Aircraft Crash Analysis & Design - Essay Example

Running Head: Aircraft Analysis and Design Aircraft Analysis and Design of Introduction On August 11 2005, Air France Flight 358 departed Paris on a scheduled flight to Toronto with 12 crew and 297 passengers including two babies on board. Before their arrival at Toronto they were told that the weather forecast was not good with a possibility of thunderstorms. The plane was landing with the help of instrumental landing approach with auto pilot disengaged. When the plane touch down on runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport the groundspeed began to increase and the plane failed to stop on the long runway of about 9000 foot and finally plunged into a ravine and burst into flames.

All of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members evacuated the aircraft before the fire reached the escape doors. All of the passengers and crew members survived with only 12 were seriously injured. People called it a miracle and the role played by the highly trained crew members in an emergency situation was appreciated. Emergency Exits The passenger cabin had eight emergency exit doors. Six of the doors are used in Type A emergency and the other two doors are used in Type l emergency. All of the doors were similar in operation.

They had a design to be opened either from interior or the exterior. According to the operating manual of Airbus cabin crew the instruction states that opening the doors from interior in normal operations, the door control handle must be completely up. All of the doors were equipped with door assist system which had an emergency operation cylinder and a damper. Damper helps in limiting the travel of the door in normal operations especially when the conditions are windy. But in an emergency situation the damper acts as an actuator in order to open the door automatically.

The damper is operated by compressed nitrogen gas which is stored in specially designed cylinders which have pressure gauge. Slide arm lever controls the release of nitrogen by and actuating device. When the arm lever is at armed state as normally it is during landing as a result the door assist opens the door automatically. Each emergency door also has a prismatic lens. Evacuation Escape DevicesThe plane had 8 evacuation escape devices to help in fast occupant way out in state of an emergency.

It had 2 single lane slides at emergency doors R3 and L3 and six double lane rafts at emergency doors R1, R2, R4, L1 and L2. The deployment and inflation of the rafts were automatically started when the emergency doors are opened. Normally the deployment and inflation time of rafts is 16 seconds but on Airbus A340 it is 8 seconds. There is no sign that the international standards were not met successfully in this occurrence. Evacuation Alert System This system is not required by the international regulations but still it was installed on Air France Airbus A380.

This system has flight attendant panel which contains push buttons and emergency evacuation flashing lights. In case of power failure the evacuation alert system is powered by emergency batteries which are located at the avionics unit. Conclusion All the passengers and crew survived the crash because of the highly trained crew members of Air France and the state of the art systems and devices which were installed on the plane. The crash was the biggest crises to hit the Toronto Airport and people called it a miracle.

References:Aviation Investigation Report Runway Overrun and Fire Air France Airbus A340-313F-GLZQ Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Ontario 02 August 2005.