A FULLY-LADEN jet came only centimetres from crashing at Melbourne Airport last month, it has been revealed. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has placed it in the most serious category of aircraft mishap available to it – an accident, rather than an incident. An ATSB investigation update shows the accident was labelled a “significant event” by investigators, who also listed damage to the aircraft as “substantial”.

“During the take-off the aircraft’s tail scraped the runway surface. Subsequently smoke was observed in the cabin,” the report says. A Sunday Herald Sun investigation has confirmed that the flight – EK407 to Dubai – almost failed to become airborne and barely made it over the airport perimeter fence, half a kilometre away. Damage to the $220 million plane is so severe that the airline is considering writing it off rather than repairing it.

The fully-laden Airbus A340-500 was believed to have been travelling about 280km/h when it reached the end of the runway without becoming airborne. At the last minute, the two pilots “rotated” the plane – or pulled its nose up into a steep ascent – causing its tail to crash into the end of the runway. Despite its steep climb, the plane was still so low that it wiped out strobe lights that were only 70cm high and positioned 170m from the end of the runway.
It then took out an antenna, believed to be near a small building, before barely making it over the 2.44m wire perimeter fence.

Aviation expert Dick Smith said something had gone badly wrong. “It’s the closest thing to a major aviation accident in Australia for years,” he said. “The people (passengers) are incredibly lucky, it was an overrun where the plane didn’t get airborne.” Mr Smith said Emirates was a “very good airline” and it was strange the pilots had resigned immediately after the accident.
“Emirates’ standards are very high and they have a lot of Australian pilots,” he said.

“What I’m startled by is that there hasn’t been a more immediate announcement. We should get some urgent advice from the ATSB. This is one of the most serious accidents you can imagine.” A Melbourne Airport spokeswoman confirmed the size of the strobe lights, which are on a grassed area between the end of the runway and the perimeter fence, which runs alongside Operations Rd. “The height of the runway strobe lights is 0.7m above ground level,” she said.

source: news.com.au