A B747-400 EICAS alerted hydraulic qty 4 low and fuel imbalance 2/3 at gear retraction. An emergency...

Narrative:

Flight was delayed with maintenance issues :50 at the gate. GPS left failure and no rvsm EICAS message appeared. Also emergency exit light switch guard was broken. Maintenance repaired all items. Status message #4 fuel pump was shown in computer but could not be erased by maintenance. Just at gear retraction on climb out fuel imbalance 2/3 and hydraulic quantity 4 low EICAS message appeared. Aircraft climbed to 27000 feet and checklists were accomplished. Dispatch and maintenance were notified then captain declared an emergency. Aircraft dumped 64000 # of fuel. Flight attendants were notified for a return to the departure airport. During the return flight attendants contacted captain about fuel odors coming from the right side of the aircraft. Dispatch was again notified and prepared for a possible emergency landing at a diversion airport now 80 miles ahead. Aircraft continued to the departure airport with and emergency landing. After landing flight went immediately to the runup pad and was met by fire personnel for an inspection. There was slight fuel dripping from the rh wheel well and picked up on the fire personnel test equipment. Maintenance and the duty manager were contacted at the gate. Gear monitor status message appeared on the status page. 391 sob on the aircraft. All checklists were accomplished as normal as published; but checklists and training on these hydraulic emergency procedures are non-existent on a pc or pt. Information in the B747 manual about emergency landing distance lengths are not specific. Dispatch was not able to provide landing distance lengths for departure and diversion airports because of the performance computer programs and had to be guessed with and figured by the captain. During the running of the emergency procedure checklists and dumping fuel an ACARS message appeared showing that the crew was to deadhead on a flight leaving in 2 hours. This was a very improper procedure and caused additional stress while the crew was trying to handle an emergency action.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B747-400 EICAS alerted HYD QTY 4 LOW and FUEL IMBALANCE 2/3 at gear retraction. An emergency was declared; fuel dumped and as an emergency return was planned the flight attendants called about fuel fumes in the cabin.

Narrative: Flight was delayed with maintenance issues :50 at the gate. GPS left failure and NO RVSM EICAS message appeared. Also emergency exit light switch guard was broken. Maintenance repaired all items. Status message #4 fuel pump was shown in computer but could not be erased by maintenance. Just at gear retraction on climb out Fuel Imbalance 2/3 and HYD Quantity 4 LOW EICAS message appeared. Aircraft climbed to 27000 feet and checklists were accomplished. Dispatch and maintenance were notified then Captain declared an emergency. Aircraft dumped 64000 # of fuel. Flight attendants were notified for a return to the departure airport. During the return flight attendants contacted Captain about fuel odors coming from the right side of the aircraft. Dispatch was again notified and prepared for a possible emergency landing at a diversion airport now 80 miles ahead. Aircraft continued to the departure airport with and emergency landing. After landing flight went immediately to the runup pad and was met by fire personnel for an inspection. There was slight fuel dripping from the RH wheel well and picked up on the fire personnel test equipment. Maintenance and the Duty Manager were contacted at the gate. Gear monitor status message appeared on the status page. 391 SOB on the aircraft. All checklists were accomplished as normal as published; but checklists and training on these hydraulic emergency procedures are non-existent on a PC or PT. Information in the B747 manual about emergency landing distance lengths are not specific. Dispatch was not able to provide landing distance lengths for departure and diversion airports because of the performance computer programs and had to be guessed with and figured by the Captain. During the running of the emergency procedure checklists and dumping fuel an ACARS message appeared showing that the crew was to deadhead on a flight leaving in 2 hours. This was a very improper procedure and caused additional stress while the crew was trying to handle an emergency action.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	958048
Time
Date	201107
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B747-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing Initial Climb Final Approach Climb Takeoff
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 26000 Flight Crew Type 6000
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 24000 Flight Crew Type 8000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

A B747-400 EICAS alerted hydraulic qty 4 low and fuel imbalance 2/3 at gear retraction. An emergency was declared; fuel dumped and as an emergency return was planned the flight attendants called about fuel fumes in the cabin.