Emirates Airline (Dubai) nearly lost an Airbus A340-500 in Melbourne in March 2009 according to an upcoming Australian safety report. Flight EK 407 was taking off from MEL with 257 passengers and 18 crew bound for Dubai. The A340-500 narrowly cleared the perimeter fence and was so low it was lost from the departure radar screen as the crew struggled to gain altitude. The tower air traffic controllers lost visual sight of the aircraft as the aircraft’s lights merged into the city lights due to the low altitude. The crew entered the wrong weight of the aircraft, an error of 100 tones. In reality the airliner was 100 tons over gross weight. The Australian Safety Transport Board is expected to formally issue the report at the end of October.
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www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6832724.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
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Good grief, that’s a serious mistake!! What ever happened to double checking the data you’ve input. Very scary that they made this mistake.