Coverage of the story wasdeemed insulting to Moslem Arabs, which explains why news of this incident is just coming out.
The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passengerairplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse, France without a singlehour of airtime. Enter the Arab flightcrew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests onthe ground, such as engine runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in AbuDhabi.
The date was November 15, 2007.
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Thenthey took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually emptyaircraft. Not having read the run-upmanuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn wasblaring away in the cockpit because they had all 4 engines at full power. Theaircraft computers thought they were trying to takeoff but it had not beenconfigured properly (flaps/slats, etc.) Then one of the ADAT crew decided topull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensorto silence the alarm.
This fools the aircraft intothinking it is in the air.
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