Airbus 340-600

This brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest
passenger airplane ever built, sits just outside its hangar
in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime.

Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies
(ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as
engine run-ups prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi.
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.

Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a
virtually empty aircraft. Not having Read the run-up
manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty
A340-600 really is.

The Takeoff Warning Horn was blaring away in the cockpit
because they had All four engines at full power.
The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off,
but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc..)

Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit
breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm.
This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air.

The computers automatically released all the brakes
and set the aircraft rocketing forward.

The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature
so that pilots can't land with the brakes on. Not one of the
seven senior pilots had Read the run-up manuals.

Not one member of the seven-man crew throttled back
the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million
brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totaling it.

The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown due to the
news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere.

But finally, the photos started to leak out.

Airbus $200 million aircraft meets retaining wall and the wall wins.