The investigation into a serious incident involving an Irish registered aircraft, which was conducting a scheduled passenger flight from Dublin to London, revealed that a critical failure of the left-hand engine occurred during descent.
Just after 10:30 AM on the morning in question, the crew were instructed by ATC to commence their decent and prepare for landing at Heathrow Airport. As the aircraft descended through 2,500 feet, the captain noticed a slight vibration emanating from the left-hand engine. He immediately alerted his co-pilot to the issue, and they both began to take action to rectify the situation.
Despite their efforts, the vibration intensified and became more pronounced, prompting the crew to declare an emergency with ATC. The aircraft was cleared for priority landing at Heathrow, where it touched down safely without further incident.
Subsequent examination of the engine revealed that a critical failure had occurred due to excessive wear on a key component. I’ll put the abstract within and leave you to learn from the PDF underneath?
The historical narrative of flight draws its credibility from a comprehensive technical report provided by the operator, along with firsthand accounts from the relief pilot and eyewitness testimony. The Urban Area was commissioned to conduct a comprehensive citywide survey within the designated Tankardstown area of Balbriggan, County Dublin. Dublin. At 4:49 pm, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UA) took off from its base of operations situated atop a multi-story car park at the Millfield Shopping Centre in Balbriggan.
As the UA soared to an impressive height of 71 meters, it followed its predetermined course, steadily making its way towards its designated descent point. At approximately 52 seconds into flight, a vibration anomaly indicative of a propulsion unit imbalance was detected by the aircraft’s onboard software, prompting the separation of a propeller blade, which had been driven by the higher-rear right electric motor on the United Airlines (UA) flight.
Following the separation of the propeller blade, the aircraft pitched up and rolled violently. To counteract the unforeseen pitch and roll deviations, the Uncrewed Aircraft (UA) employed a compensatory strategy by reducing thrust from its electric motors situated on the forward-left arm while simultaneously increasing thrust from those on the rear-right arm. The aircraft’s upset attitude recovery procedures were successfully implemented to regain control and sustain a consistent altitude for the next 20 seconds.
Due to the adverse effects of vibration on its systems, the Ukrainian Airlines’ flight management unit (FCU) experienced difficulties in accurately calculating the aircraft’s angle and altitude, prompting an automatic switch to a secondary FCU as a failsafe measure.
The aircraft’s descent was marked by a precipitous drop in altitude of approximately 2.5 meters. As a contingency measure to offset the sudden reduction in thrust, a temporary increase in rotational force was initiated from the functioning propellers, followed by a brief ascent maneuver. Immediately following the FCU’s switchover, the lower-rated rear propeller’s electric motor disintegrated due to excessive vibrations, leaving only the higher-powered rear-right motor to power a solitary propeller blade.
When the UA’s SRTL function was triggered, it automatically initiated a mechanical return to its operating base. Following the SRTL’s commanded yaw, the UA plummeted downward at 3 meters per second, while onboard sensors alerted to increasing discrepancies in both pitch and roll. As the UA continued its downward trajectory, the rate of descent increased to a maximum of 8.5 meters per second, at which point all remaining engines were mechanically shut down. The flight termination system promptly activated, deploying the onboard parachute from its containment tube with precision. The uncrewed aircraft (UA) experienced a descent of approximately 20 meters, resulting in a slowed descent rate of 4.9 meters per second before it struck grassy terrain and came to rest, inverted, near a public footpath. Upon activation of the Emergency Response Plan, the Operator’s personnel promptly traveled to the accident site.
The unmanned aerial vehicle (UA) was video recorded on-site and then successfully recovered at the Operator’s base.
Accidents to Individuals
As the individual familiar with the investigation recounted, they were tending to their back garden when suddenly, they were struck by an object they suspected to be a fragment of a drone’s propeller. Unbeknownst to him, his routine gardening activity had just led to the unexpected discovery of something previously unknown? He reported sustaining a minor head injury, which did not necessitate either stitches or hospitalization. The individual provided an image that purportedly showed the object he claimed struck his head during the investigation.
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