SN to Africa - one cancellation per day

[convair]

OMG, talk about bad luck! Flghtradar24 shows that yesterday's SN 465 was operated by SFY, the very one that got a new engine earlier this week. did someone forget to check the oil level?

Now, SN 221 operated with A319, that will make Flanker's day!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Maybe a test to see if A319 operations to AFI are preferable to open up more long haul routes..
If new A330 are restricted to one a year,.. new possibilities can be opened, espescially when their are too much small airbuses needed,..
Will see... hope we can read what the problem was ...

CXB

Maybe Flanker wasn't that wrong, first Dashes in the fleet, now A319 operations to AFI...will the dash follow with the catering ?
Sorry,...

[sean1982]

euhm guys ... not being personal works both ways you know :-/

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Indeed sean .. sorry Flanker for digging up old cows or another species in english.. you understand

But now SN resheduling... with no more a330 extra insight and a surplus in a319 in summer, couldn't the shortest routes, Banjul,Dakar,.. be flown with a319.. to open up for ex. the night JFK flight?
Banjul is flown in winter from AMS with Corendon in b738,...
Cargo can be a problem maybe but direct flights...

More and more airliners starts long,mid haul services with narrow body aircraft ...

I don't like it,but guess it isn't what we like but what we need to...
Turkish for ex..

CXB

[sean1982]

Well the knowhow is within the LH group. Privatair has been doing it for Lufthansa for years now on the B738

[Malgalari]

Hello, I'm the passenger from SN flight that had a problem yesterday. I was making an online research to understand better what happened and if it was something avoidable. From my perspective it was pretty scary, with some flames visible, smelling sth burnt, lights cut out and most of all - no communication from the crew to calm us down. Only 5 min before landing in Entebbe we were told what's going on, so all this time before passengers spent praying and preparing for the worst. With stewards running around frantically with blank faces I was convinced it was it. Btw, most of passengers are still stuck in Entebbe, not many flight to rebook us onto...

[LJ]

But now SN resheduling... with no more a330 extra insight and a surplus in a319 in summer, couldn't the shortest routes, Banjul,Dakar,.. be flown with a319.. to open up for ex. the night JFK flight?

AF would be pleased if they would do that (less competition), though the only bigger aircraft they have for DKR is the A380. However, it would be the third longest A319 flight in the world (second longest if OK doesn't use a A319 on PRG-ALA).

Banjul is flown in winter from AMS with Corendon in b738,...

This flight is not nonstop both ways (at least most of the times). Most of the times it makes a stop at RAK (Marrakech) on the outbound, inbound or both. Thus is against the limit.

[sn26567]

Btw, most of passengers are still stuck in Entebbe, not many flight to rebook us onto...

Your story is rather frightening. Did you eventually get an explanation on what happened?

An SN flight has been rerouted through Entebbe to pick up the remaining passengers.

[Malgalari]

They told us it was engine failure, that's all we were told. But it seems that the captain was returning to Entebbe before the boom happened.

[rwandan-flyer]

Thanks for you testimony Malgari, did you board at Entebbe or Kigali ??

[OO-ITR]

Apparantly there is a flight back to Brussels today via Bujumbura AND Nairobi...

[RTM]

They told us it was engine failure, that's all we were told. But it seems that the captain was returning to Entebbe before the boom happened.

The crew must have seen it coming in the engine parameters if they were allready turning around prior to the actual failure. To bad they coudn't make it back before it failed.

I'm just curious wheater it was the same engine. The boom Malgalari describes could well be another engine stall. But whatever it is, it is a FOF if it is the same engine. Could be a hefty warrenty claim...

[convair]

Yes, it was reported by SFM under this topic that SN 453 was going to make an additional stop in Entebbe.

[Flanker2]

Malgalari, did the flames and smoke come from the tailpipe (behind the engine) or from the side of the engine? Did the smoke/smell spread into the cabin? How long could you see the flames and where they shooting out of the engine or just burning locally?

Based on this I can guess if they dropped spare parts or technicians and tools.
The latter is probably true, if it really went boom, it needs an analysis asap, to see what caused the boom.
At this point it could be a bad spare engine or something went wrong during installation. Or something else on the aircraft that's causing the issues (bleed system, EEC, fuel contamination, irregular fuel flow from the boost pumps, etc..). Too much speculation so I won't start on it.

SN221 with A319... is it non-stop and which aircraft did they use? One of the newer frames I guess?
It made my day thank you
And for the fun: 5 hours on the NEK... would break your neck

[SFM]

SN221 with A319... is it non-stop and which aircraft did they use? One of the newer frames I guess?

SN221 was indeed Banjul non-stop, aircraft was OO-SSG (not one of the newer ones: first flight was in 2000).
Passengers for Monrovia were put on SN251 (which then made an additional stop in ROB).

[RTM]

Based on this I can guess if they dropped spare parts or technicians and tools.
The latter is probably true, if it really went boom

Don't know how to interprid this sentence, but I hope you're not implying, based on the current information, that it was a maintenance error. It could be, but don't draw that conclusion on the current non existant facts.

it needs an analysis asap, to see what caused the boom.

That defintely is true, and that will happen.

Or something else on the aircraft that's causing the issues (bleed system, EEC, fuel contamination, irregular fuel flow from the boost pumps, etc..). Too much speculation so I won't start on it.

Dfinately something to check, if it is coming from the aircraft, it should be fixed before flight. However, it is highly unlikely that the airframe will have this power over an engine. And if so, numourous warnings and indications would hve pointed at the culpotate.
The items you name however, could never make an engine go boom. Someone with a little bit of aircraft knowledge would know that.

[Milesandmore57]

Dear Malgalari, I don’t know what plane you were on but apparently reading you we were not on the same one... because i have a total other point of view of what happened concerning THE after incident...
I was on the SN 465 From Entebbe to Brussels first of all... I agree with what happen in cabin.. and outside.. Flames visible, bit of smoke and burnt smelling and lights cuts… it was quite scary indeed..
The airplane wasn’t going back before the sound and flames.. The airplane started to divert after the incident.. I don’t know if you ever considered what is it to have an emergency when you’re in the cockpit.. the pilots are so busy with checklists and dealing with the problem that they don’t even have time to communicate with the crew in cabin.. From my point of you in cabin.. I founded that the crew was very calm and professional.. After all the crew are human beings just like you and me.. even if they are trained they also have the right to be scared.. They were running around to prepare them because they knew like us that something was wrong but they didn’t know what to expect next... so they started putting everything back to secure the cabin, the tables and everything because they were about to start the service... the crew understood that there was something wrong but they didn’t even know the level of the incident.. So yes they didn’t communicate to us because what did you expected them to say to us??? “Ohhh this is very bad”.. and scare everybody for nothing.. or “OHHh hey that’s okay no worry at all guys”.. and then maybe tell us 5 min later..” Oh hello guys were all going to die”
The flight from takeoff to landing took about 40min.. the incident for me happened after the first 20mins.. We had speech from the pilots 10min after the incident which for me it’s the time they needed to handle the incident and make checklists, contacts towers and everything.. These 10min from passenger’s side are effectively very long.. but from their side must have been a huge amount of stress and workload that you can be expecting them to inform you at that moment.. the speech was very clear and reassuring.. I wasn’t maybe as stressed as you because I’m very interested in aviation and I watch and read a lot of documentary about it.. and I knew that a plane could fly with only 1 engine..
From my point of view.. I didn’t find the people on board scared to death and screaming or whatever people were all calm some other weren’t even stressed at all and continuing to sleep
The pilots were at the doors when we disembarked at the airport.. the lady pilot was very friendly and was answering to all the questions… that were very positive I think.. While some others pilots sometimes are hiding in the cockpit..

[Flanker2]

Or something else on the aircraft that's causing the issues (bleed system, EEC, fuel contamination, irregular fuel flow from the boost pumps, etc..). Too much speculation so I won't start on it.

Dfinately something to check, if it is coming from the aircraft, it should be fixed before flight. However, it is highly unlikely that the airframe will have this power over an engine. And if so, numourous warnings and indications would hve pointed at the culpotate.
The items you name however, could never make an engine go boom. Someone with a little bit of aircraft knowledge would know that.

The point where I don't agree is that the aforementioned factors can't cause an engine to stall. They can cause a sensitive compressor to stall by providing opportunities for unexpected pressure differentials and/or shockwaves. It's not likely but if there are no external factors (like birdstrikes) and that both stalls are very similar, you can only find the issues outside the engines. It's rare but it does happen.

[sn26567]

SN465 to Kigali/Entebbe cancelled today. Probably nothing to do with the Swissport strike.

Is OO-SFY still in EBB?

[convair]

Yes, I believe it is.

And SN 231 (Abidjan-Cotonou) cancelled too today!