SIA's A380 plane gets stuck on grass verge at Changi Airport’s T3
Posted: 10 January 2008 2346 hrs

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SIA Airbus A380

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines A380 plane accidentally ended on the grass verge off the tarmac at Changi Airport's new Terminal 3 on Thursday evening.

SIA said a truck which was being used to push back the SQ221 flight from Singapore to Sydney, experienced some failure.

This caused the truck to disconnect with the aircraft, which then came into contact with the grass verge.

The airline said the plane was not under its own power at the time.

The plane's 446 passengers are being disembarked so it can be positioned back onto the tarmac and inspected for any damage, before returning to service.

Arrangements are being made to enable as many passengers as possible to continue their journey to Sydney early Friday, using a Boeing 747-400 aircraft instead.

The aircraft involved in the incident was scheduled to depart at 8.30pm on Thursday.

Nobody was injured in the incident and SIA said it's too early to know what caused it.

However, it will investigate the incident and is filing reports with the relevant Singapore authorities. -CNA/vm

Cannot start engine and self-reverse ah?

thanks for the correction. due to misleading info, previous thread has been deleted.

Originally posted by ceecookie:

Cannot start engine and self-reverse ah?

you don't know how a gas turbine engine works?

i wonder all those flying the suites one.. how sia.. price diff very big.

Originally posted by ceecookie:

Cannot start engine and self-reverse ah?

unfortunately the airplanes do not have a key to turn on the engine

there is an airtug to push back the airplane, then tow it forward slightly. then the airplane can start engine, and proceed itself to the runway.

what misleading information?

Originally posted by caleb_chiang:

what misleading information?

the previous thread was started by me and had the incident happened at SYD instead of SIN.

Originally posted by Pitot:

i wonder all those flying the suites one.. how sia.. price diff very big.

quoting myself in the previous topic "got refund?"

Originally posted by Pitot:

thanks for the correction. due to misleading info, previous thread has been deleted.

its okay... wah ur info quite fast also hor

Originally posted by kopiosatu:

quoting myself in the previous topic "got refund?"

shld have in one way or another...

there goes my bonus for this yr =(

This seems like so ominous for the start of SIA flights from T3..

Another World First

Singapore Airlines now holds the record for the first Airbus A380 to be stuck on a grass verge. None were hurt, except for Singapore Airlines, who also suffered the ignominy of having this piece of news achieving “most popular story” on CNN’s website yesterday, no thanks to the misleading headline.

For punters who buy 4D numbers of accident vehicles, the plane’s registration is “9V-SKA“. Oh wait, that’s not four digits.

Lessee… Scheduled departure time of the flight SQ221 was 2040hrs. It was retimed to 0015hrs. The scheduled arrival in Sydney was 0715hrs, but the retimed arrival, 0850hrs.

OK, now go buy those numbers. You read it here first. Win first prize better thank me!

2nd A-380 was delivered ytd to SIA

Found pic of the incident online.

http://images2.photomania.com/331737/1/radE88F5.jpg

Seems like she is back in service already. not much of an issue.

meanwhile, 9V SKB touched down this morning 0800hrs.

Hi HK,
SQ is not the only party who is "hurt" here. AIB & tug driver were affected as well .

Originally posted by Hello Kitty:

Another World First

Singapore Airlines now holds the record for the first Airbus A380 to be stuck on a grass verge. None were hurt, except for Singapore Airlines, who also suffered the ignominy of having this piece of news achieving “most popular story” on CNN’s website yesterday, no thanks to the misleading headline.

For punters who buy 4D numbers of accident vehicles, the plane’s registration is “9V-SKA“. Oh wait, that’s not four digits.

Lessee… Scheduled departure time of the flight SQ221 was 2040hrs. It was retimed to 0015hrs. The scheduled arrival in Sydney was 0715hrs, but the retimed arrival, 0850hrs.

OK, now go buy those numbers. You read it here first. Win first prize better thank me!

It's possible for a turbofan to start and reverse out of the gate using thrust reversers although it's strongly not recommended bcos of possible engine damage and ground damage. Anyway, a380 only has 2 thrust reversers.
From wat i heard, the hydraulics on the airtug failed cosing loss of braking and steering power.

Originally posted by elektra:

unfortunately the airplanes do not have a key to turn on the engine

there is an airtug to push back the airplane, then tow it forward slightly. then the airplane can start engine, and proceed itself to the runway.

For expediency at most US airports, engine startup is initiated while the aircraft is being pushed back. This allows the taxi to commence once the towbar is disconnected.

Sometimes a tug isn't even needed: under certain conditions, Northwest's DC9s are allowed to "power back" from the gate using reverse thrust. I've been on a few domestic flights where this has happened.

Originally posted by leewan:

It's possible for a turbofan to start and reverse out of the gate using thrust reversers although it's strongly not recommended bcos of possible engine damage and ground damage.

Thus far, I've only seen the DC-9/MD-8X series perform powerbacks from the gate. A good friend of mine who flies for NWA mentioned that this was permitted due to the high mounting location of the engines which reduces the possibility of debris being sucked into the engines when the thrust reverser buckets are deployed during the powerback.

Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:

For expediency at most US airports, engine startup is initiated while the aircraft is being pushed back. This allows the taxi to commence once the towbar is disconnected.

Sometimes a tug isn't even needed: under certain conditions, Northwest's DC9s are allowed to "power back" from the gate using reverse thrust. I've been on a few domestic flights where this has happened.

It also happens in SIN, but only for smaller a/c like B737 and A320 as their engine thrust won't overpower the airtug. It definitely won't happen wif the B777 even in US as they autostart both engines at the same time and the idle thrust can overpower the airtug resulting in towbar shear. Has happened in SIN b4.

As i said earlier, any a/c wif thrust reverser can technically back up on its own, just that it's not recommended by the manufacturers.