VOCABULARY AND READING
Ex. 1. Before reading the occurrence description study the following word list. Listen to and repeat the words and sample sentences.
troubleshoot (v) найти и устранить неисправность, разрешить проблему
e.g. The pilots circled the aerodrome several times in an at- tempt to troubleshoot the undercarriage problem.
hub (n) центр, узел
e.g. An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a trans- fer point to get passengers to their intended destination.
assess ( v) оценивать, определять
e.g. The status of the landing gear was assessed from the ground by both ATC and engineering personnel as safe.
rotate ( v) вращать(ся)
e.g. Stay well away from the helicopter when its blades start to rotate.
take advantage of воспользоваться преимуществом
e.g. He took advantage of his job position.
mitigate ( v) ослаблять, смягчать
e.g. Since September 11, 2001 tough measures have been taken to mitigate the risks of unlawful interference in airlines operation.
substantially ( adv) существенно, в значительной степени
e.g. The tires are substantially damaged.
since ( conj) поскольку, так как
e.g. Since the aircraft was low on fuel they declared "fuel emergency".
spark ( n) искра
e.g. A spark ignited the fuel in the portside engine.
scrape ( v) скрести, задевать, соприкасаться
e.g. A tug towing a train of baggage carts scraped the fuse- lage skin.
therefore ( adv) поэтому
e.g. They decided to return to the departure aerodrome for emergency landing, therefore they made a 180 degree turn.
Ex. 2. Read the incident description.
JetBlue Airways Flight 292
JetBlue Airways Flight 292 was a scheduled flight from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. There were 140 passengers and six crew on board the Airbus A320.
After take-off the pilots realized that they could not retract the nose landing gear. Trying to troubleshoot the problem, they then made a low pass over Long
Beach Municipal Airport in Long Beach (the location of a JetBlue hub) to allow officials in the airport’s control tower to assess the damage to the landing gear be- fore attempting to land and it was found that the nose wheel was jammed and ro- tated ninety degrees to the left, perpendicular to the direction of the fuselage.
Rather than land at Long Beach Airport, the pilot-in-command took the deci- sion that the aircraft would land at Los Angeles International Airport, in order to take advantage of its long, wide runways and modern safety equipment.
The pilots flew the aircraft, which can carry up to 21,255 kg of aviation fuel, over the ocean between their departure aerodrome in Burbank and L.A. International air- port for more than two hours in order to burn out fuel and mitigate the risk of fire upon landing. This also served to lighten the plane, reducing potential stress on the landing gear and substantially lowering landing speed as well.
Since JetBlue planes are equipped with Direct TV satellite television, passen- gers on Flight 292 were able to watch their own life-and-death drama unfolding on live television while the plane circled over the Pacific for hours. The in-flight video system was turned off only before landing when the cabin crew ordered people to assume a crash position, putting their heads between their knees.
Emergency services and fire engines were standing by on the L.A. Interna- tional airport tarmac in advance of the landing. Although foam trucks were avail- able, they were not used as it was difficult to determine exactly where the runway needed to be foamed, and pre-foaming could also reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft's brakes, potentially causing it to slide off the runway.
The Airbus A320 pilot did an outstanding job. He kept the plane on its rear tires as long as he could before he brought the nose gear down. When the nose gear did touch down, there were sparks and flames from it, the tires tore off, leav- ing the metal gear scraping the runway for the final few yards, but no serious damage to the rest of the plane. The aircraft came to a stop very close to the end of the 3,382-meter runway 25L. In an attempt to keep the nose gear off the ground as long as possible, reverse thrust was not used to slow the aircraft. The pilots therefore used a much larger portion of the available runway than in a typical landing, stopping 305 m before the end of the runway.
The landing was smooth and no physical injuries were reported. The passen- gers escaped the aircraft via airstairs (emergency slides were not deployed).
Following the incident, the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
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