fatalities=0
Injuries=38 (minor)
Aircraft Type=Boeing 747-438
Operator=Qantas
Tail Number=airreg|VH|OJH|disaster
Passengers=391
Crew=19
Survivors = 410 (all)

Qantas Flight 1 (QF1, QFA1) is the flight number of the flagship Sydney to London route of Australia's Qantas Airways which goes via Bangkok. On 23 September 1999 a Boeing 747-438 jumbo jet overran the runway while landing in heavy rain for a stop over in Bangkok, causing the most serious incident in the airline's history of jet operations.

The incident

Qantas flights between London and Sydney, known as the "Kangaroo Route", make the journey in two "hops" with an intermediate landing at either Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong for refuelling. This flight began in Sydney earlier that day at 1645 local time, and after more than eight hours flying was approaching Bangkok International Airport at 2245 local time.

During the approach to Bangkok the weather conditions deteriorated significantly, from 8 km visibility half an hour before landing to 750 m at the time of landing. The flight crew observed a storm cloud over the airport and ground reports were that it was raining heavily. However these conditions were common at Bangkok. Seven minutes prior to landing a Thai Airways Airbus A330 landed normally, but three minutes before landing another Qantas aircraft, a Boeing 767, conducted a "go around" due to poor visibility during final approach. The crew of QF1 were unaware of this.

During final approach both the height and speed were high, though within company limits. The rain was now heavy enough that the runway lights were visible only intermittently after each windscreen wiper stroke. Just before touchdown the captain, concerned about the long touchdown point (over a kilometre past the runway threshold) and unable to see the end of the runway, ordered a "go-around". At that point the visibility increased markedly, the landing gear contacted the runway and the captain decided to cancel the go around. In doing so he retarded the thrust levers, however one engine remained at TO/GA for longer than the others and as a result canceled the preselected auto-brake settings.

The landing continued but manual braking did not commence until the aircraft was over 1600 metres down the runway. Company SOP mandated that idle reverse thrust should be used for landings and that flaps should be set at 25 degrees not the maximum of 30 degrees. The combination of flaps 25, no auto-braking, idle reverse thrust, a high and fast approach, a late touch down, poor Cockpit Resource Management and the contaminated runway surface led to an inevitable runway overshoot.

The aircraft in fact accelerated for a few seconds after touchdown. Then it proceeded to hydroplane and skid its way down the runway, departing substantially from runway centreline. It gradually decelerated, but far too slowly to save the aircraft, which proceeded past the runway end, over a stretch of boggy grassland, colliding with a ground radio antenna as it did so, and came to rest with its nose resting on the perimeter road.

Damage

The collision with the antenna caused the nose and right wing landing gear to collapse, the nose landing gear being forced back into the fuselage. The aircraft slid along in a nose-down, right wing low attitude, causing some further damage to the nose and damage to the two right engines and their mountings.

The intrusion of the nose landing gear also caused the failure of the cabin intercom and public address system.

There were no significant passenger injuries during an orderly evacuation of the aircraft 20 minutes after landing. Thirty-eight passengers reported minor injuries.

Investigation

This incident was Qantas' most significant incident in fifty years of jet aircraft operation.Fact|date=September 2007 The aircraft was returned to service.

External links

* [http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1999/AAIR/aair199904538.aspx Australian Transport Safety Bureau report on the incident]

ee also

* Runway safety area
* Engineered materials arrestor system
* Ground effect in aircraft

Runway overshoots

* Air France Flight 358
* Southwest Airlines Flight 1248