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This 747 lost all electrical power. Was this too close to a total disaster in this day & age?
Sydney Morning Herald
A QANTAS mid-air electrical failure near Bangkok on Monday is set to prompt a worldwide alert to Boeing 747 operators after the problem was traced to a cracked drip tray under the first-class galley.
Qantas yesterday began a fleet-wide check of its other jumbo jets after the aircraft was forced to land on Monday using battery back-up because water leaking from the tray shorted out a generator control unit.
The problem struck the aircraft, flying from London with 344 passengers, about 15 minutes from Bangkok, killing the passenger cabin lights but leaving essential functions running in the cockpit.
Qantas executive general manager, engineering, David Cox said: "It was just like tipping a glass of water into your stereo.
"It is not a good thing for that sort of equipment to have happen to it."
The short-circuit deprived the aircraft of all or most of its main electrical power and left it on an emergency system designed to provide back-up f
In the event of a total electrical failure where all generators fail, APU doesn't come on-line, and the pilots never conserve power and completely drain the main batteries down... the engines will still run (even full FADEC systems have individual and separate permanent alternators for HFCU operation), the hydraulic controls will still work etc... basically the plane will fly normally.
Instrumentation will be limited in the cockpit, but the regs require a third attitude indicator powered by an independent system for just that reason. Standby pitot/static bypass the Air Data Computers and basically you're flying a big C-152 at that point instrumentation wise. What does this mean? Probably want to find good weather and make a visual approach and landing.
It will be dark in the back but so what, there's not even a remote reason to consider "ditching"! That's the media for you.
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