KSFO ATC - PAN PAN PAN - China Airlines Boeing 747 Bird Stri

[Okgood 6]

A China Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter (flight CI-5107) from San Francisco to Taipei with 7 crew, was in the initial climb out of San Francisco's runway 28R, when just upon contacting departure and receiving instructions from ATC for further climb the crew declared PAN PAN PAN reporting a bird strike, that had taken out some of their flight instruments. The aircraft stopped the climb at 6000 feet, the crew indicated they were still considering how to proceed, there were no procedures for the faults. The crew decided to dump fuel and return to San Francisco (KSFO). The aircraft landed safely back on San Francisco's runway 28R about 75 minutes after departure. Both angle of attack probes were found to be damaged.

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Phew! Looks like the crew were actually doing the AVIATE part, closely followed by navigate and communicate.

No MCAS or elementary schools in sight... 

[Okgood 6]

Yeah. Must have been strange to not know what to do after having spent years following the procedures. I love the part where they said we'll get around to declaring an emergency at some point, which I took to mean they were quite busy trying to aviate.

[HighBypass 2,339]

At least she still wanted to fly. (The 747) Loss of some instruments doesn't necessarily make the aircraft aerodynamically unviable.

It's the situations where the plane definitely does NOT want to fly which don't bear thinking about.

[DavidP 1,408]

Power + Attitude = Performance. Works every time.