On Sat, 5 Oct 1996 15:33:29 -0700, "V. Venkatesh"
[email protected] wrote:

Came across an article on the Martinair 767-300ER EFIS failure in Flight
International mag. 5-11 June 96. It said that the aircraft was flying from
Amsterdam to Orlando when all the flight instrument displays went blank.


Here is the NTSB Preliminary Report from the NTSB Web Site:

Here is the NTSB Preliminary Brief on that Incident obtained from the NTSB Web Site:

NTSB Identification: NYC96IA116


Scheduled 14 CFR 129 operation of MARTINAIR HOLLAND (D.B.A. MARTINAIR) 
Incident occurred MAY-28-96 at BOSTON, MA
Aircraft: Boeing 767-31AER, registration: PHMCH 
Injuries: 202 Uninjured. 


On May 28, 1996, at 1421 eastern daylight time, a Boeing 767-31AER,
PH-MCH, operated by Martinair Holland, as flight 631 received minor
damage during an unscheduled landing at Logan Airport, Boston,
Massachusetts. There were no injuries to the occupants, and visual
meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight which was destined for
Orlando, Florida, had departed Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, at 0649, and was operated under 14 CFR 129. The flight
crew reported that they had received several false system advisories
during the flight. The advisories would appear and then disappear
shortly thereafter, with no corrective action being taken. There was
no evidence that the actual airplane systems were being affected.
These advisories started shortly after the airplane had reached cruise
altitude, and continued at an intermittent rate throughout the flight.
In addition there were multiple uncommanded disconnects of the
auto-pilot. The transponder code window would suddenly display all
zeros, and there were changes to the zero fuel weight information
displayed on the EFIS. At one time, the airplane flew for about one
hour with no problems noted. At 1355, when the airplane was about 20
nm miles north of the Kennebunk VOR, Maine, the flight crew declared
an emergency due to loss of the EFIS cockpit displays and the inertial
navigation units, and requested to land at Boston. The flight crew
extended the wing leading edge slats, and received a split slat
indication. After checking that the available runway length was
adequate, for their configuration and weight, they decided not to
extend the wing flaps for landing. The spoilers were armed; however,
after touchdown, the flight crew had to manually extend the spoilers,
and was unable to engage the reverse thrust. During the ground roll,
all main landing gear tires were deflated. Four tires were deflated
due to locked brakes, and four tires were deflated due to melted fuse
plugs. The passengers were then deplaned with the aid of stairs. The
flight crew reported that they were not aware that the thrust
reversers, and anti-skid were inoperative, or that they would have to
manually deploy the spoilers, and that when deployed, only the flight
spoilers would be available. According to a representative from
Boeing, the fail safe mode for the air/ground circuitry was the air
mode. Once failed, there was no inflight reset capability. The
following systems were affected when the air/ground circuitry failed
to the air mode: Thrust reversers - Inoperative Engine Idle - Remained
at flight idle, did not go to ground idle Spoiler deployment - Flight
spoilers only, ground spoilers not available, manual deployment only,
no auto-deployment. Auto-braking - Not available Anti-skid - Partial
availability The failure of the air/ground logic circuit to the air
mode was displayed on the maintenance status page of the EICAS. It was
not displayed as a warning, caution, or advisory. There were no
messages that the individual systems were either inoperative or
working with degraded performance. The airplane was examined and
ground runs were made with the electrical system in both the ground
mode, and flight mode. The failures have not been reproduced. On June
2, 1996, the airplane was moved to the Boeing plant, in Everett,
Washington, for continuation of the investigation. No anomalies were
reported from the flight.