QF32

by Richard de Crespigny

  I didn’t pass.

  APPENDICES

  Appendix 1

  Letters and Emails Richard received from Passengers on QF32

  SMSs

  Adrian Freer, 31 December 2010

  I would like to take this opportunity in wishing you and your family a happy new year. I was on board the QF32 flight with my partner and our two young sons. We are ever so grateful for what you did that day and myself and my family thank you for that. Again good luck and god bless you.

  (Footnote: Richard also received an invitation to Adrian’s wedding in the UK in December 2011 – unfortunately Richard was not able to attend.)

  Dr Derwyn and Carolyn Jones, 5 November 2010

  Now that we have had more opportunity to process more of what happened to us we have become increasingly aware of the high level of professionalism and competency you demonstrated at a highly volatile time – we just want to thank you personally at the most profound level for all you did for us.

  Mick, 4 November 2010

  Great job. Earned your stripes today. Thanks

  Mick, 3 December 2010

  Rich, owe you a beer. Just read the Preliminary Investigators Report. Thanks for allowing me to spend Xmas with my family this year.

  Patricia Giller, 6 November 2010

  I would like to thank you for your efforts on Thursday. Although I know you would say you were doing your job, you did it with absolute professionalism. Your grace & patience were very much appreciated.

  Claire Ryan, 4 November 2010

  Hi Captain Richard. I was on your flight today and wanted to thank you for getting us back safely. Your communication was great along with the fantastic cabin crew in my area.

  Claire Ryan, 1 January 2011

  Thank you so much for your message and a very happy new year to you too. I can’t thank you enough for getting us all down safely. I was in seat 74A and could see everything happening out the window, but with your constant and calming communication it helped to keep the panic at bay. I wish you a year of safe travels.

  Prue Carlton, 7 November 2010

  I was on the QF32 on Thursday, just want to say thank you for the fantastic job you did getting us back safe and keeping us informed.

  Letters

  Dear Captain Richard,

  I was a passenger on QF32 Singapore – Sydney on 4th November.

  I would like to firstly, thank you very much indeed for your incredible skill in bringing QF32 safely back to Singapore and secondly for your graciousness in returning my phone call, on my query regarding the length of our wait back on the ground.

  You showed amazing gifts by keeping the passengers calm, as well as informed of the circumstances.

  With that number of passengers – it was most surprising that there was no audible panic – and that can be credited to your tone of voice. You were rightly credited in the newspapers as being a hero.

  It was especially considerate of you to come to the Boarding Area for that length of time to answer questions, when your expertise and presence would have been needed with the technical staff – and most thoughtful going ‘beyond the call of duty’ to give us your mobile number for any further questions.

  I am visiting my daughter here in Sydney and return to Dublin on Tuesday. Thank you again for your gifts and skill in the safe return landing without injury or loss of life – and also for your kindness. With all good wishes to you.

  Marion Carroll

  Dear Captain de Crespigny and the crew of QF32.

  My name is Lee Cavanagh and I was a passenger on QF32 on 4 November 2010. I just wanted to say thank you to you and your crew for getting us safely back on the ground last Thursday.

  Even though it was a very serious situation, you and your crew managed to keep us all informed and calm. I will try and forget the events of 4 Nov, however, I will never forget how you and your crew saved the lives of 465 people. I am scheduled to fly on the A380 in January, and hope that you will be at the wheel!

  Best wishes to you and your family,

  Regards Lee Cavanagh (20J)

  December 6 2010

  Dear Captain Richard,

  I fly (a lot) for my work and I ‘happened’ to be on QF32 out of Singapore on Nov 4.

  When the latest Australian Air Safety report was released last week I felt it was high time I wrote to tell you how grateful I am to you. Actually I need to add – I’m also expressing the gratitude of my wife, my family, and my friends. Nov 4 was my daughter’s birthday – hard to imagine how she would ever again have been able to celebrate that day if I and the rest of us on board the Airbus had ended up in a heap on a lonely Indonesian island!

  My thanks is not just for the skill which you obviously demonstrated in managing to land our ‘flying wreck.’ I also want to thank you for the hundreds of hours you must have spent in the flight simulator to fully prepare you for the unexpected. As I recall, you told us you went into the simulator every three months and you always came out sweating. It’s that sheer effort and energy expended on our behalf that I am very grateful for. You also displayed great sensitivity to your passengers’ feelings by reporting to us so regularly via the plane intercom and also coming to speak to us personally on the plane and in the Changi airport gate lounge.

  Although I live in New Zealand I have flown Qantas by choice for over twenty years. I think I will continue to do so although my wife is not so convinced. However if we ever have another incident in flight I will call up your personal mobile phone number which you gave to us in Changi airport and ask for your assistance!

  I don’t know how Qantas has rewarded you for the way you handled that event. I hope they give you a big bonus and an all expenses paid holiday to wherever you and your wife want to go in the world! Feel free to let me know if they haven’t done something really nice for you and I will take it up with your CEO.

  I do wish you, your wife, and family a wonderful blessed Christmas and happy New Year.

  With kind and very grateful regards,

  John A. Watson

  08 November 2010

  Dear Mr. Champion de Crespigny,

  I would like to thank you for your very professional, well-considered and peaceful action at the very serious incident of the A380 on 04.11.2010. The most important and best thing I have, my daughter Alina, was on board and sat right on the window next to the destroyed engine. She was scared to death and cried all the time. You and your crew is due to the fact that no panic broke out.

  Thanks again

  I wish you all the best, especially health

  Thomas Hinzpeter

  4th November 2011

  Dear Captain de Crespigny

  Qantas Flight QF32 – November 4th 2010

  As two of the passengers on board the QF32 flight on that memorable day of November 4th 2010 and its emergency landing at Changi airport in Singapore – we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you, your fellow pilots, your crew and all the ancillary services who worked together so seamlessly to produce an eventual safe landing for all the passengers on board. Our special thanks go to you, for spear-heading the operation on the flight on that particular day. It has subsequently become clear that, without your clear minded and focused decision-making strategies, the final outcome would have been likely to have been very different.

  There is a public perception of the pilots who routinely inhabit our skies as being – in a sense – disembodied entities in which we entrust our lives from time to time. We take for granted the expertise and wisdom that the flight deck team are expected to possess. Our long held perceptions changed dramatically on that fine day one year ago. We had never felt so consciously dependent on the judgement, skills and expertise of pilots in our lives before. Since that time we have become aware that the successful outcome of this critical event was also facilitated by a wide range of other personnel from several countries who worked collectively and collaboratively in bringing the flight safely to ground. It appears that the number of these personnel
could well be in excess of 1,000 individuals overall who rallied to the aid of our particular flight by the time we landed – if the security, maintenance and emergency response teams are included.

  In particular, we want to express our gratitude and admiration to those heroic fire fighters on the ground who risked their lives for us in dire circumstances. We were amongst the relatively few passengers who had a clear view of the precise circumstances in which these people were operating, and we could appreciate firsthand how close we had all come to being reduced to ashes. Words would be inadequate to thank them for the contribution they made in saving so many of our lives. Whilst it would be impossible to extend our gratitude personally to all these people and agencies involved in our plight, the contribution of each and every one of them in relation to the safety of the flying public should never be minimised. As the anniversary of our flight passes, we remain acutely aware of our ongoing debt to them for the skill, professionalism and humanity they each exercised for our benefit.

  Aside from all these pivotal people, and the formidably impressive track record of aviation experience of the co-pilots on board with you, it needs to be documented that you – Captain Champion de Crespigny – provided the senior leadership and facilitated the effective alignment of communication between yourself and the crew. We wish to document our own debt of gratitude to you as the key individual who lead the enterprise, and for your faultless professionalism whilst managing a potentially dire situation. From the moment the engine exploded, through to our safe landing and beyond, you showed us an exemplary level of care and consideration, whilst managing the situation with great expertise. With the passage of time, and with the knowledge we have subsequently gained about the extent of the systems failures and difficulties you and your crew were experiencing, we can only marvel at your achievement.

  We were particularly amazed that you should speak to us so soon after landing in the transit lounge of the airport, and felt it showed an extraordinary level of care and concern for our well being on your part. What you did that day went above and beyond what any passenger could expect of a pilot – even within the stringent boundaries set by the aviation industry. Your personal leadership – both on the flight itself and afterwards – came across to us, as passengers, as being very personal and compassionate in a potentially threatening and highly technical environment, as the significance of the events we had experienced rapidly began to unfold before us. Furthermore, you took the unprecedented step of giving us all the opportunity to record your personal mobile number so that we had an ongoing point of contact with you if we needed to ask you any further questions in the future. We felt that this was a uniquely humanitarian gesture – the value of which should not be underestimated.

  As passengers, we were treated exceptionally well by Qantas Airlines throughout our ordeal. We can only hope that the senior personnel within the organisation will afford you and your crew the same care, consideration and recognition of your remarkable collective achievement. In our opinion each of the many individuals involved in this critical event deserves commendation – even though there are so many of them. Nevertheless, you were the lead pilot who signed off the plane that day and the individual who took responsibility for it. You provided unique, personal and ongoing attention to your passengers and – in doing this in your own distinct way – provided a singularly caring and pivotally human interface for Qantas.

  We trust you and your crew will get the recognition you so richly deserve in your exemplary management of this crisis. This could provide Qantas with a unique opportunity to publicly proclaim and amplify the high level of professionalism of so many individuals within their organisation for the benefit of the comfort, convenience and safety of the flying public ­everywhere – whilst at the same time recognising and acknowledging the contribution of the diverse range of people and agencies who played a pivotal role in averting a potentially catastrophic disaster.

  With kindest regards,

  Derwyn F. Jones Carolyn M. Jones

  Appendix 2

  A380 Specifications

  Additional information is provided at http://QF32.Aero

  Electrical Power Sources (910 kVA)

  4× Engine Driven Variable Frequency Generators (115VAC, 150 kVA each)

  2× APU Generators (115VAC, 400Hz, 120 kVA each)

  1× Ram Air Turbine (powers 70 kVA generator)

  4× 50 Ah NiCad Batteries

  Flight Controls Surfaces (52)

  6 Ailerons (bank control)

  2 Rudders (yaw control), 4 Elevators (pitch control)

  2 Trimmable Horizontal Stabilisers

  12 Slats (extra lift)

  4 Droop-nose panels (extra lift)

  6 Flaps (extra lift)

  16 Spoilers (spoil lift)

  Independent Yellow and Green 5000 psi hydraulic systems

  Two independent electric backup systems.

  RB211 – Trent 900 Trivia

  8 seconds – the time for the four engines at take-off thrust to exhaust all the air that is breathed by a person throughout their 100 year life.

  7.6 million – The number of people needed (blowing out a candle over a one-second period) to produce the thrust of the Trent 900 at maximum (72,000 lb) thrust.

  98 billion, or 15 times world population! – The number of people’s energy (blowing out a candle over a one-second period) that must be harvested to equal the kinetic energy of an A380 flying at 500 knots.

  1000 beats per minute – the heart rate of a hummingbird.

  Acknowledgements

  Of all the people who assisted during our crisis in the air, I owe the most profound gratitude to Matt, Mark, Harry and Dave, and to Michael von Reth and his cabin crew for their overwhelmingly remarkable accomplishments that day. Everyone worked ‘outside the square’ that day, defiantly staring down adversity, and everyone performed brilliantly. Many people train for disasters yet few are ever challenged to put that training into practice. I hope everyone on the team can take comfort in the knowledge that they have been stressed to the max, managed themselves through an incident that was one million times less probable than the most stringent aviation certification requirement, and performed exceptionally and lived to tell the tale. Life’s other challenges should be easy after this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart – we share a common bond and I shall always be indebted to you.

  The professional pilot’s job is a life’s quest. Family, friends, colleagues and industry experts have mentored and morphed me into my current form. My deepest knowledge came from my decade of research for my (next) technical pilots’ book about big jets. My search for knowledge took me to all corners of the industry, giving me confidence to remain calm during the events on 4 November 2010. To all of you, thank you:

  Airbus: Wolfgang Absmeier, Richard Carcaillet, Ann de Crozals, Tom Enders, Claude Lelaie, Frank Ogilvie, Terry Lutz, Stephane Vaux and Pascal Verneau.

  Artists and photography: Lee Gatland and Jaak de Koninck.

  Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

  Boeing: Dave Carbaugh, Bill Roberson and Frank Santoni.

  Family: Coral, Peter, Mariea, Michael, Alexander, Sophia, David and Rafe Champion de Crespigny. Roy and Betty Ford. Simon, Julie, Alexandra, Erin, Kirsten, and India Ford.

  Pilots: Neil Armstrong, John Bartells, Martin Buddery, Jimmy Buffett, Dave Cassebohm, Peter Cleary, Murray Crockett, Eddie Foo, Ben Holland, Christopher Orlebar, Steve Padgett, John Pickhaver, David Princehorn, Duncan Pudney, Bruce Simpson, Bob Small, Mike Sterling, Sully Sullenberger, Kevin Sullivan, Warwick Tainton, Peter Wilson, Richard Woodward and Steve Wright.

  Mentors and support: John Connolly, Brent Espeland, Peter Ford, John and Nick Fordham, Peter Harbison, Sally Loane, Stewart McAlister, Larry Robertson, Sir Ninian and Lady Stephen.

  Qantas: Doug Alley, Tim Gent, Alan Joyce, Paul Kirby, Alan Milne, Wes Nobelius, Alan Rowlandson, Ros Wheatley, Olivia Wirth and Tom Woodward.

  Media: Steve Creedy, Christine Negroni, Andy Paszto
r, Paul Sadler, Elisabeth Sexton, Stephen Taylor and Geoffrey Thomas.

  Passengers: Prue Carlton, Marion Carroll, Lee Cavanesh, Adrian Freer, Johanna Friis, Patricia Giller, Thomas Hinzpeter, Carolyn and Derwyn Jones, Claire Ryan, Maja Stenegard, Ulf Waschbusch and John Watson.

  Publishers: Mark Abernethy, Jace Armstrong, Catherine Drayton, Tom Gilliatt and Emma Rafferty.

  Research: Dr Paul Barach, Carl Bergman, Jan Chesterfield-Evans, Dr Leo Davies, Mitzie Derks, Geof Fethers, Bob Hawke, Andy Schuster, Sir David Smith and Gayla Solomon.

  Rolls-Royce: Simon Beevers, Andrew Dudgeon.

  Special thanks to Peter Ford and Sally Loane for not only helping with editing this book, but also for the many hours spent tutoring and mentoring Coral and me for the press and media.

  For More Information

  For more information about flight QF32, please visit

  http://QF32.Aero

  For a Glossary of Terms, please visit

  http://QF32.Aero, glossary.

  A Note from the Author

  About Big Jets

  My other book is a technical guide to the new big jets A320 up to the A380, and the B737 up to the 747-8. The book will suit pilots studying for a career in the airlines as well as providing current pilots with in-depth analysis of human factors and new technologies, such as fly-by-wire and modern aircraft design and performance.

  To register your interest or suggestions for the book and receive updates, please visit http://QF32.Aero