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Emergency landing of a government aircraft: total loss at the Chancellor's Jet

2019-09-03T11:19:35.395Z


The dramatic emergency landing of a government flyer has consequences. According to SPIEGEL information, the manufacturer diagnosed a total loss to the "Global5000". The Bundeswehr will have to disembark the jet.



After the dramatic emergency landing of a government aircraft in April, the Bundeswehr has to decommission the "Global5000" aircraft. According to SPIEGEL information, the manufacturer recently informed the Inspector General of the German Armed Forces that a total loss of the jet is present. According to the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, the repair costs would be significantly higher than the market value of the jet due to the considerable damage to the wings and landing gear.

Serious defects

The jet with the military ID 14 + 01 was on 16 April for a test flight after a routine inspection at Bombardier in Berlin-Schönefeld lifted. Shortly after the start, the pilots lost control, as an important part of the control had been installed incorrectly during the repair. In the risky emergency landing, the "Global" first missed the runway, both wings touched the ground. Then the jet skidded across the lawn, rammed a sign and then came to a halt.

Video: Planespotter photographs emergency landing (17.04.2019)

Video

Marcel Russ

In the four months since, technicians have been causing serious damage to the "Global". The market value of the jet, which is part of the government fleet since 2011, estimated Bombardier at eight to eleven million euros. A repair would be more expensive, because three of the four spars would have to be replaced for suspension of the wings and the complete suspension. Such a major overhaul would also be risky, since many components for the "global" are no longer available.

In the Ministry of Defense, the experts plead for the cost estimate for knocking out the damaged jet. Away from the question of economy experts consider a repair to be impracticable. Accordingly, the jet would have to be serviced at a much shorter intervals after such a repair than the other aviators. For the heavily used fleet of government aircraft such an aircraft would hardly be useful, the assessment.

Who is responsible for the damage?

Interesting is now the question of who will pay for the damage to the government aircraft. The manufacturer Bombardier has admitted that his technicians in Berlin-Schoenefeld have installed a crucial component in the cockpit, in the flier jargon "torque tube assembly" incorrectly. The component is central to the controller. Simplified, there are pilot commands from the pilot to the rudder and the spoilers on the wings on.

The faulty installation had dramatic consequences: the flaps on the wings reacted reversed due to the error, the pilots lost control, at times they went into such steep turns that the machine was loaded with centrifugal forces of over 5 G and a stall threatened. In industrial circles it was said that Bombardier will probably have to pay the total loss due to the installation error, but is insured for such cases.

The failure of the machine is a renewed setback for the puny and pitch-battered flying readiness of the Bundeswehr. The three "globals" of the so-called "White Fleet" are very much in use for the German and European appointments of the Federal Cabinet, especially Chancellor Angela Merkel likes to use the small jets regularly. A machine damaged by an airport vehicle of the same type had recently come out of repair.

Bundeswehr holds on to the Lufthansa subsidiary as a maintenance company

Nevertheless, the Air Force can hope for a remedy, even before the summer break had ordered three new medium-range machines. Bombardier's first jet, a "Global6000", is already being tested in Canada and will be handed over to the Bundeswehr this week. Two more are expected later this year. The new "Globals" initially come in a business configuration and will later be retrofitted with VIP cabins and corresponding security systems.

Despite the many publicity breakdowns, the Bundeswehr wants to stick to Lufthansa as the only maintenance company for the government jets. After a series of flight cancellations, most notably Chancellor Merkel's run-down to the 2018 G20 summit in Buenos Aires in 2018, then Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen had ordered an investigation into whether Lufthansa Technik's basic maintenance problems existed Daughter of the group.

The examinations are "largely completed" according to confidential papers from the Ministry of Defense. The investigations had identified "no systemic repair problems". Now stands "the assurance of break-free information relations between user, maintenance enterprise and aircraft manufacturer" in the foreground. For the Bundeswehr, it says that Lufthansa Technik has been made very clear that there should be no further breakdowns.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-09-03

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