03nov00

THE Australian Transportation Safety Bureau has begun investigating an incident involving a China-Eastern Airbus A340 that swerved off a runway at Sydney Airport after it lost steering on Wednesday.

The ATSB said a Sydney-based investigator had made an initial assessment of the incident and would be joined by other specialist investigators.

Information from the aircraft flight data recorder will be analysed at the ATSB facility in Canberra.

Airport authorities said initial attempts to move the aircraft had been unsuccessful. It blocked the main north-south runway B 16 right B for more than eight hours.

To keep traffic flowing, operations continued on the east-west runway, and the parallel runways, with limited take-offs on 16R.

Airport spokesman Peter Gibbs said the incident caused a number of minor delays over an extended period.

"There were a number of long-haul flights, particularly to the US West Coast, that had to reschedule by taking a lighter fuel load and doing a one-hop trip via either New Zealand or Hawaii," he said.

One of the affected planes, Singapore Airlines SQ232, diverted to Brisbane after developing a generator fault but later continued its journey.

None of the 194 passengers and 16 crew was injured in the China Eastern incident, the most serious at the airport since the nose wheel of an Ansett 747 collapsed on landing five years ago.

The flight crew told air traffic controllers the plane's hydraulics were malfunctioning 15 minutes before it touched down at 11.48am (AEST).

The captain circled the city four times before landing, with airport firecrews following the Airbus down the main north-south runway.

Police and Sydney Airport Corporation staff said that as the jet was slowing, the nose wheel spun almost 180 degrees, forcing the jet on to a grass verge.

Passengers were kept on the plane for 30 minutes, later disembarking via mobile steps before being debriefed by airport staff for about three hours.

The arrival board simply listed "passengers delayed" next to the flight's details.

Outside the terminal, passengers said they were not advised that the plane was experiencing difficulties and were only told of a suspected hydraulics problem after the Airbus came to a halt.

Passengers complained that only those with mobile phones were able to reassure anxious relatives waiting outside.

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,1376141%5E421,00.html

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 02, 2000