Despite Boeing 777's good safety record, how long before a total loss? Most pax walked away from London crash.

Question

On 4 November 2007, a Boeing Company 7772D7 aircraft, registered HS-TJW, was being operated on a scheduled passenger service from Bangkok, Thailand, to Melbourne, Vic, with 17 crew and 277 passengers on board. During a non-directional beacon (NDB) non-precision approach to runway 16 at Melbourne Airport, the aircraft descended below the segment minimum safe altitude at 6.8 distance measuring equipment (DME, a measure in nautical miles). Soon after, the crew received two enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) cautions. The crew then levelled the aircraft and conducted a visual approach and landing on runway 16.

The investigation is continuing.

Source ATSB

The recent London Heathrow B 777 incident was more serious & I await the outcome of the investigation with much interest. There are over 500 of these in service and none older than about 1995.

Answer 1

I think all passengers and crew "walked" away from the accident.  I understand that there are over 700 777's in use today.  

What does the November 4th incident have to do with the London accident?  They are completely unrelated.

Answer 2

More of your "alarmist" rant. You need help dealing with your fixation on airline almost-disasters. Why don't you get a real life. One off the computer. Maybe some real interaction with live people would help. You do not post questions...you post stories and your "opinion".

Answer 3

boeing has a great track record. this incident is by no way going to deter me from flying on a boeing aircraft. Now if this incident involved an airbus airliner the outcome probly would of been worse. btw those incidents are completely unrelated.

Answer 4

It was noted that both engines failed at the same time, considering the  outstanding reliability of today's moder engines, I am suspicious on this one as the odds of a duel engine failure are so remote it points to crew error like they ran out of fuel. Airlines ofter carry the minim fuel to meet the requirements as extra fuel creates weight, thus burning more fuel, so the airlines carry no more than they have to legally.

I some how this is human error as the 777 is an outstanding aircraft and I place fault on the airline.

Answer 5

time will tell  i guess Boeing will always make the best planes in the world and airbus still using those stick controls which i heard they are not good

Answer 6

I'm not sure we can predict the exact date that it will happen Stuttgart.

However, rest assured that is WILL in fact happen at some point.  No system is ever perfect and at some point, some 777 will crash and kill a bunch of people.  This is not the airplane's fault, but will be the result of many factors compounding together in a perfect storm to cause a crash.

And about your little story there....it seems to me that the EGPWS warning potentially saved everyone on board.  I guess people who design and build airplanes know what they're doing after all.

Also, EGPWS warnings aren't that uncommon in VMC.  Its not that hard to not hit a mountain you can see.  EGPWS predicts a lot of things, including descent angle and sink rate.  If the pilots could see the runway, its not exactly news that they descended below the MDA, that's kind of the point of an MDA after all.  If they happened to be descending a little too quickly, the GPWS may have simply warned them with a "Sink Rate" callout.

As always, my advice to you is to make absolutely sure you understand a system before you start whining about it.  Anyone who reads this forum frequently knows that you simply do not understand aviation at all.  We all wish you would either get a little more motivated to educate yourself or just stop whining.

Answer 7

After almost 13 years in service, this was the first big accident for the 777. Seeing how many of them are in service world wide, I'd say that is a very good record. And do remember, anything can happen in the world.

by the way, what was that whole NDB incident there.. what did it have to do with anything?