Men Who Killed Qantas - Matthew Benns [2]
To provide a soft landing for the passengers, pilots flare the aeroplane – slowing the descent by lifting the aircraft’s nose. The Qantas training manual states that the landing flare should begin when the wheels are 30 feet above the runway. On the flight deck of QF1 the automatic altitude advisory called 50 feet as the first officer began the flare. ‘Get it down, get it down, come on, you’re starting your flare,’ barked Captain Fried. The first officer began retarding the engines’ thrust but decided there was enough runway to continue the flare and let the aircraft down gently onto the ground. In normal circumstances he would have been right. But these were not normal circumstances. Rain was hammering on the windshield, rattling against the plane’s hull like frozen peas.
The long interval before the next altitude advisory call at 30 feet made the crew aware the plane was coming down more slowly than normal. Captain Fried quietly increased the automatic braking capacity. At ten feet the jet was still hurtling along at 290 kph and had already covered almost three-quarters of a kilometre of the 3250-metre-long runway. Visibility was down, the speed was high and the aircraft was floating. ‘Go around!’ commanded Captain Fried, and within a second the first officer had advanced the thrust levers, adding power to the four Rolls-Royce Turbofan engines. He did not press either of the two switches near the thrust levers that would have automatically provided enough thrust to power the plane into the air at the rate of 2,000 feet a minute, believing his own reactions were quicker.
Things then happened very swiftly. The wheels touched down smoothly. Suddenly the rain eased enough to see the end of the runway. Captain Fried silently reached out, put his right hand over the left hand of the first officer and cut the power to three of the engines. Engine one remained powered up because it was just out of the first officer’s reach. Captain Fried had decided the engines were not spooled up enough to successfully go around and there was enough runway left to land safely. His decision was based on inadequate training and company procedures, but on a dry runway he would have been right. His actions confused the first and second officers, who were unsure whether to go around or continue the landing. The first officer was also unsure if Captain Fried had taken over control of the plane. ‘Okay, we’re on,’ he said.
‘Got it?’ said Captain Fried.
‘Yeah, I’ve got it,’ said the first officer.
The rapid sequence of commands to the engines meant they had been cut back, revved up and cut back in quick succession. Meanwhile, engine one was continuing to race up to full power, until the first officer noticed the thrust lever and pulled it back. It was only at this point, with all engines retarded, that the automatic spoiler system could be deployed. However, the fact that engine one had been advanced for more than three seconds while the plane was on the ground disarmed the automatic braking system. Take-off warnings began to sound in the cockpit and the crew manually applied the brakes as they stared at the end of the runway and wondered why they were not stopping. Halfway down the soaking runway and still hurtling along at over 285 kph, the giant jet began to fishtail wildly. The second officer’s wife screamed. Three flight crew emergency escape reels fell from the overhead stowage, at least one of them striking the second officer on the shoulder.
Behind the pilots in the main cabin the customer service manager had just said, ‘Welcome to Bangkok,’ when the plane started to skid. The cabin juddered and began to shake. The violent vibration jerked open overhead lockers, their contents flying onto the floor, littering it with handbags, jackets and duty-free purchases. ‘Heads down! Stay down! Brace, brace, brace!’ shouted some of the flight