Qantas 787 crosses the Pacific with tape over engine cowl fan static ports

[ChasenSFO]

A Boeing 787 being used for a freight flight flew from Melbourne to Los Angeles with tape over four of its static ports, a new ATSB investigation report details.

After the Qantas 787-9 aircraft, registered VH-ZNJ, landed in Los Angeles on the morning of 22 September 2021, a Qantas engineer found tape covering the four static ports on the aircraft’s engine fan cowls.

Static ports provide important air pressure data to aircraft systems. Boeing recommends they be covered, to avoid contamination, when the aircraft is parked for periods up to 7 days, and Qantas incorporated this instruction into its ‘normal’ parking procedure.

The ATSB investigation details that on the day before the incident flight, an engineer undertook the parking procedure on the aircraft, which included covering the engine cowl static ports with ‘remove before flight’ barricade streamer tape.

“Later that day, another engineer was tasked to conduct the ‘restore’ procedure to return the aircraft to flight status,” ATSB Director Transport Safety Stuart Macleod explained.

“The tape on the engine fan cowls was not removed by that engineer, as per the manufacturer’s procedures, and this wasn’t identified by flight crew or dispatch during pre-departure checks.”

VH-ZNJ subsequently took off with the tape still on its engine fan cowl static ports.

“While the flight was uneventful, the covered ports meant redundancy for the engine electronic control system was reduced,” Mr Macleod noted.

News: Covered static ports

Crikey.

 

[fholbert]

Good tape, still there after a 15 hour flight.

 

[Beefy McGee]

Good walkaround, FO.

 

[Baronman]

Geez . Is that tape still leaving the port exposed? I see yellow tape, but is the red the port surface?

 

[Beefy McGee]

Geez . Is that tape still leaving the port exposed? I see yellow tape, but is the red the port surface?

Red tape on ports, yellow tape making sure red tape stays on. I'm guessing the red tape is low adhesive so it does not leave a residue as it is in direct contact with the ports. The yellow is a stronger tape that is not in contact with the ports.

 

[BobDDuck]

Good to know that those super high tech engines don't actually use any environmental data to run.

 

[Minuteman]

I am sure the engine was pissed-off the whole way, but newer engines don't have only built-in sense lines to the ECU/EEC for information. They can synthesize values from other sensors or fallback to values provided by the airframe.

Also, LOL @ using a 787-9 hours for freight-only at this point.

 

[mrivc211]

Good walkaround, FO.

We had an FO get fired at OO because they lost a MLG panel then flew another 3 flights without spotting it on the preflight

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

We had an FO get fired at OO because they lost a MLG panel then flew another 3 flights without spotting it on the preflight

We had a scraped wing tip at 9e that went through 3 crew swaps before someone noticed it.

 

[knot4u]

I worked at a place that had a Lear 36 scrape a tip tank in Denver badly enough that it was leaking. Pilot didn't say a word until he got back to Van Nuys. It got pretty awkward at that point. I think that was the first tip tank I ever removed.