Description

On 8 February 2005 an Airbus A340-600 (G-VATL) being operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways on a scheduled international passenger flight from Hong Kong to London with an augmented crew was en-route in Dutch airspace when the No 1 and No 4 engines ran down in quick succession due to fuel starvation. Only the No 4 engine could be restarted and in view of uncertainty about fuel transfer status, a MAYDAY was declared and a diversion to Amsterdam was then completed on three engines without further event.   

Investigation

After delegation of responsibility for an investigation by the Netherlands as the State of Occurrence to the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), it was determined that the event had been sufficiently serious to warrant a ‘Major Investigation’ and the issue of a Formal Report upon its conclusion.

Both the FDR and CVR were successfully replayed at the AAIB and FDR data was available for the entire flight and the two hour CVR contained recorded date commencing about half an hour before the rundown of the first engine and continuing until after landing. A QAR was also installed on the aircraft and would normally have recorded the same data as the FDR but was found to not to have done so because it was full to capacity prior to the event occurring.