2009-05 · NASA ASRS report 836410
A320 flight crew reports green system hydraulic failure during climb out and the inability to turn off the PTU; this resulted in a yellow system overheat and the need to divert.
On climbout out passing about FL240 got ECAM 'G System Low Reservoir Level' indicating a loss of Green system hydraulic fluid. At that time Captain took ATC communications and engaged the autopilot. I took the responsibility to run the ECAM procedure. The procedure called for power transfer unit (PTU) off and number 1 engine hydraulic pump off. I switched both off; but noticed immediately that on the hydraulic page the PTU was still powered and trying to pressurize the green system. We were also aware of a faint strange noise coming from the cabin area that we attributed to the PTU still running. My immediate concern was for the overheating of the yellow system as I had heard of this situation happening to another crew in the past. I contacted Dispatch for a patch with Maintenance Control and after establishing contact and following direction of Maintenance Control I cycled the circuit breaker for the PTU without success. The PTU continued to run and shortly after that we got the 'Y system overheat' ECAM; directing us to turn the number 2 hydraulic pump off. At this point we lost both autopilots and got the 'Hydraulic G+Y Low Pressure' warning ECAM. This ECAM directs us to land as soon as possible. We checked with Dispatch and the weather was VFR and their long runway was open. At this point we were not certain of our landing configuration yet; as we hoped that we could perhaps lower the flaps after we turned the number 2 hydraulic pump back on after it cooled down. We decided to slow to 210KTS below 10;000FT and we tried to lower the flaps after turning on the 2 hydraulic pump when the overheat when away. The flaps did not come down and we got a 'Flap ECAM.' At this point we had leading edge devices down but no trailing flaps. I followed the procedures and guidance for the no-flap landing and briefed them to the Captain. We knew that we would have no flaps; high Vapp of 160KTS; no reverse; no antiskid and only accumulator brake pressure. We turned the Yellow pumps back off and turned these back on at 1000FT to perhaps help us brake on the ground. We had declared an emergency and vehicles were waiting on the ground on final after manual gear extension around 5000FT I briefed the passenger one more time on what we could expect during and after landing. The rest was uneventful. I started the APU on short final and after a good touchdown we waited as long as possible to apply brakes. We stopped 100FT before the end and shutdown.
During climb got green hydraulic low reservoir level ECAM. I kept flying and took ATC communications while First Officer ran ECAM. ECAM called for turning off hydraulic PTU. With switch off PTU continued to run. First Officer conferenced with Dispatch and Maintenance; pulling PTU circuit breaker; but PTU continued to run. This led to yellow system overheat and required turning off yellow hydraulic pump. Declared emergency. Diverted. Circled to complete checklists; confirm profile to fly; and to burn fuel to minimize landing weight and distance since we didn't have flaps; didn't have anti-skid; didn't have reversers; normal brakes or nose wheel steering. Stopped aircraft on runway; balancing distance remaining on runway with available brake accumulator pressure and concern over no anti-skid and brake temperatures to avoid tire failure.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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