Washington, DC --The National Transportation Safety Board today issued two urgent recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration to address a safety issue concerning a failure that resulted in uncontrollable engine thrust in an Eclipse 500 airplane and the lack of emergency procedures developed for that failure.
The Safety Board recommended that the FAA should require immediate inspection of all Eclipse 500 airplane throttle quadrants to ensure that pushing the throttle levers against the maximum power stops will not result in an engine control failure, and that the FAA should further require that all units that fail inspection be replaced and replacement parts be similarly inspected.
On June 5, 2008, an Eclipse 500 airplane, N612KB, on approach to Chicago Midway Airport, experienced a failure that resulted in uncontrollable maximum power thrust from two Pratt and Whitney
Canada PW610F turbofan engines. After referencing the emergency procedures of the airplane’s quick reference handbook, the pilots shut down one of the engines.
However, following the shutdown of the engine, the other engine rolled back to idle power and continued to be unresponsive to the throttle. The pilots declared an emergency, were cleared to land on any runway and were able to land the plane without injury to the two pilots or two passengers.
This is why many people have loyality to established companies like Cessna and Cirrus. Honestly, it seems to me like its one thing after the other for Eclipse.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - An Albuquerque aviation manufacturer whose very light jet aircraft was harshly criticized for a mechanical problem said Tuesday it will improve its software to prevent another such occurrence.
The Federal Aviation Administration had ordered the immediate inspection of throttles on Eclipse Aviation Corp.'s Eclipse 500 plane earlier this month after one aircraft made an emergency landing in Chicago.
Eclipse determined that the engine failed when the aircraft’s throttles were pushed beyond the aircraft’s FAA-certified design limits.
Company president and chief executive Vern Raburn says an analysis of more than 12,000 hours of flight data found that two other aircraft had experienced a similar problem.
Raburn says Eclipse plans to increase the range limit of the throttle to prevent the fault condition, pending approval from the FAA.
Just read an article in AIN regarding the engine control issue. Raburn’s response? “It’s really easy to avoid…Don’t slam the throttle levers forward.” Nice…Very encouraging. BTW, throttle levers?!? Are we flying a model airplane or a jet?
Eclipse 400…Now, an Eclipse with 50% less engine failures!
Eclipse Contacts Owners on Updated Throttle AD
The FAA issued a new AD on the Eclipse 500 throttle quadrant, clarifying compliance procedures. The new AD supersedes the emergency AD issued June 12 following an incident in which an Eclipse pilot pushed the throttle levers through the stops, and the engines stuck at full power. Eclipse has issued a service bulletin advising owners how to comply with the updated AD. Under the previous AD, operators were required to test the throttle quadrants for obvious friction. The new AD is more comprehensive, and those who had completed the original tests will have up to 60 days to comply with its remaining elements. Those who had not completed the tests outlined in the June 12 AD will have 30 days to comply with the new one. Eclipse says it is working on a software amendment to preclude any such uncommanded throttle input, and expects the software upgrade to be available early in the last quarter of this year.
