MD-11 flight from Indianapolis to Anchorage. I was Memphis based and my F/O was Anchorage based. The jet had the #2 bleed air valve wired open (for some reason that I cannot remember at this time) On climbout, at about FL250, the aircraft announced a #2 Bleed Air Manifold Failure, followed shortly by a #2 Bleed Air High Temperature warning. After consulting the checklists, which didn't offer much guidance, I decided to shut down the number 2 engine, because we had no way of stopping the flow of super-heated air into the manifold.
We were over Chicago, when my F/O said: “I think we can still make Anchorage.” I’ve heard of get-home-itis before, but this was ridiculous. I mentioned that I’d like to keep my job for a little while longer, and because of that, we were going to land somewhere close. I asked him for wx at ORD as well as IND and MEM, to help us decide where we were going to set this puppy down. It was about 0830L in ORD and when the wx for IND came back as CAVU, I decided that we’d return to there, not wanting to disrupt the takeoff patterns at ORD, and we had to dump 50,000 of gas to get down to max landing weight anyway.
All was going to plan, when about 15 miles from the FAF, approach control mentioned that the weather had gone from clear to RVR’s. He then reported that the RVR’s for RW05R were 6/4/6. We still had plenty of fuel, so I asked for holding, and I mentioned to approach control that we needed 6/6/6 before we could begin the approach. As we were entering holding, app. Con. Issued a new wx report (surprise, surprise), RVR’s were now (magically 6/6/6), but not on 05R, only on 05L. The F/O was flying so I entered the new approach in the box and away we went. I had briefed an engine out CATIIIB, under captains emergency authority.
Everything worked as planned, except we never broke out. By that, I mean that the first time I saw any part of the earth, was when the nose wheel touched down. Thankfully everything worked as advertised and the jet tracked the centerline perfectly. I disconnected the autoflight at about 10 knots, and followed a turnoff line off the runway. From there it took us almost 40 minutes to taxi to our ramp. There was absolutely no visibility at all and the MD-11 has to oversteer on 90 degree turns to keep it on the taxiway. I was concerned that I'd not see the damn lines on the way back to centerline. Anyway, FedEx has a huge ramp in Indy, and when we finally turned off the taxiway and into our ramp area, we had to have a followme come out and lead us to our gate. Everything happened at about a half-mile an hour, and when we finally made it to the lead-in line, I continued ahead until the last second, when I finally saw the marshaller, who was on a ramp tower, lit wands in hand, signaling me. I don’t think he was 10 feet ahead of us when we finally saw him. After shutdown, the marshaller came up to the cockpit and said that he didn’t see us until the very last second and that he was thinking of jumping off the tower, because he didn’t know if we could stop in time to not hit him and then the building.
I know it's not a night trap,
but I gotta tell you, that was the scariest approach/landing/taxi-in, by far, in my entire career. And of course, my first officer was annoyed that he didn't get home that night.
JJ
04-28-2019
