30 APR 2009 _______________________________________ *Jet makes emergency landing at Sea-Tac *Plane crashes in Democratic Republic of Congo *Weight error caused Australia plane scare *************************************** Jet makes emergency landing at Sea-Tac A Boeing 777 made an emergency landing Wednesday afternoon at Sea-Tac International Airport after blowing one of its two engines. Workers inspect an engine on an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 on Wednesday at Sea-Tac Airport after the plane made an emergency landing. Asiana Airlines flight 271, which was traveling from Sea-Tac to Incheon, South Korea, landed shortly before 3:30 p.m. The flight had taken off from Sea-Tac at 2:35 p.m. with 179 people on board, including the crew. The left engine had a problem shortly after takeoff, so crew shut it down and the plane was given priority to land ahead of about a half dozen aircraft at the airport, FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said. The plane made several long loops over Elliott Bay and dumped fuel, done to lighten its load in preparation for the emergency landing. The plane taxied to a gate under its own power. No injuries were reported and no part of the plane was on fire when it landed, Sea-Tac spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said. "There was a report of fire," she said. "A lot of times when an engine blows out it will flame out. That's probably what people saw." It was not immediately clear what caused the engine problem. The FAA is investigating and is expected to provide a report to the National Transportation Safety Board. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/405691_plane29.html?source=mypi *************** Plane crashes in Democratic Republic of Congo, crew fate unclear KINSHASA, April 29 (Reuters) - A Boeing 737 with two crew members on board crashed on Wednesday in Democratic Republic of Congo about 200 km (125 miles) from Kinshasa, a government official said. Richard Ndambu, governor of Bandundu province, said the aircraft had been flying from Central African Republic to Zimbabwe and crashed after a stopover in Congo Republic. "It was a 737 from Central African Republic that took off this morning from Bangui and made a stopover in Brazzaville and was then heading for Harare for a check," he told Reuters. "We don't yet know the name of the company. That is what we have learned from the control tower in Brazzaville." Godefroid Pindi, head of local radio in the town of Kenge, said the plane had gone down between Kenge and Nzasi in Bandundu province and that villagers had reported a large cloud of smoke. It was not known whether the crew survived the crash. "There were two people on board, the crew. Their documents were found at the site. There were no passengers," Ndambu said. According to the International Air Transport Association, Africa's air accident rate is six times worse than the rest of the world. An aid plane crashed into a mountain eastern Congo in September killing 17 people and a Congolese airliner crashed into a market district in the eastern city of Goma last April killing at least 40 people, mostly on the ground. (Reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by David Clarke) **************** Weight error caused Australia plane scare: officials SYDNEY (AFP) - Incorrect weight data on an in-flight computer caused the tail of an Emirates plane to scrape the runway during take-off from an Australian airport, according to officials. The Dubai-bound Airbus A340 was forced to make an emergency landing an hour after taking off last month at Melbourne airport when the crew received a tail strike alarm. Smoke began to enter the rear of the cabin as flight EK407 circled the airport for more than 30 minutes to dump fuel before landing safely and without any injuries. There were 257 passengers and 18 crew on board. A preliminary investigation by Australia's air safety regulator found that the weight was entered incorrectly into the onboard computer. "The result... was to produce a thrust setting and take-off reference speeds that were lower than those required for the aircraft?s actual weight," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said. The plane's tail was seriously damaged as the captain manually increased thruster pressure, scraping the rear fuselage along the tarmac and the grass verge beyond the runway. An internal Emirates investigation had prompted review in a number of areas, including the potential introduction of a double-entry system for flight computers "to protect against single data source entry error," the ATSB said. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hSN1g_UUaj8mQhE8XO0u5x0Vx vFQ ************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC