Mid-Atlantic Diversion

Les Abend

Tuesday, June 07, 2011 at 06:06 PM ET

Verified

777 Simulator

Key Takeaways:

A routine oceanic flight quickly escalated into an emergency with an "amber fuel imbalance" message, diagnosed as a fuel leak from the right engine requiring an immediate shutdown.
The flight crew meticulously followed ETOPS procedures, making critical decisions such as selecting Keflavik as an alternate, initiating a 15-mile track offset, and managing a controlled drift-down and fuel dumping.
This high-stakes scenario, emphasizing rigorous checklists, crew coordination, and decisive action under pressure, was a highly realistic simulator training event, reflecting actual real-world incidents.

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(June 2011) The captain had completed an entry of the navigation log after passing the previous oceanic waypoint. The FMS, utilizing a series of inertial navigation systems along with two GPS receivers, was tracking the assigned course to an accuracy that was no wider than the cockpit of the 777. The digital display of the altitude pointer indicated that the airplane had fluctuated no more than five feet. The ATC page of the comm screen verified that Shanwick Oceanic had automatically received the position report. No voice calls were required. Life was good.

Well … right up until the moment that the EICAS (engine instrument and crew alerting system) screen annunciated an amber message: “fuel imbalance.”