BA 777 again - OT-

[chuckred]

Interested to know what happened, but reminds me of the "Right Stuff".

No doubt the pilots were on about "plan Z" by the time they successfully landed. All the while calmly telling the passengers - "umm... we have a little problem up here. NOthing to worry about. On the bright side, you'll enjoy the quiet ride for a while. Would you mind assuming the "brace position" when the flight attendants advise you? If you're seated by the emergency exit, you might want to enjoy our little pamphlet in the seat pocket. Will explain after we land..."

No doubt being a pilot is boredom for most of the time, but the ability to pull things off when all hell breaks loose makes any salaries a pittance.

Reminds me... wasn't it BA that continued to fly across the Atlantic after one of their engines on a 747 quit?

SAAB - hope your fights stay boring!

Getting ready to fly for 5 hours across the Pacific to a little speck of land on a twin engine Boeing 757... bad news is it will be -5 degrees in Denver on Monday, good news is it will be 75 degrees when we land in Kauai!!!

[Nick H.]

They only had about 45 seconds between losing power and landing. They were at 600 feet, two miles out, doing about 160 mph when the aircraft suddenly became a rather fat glider. Over an area of dense housing. So I don't think they had a whole lot of time to progress much past 'Plan B'!

Witnesses said the pilot looked 'a bit white' afterwards.

No warnings were given to the passengers, many of whom thought they had experienced nothing worse than a heavy landing. I expect they were a bit puzzled when they slid down the chutes to see that the undercarriage legs had punched right through the wings.

[Erik.Lazdins]

They all went home afterwards a tremendous result considering what could have happened.

[saab2000]

Today I had a boring day. Norfolk-New York La Guardia-Wilmington, NC. Followed by a 4 mile run and watching Survivorman on Discovery. :beer:

Did I mention that pilots are overpaid, underworked prima donnas? :rolleyes:

[Erik.Lazdins]

Did I mention that pilots are overpaid, underworked prima donnas? :rolleyes:

to all those that say a senior widebody pilot makes too much, there are many bordering on insolvency to keep their ratings up, teaching lessons - trying to keep the dream alive.

:beer:

[97CSI]

Today I had a boring day. Norfolk-New York La Guardia-Wilmington, NC. Followed by a 4 mile run and watching Survivorman on Discovery. :beer: My neighbor carries one of those folding bikes so he can ride on layovers. He is happy with it.

[saab2000]

My neighbor carries one of those folding bikes so he can ride on layovers. He is happy with it.

I have thought about it. But I prefer to get on with an airline which overnights in Zürich. Then I will keep a full-size bike there at my sister's house and ride there.

[stevep]

saab,
yr duty is to report back when this thing is figured out.
im curious as are many others..

[rwsaunders]

Old West Virginia flying joke.

On a trans-atlantic flight, the pilot came on the mike and indicated that one of the four engines on the plane was malfunctioning. "Not a problem", he said as there were three other functioning engines, but this would delay the flight by about an hour.

Later in the flight, the pilot indicated that a second engine was malfunctioning, but that the other two engines would be sufficient in keeping the aircraft flying. However, this incident would delay the flight by about another hour.

Two hours later, the pilot announced with concern, that the third engine was malfunctioning. Upon hearing this news, the West Virginian turned to the passenger next to him and said, "If we lose that fourth engine, we're liable to be up here all day."

[saab2000]

saab,
yr duty is to report back when this thing is figured out.
im curious as are many others..


When I know I'll let you know. There is lots of talking on the other fora at the moment. Facts are very muddy. If it had happened 10 seconds sooner we would be talking about a really bad situation. Close one this one.

[stevep]

is there some kind of a cut out that kicks in at 600 ' elevation?
that was mentioned today but i didnt really know what they meant.
since they were below 600' the back up did not work?
make any sense?

maybe this is nonsense...

[saab2000]

is there some kind of a cut out that kicks in at 600 ' elevation?
that was mentioned today but i didnt really know what they meant.
since they were below 600' the back up did not work?
make any sense?

maybe this is nonsense...

I don't fly a 777, but I also have no idea what this is. Larger airplanes today all have autothrottles. This will maintain a constant, preselected indicated airspeed. From what I have seen, and I don't have all the facts, is that the autothrottles called for a throttle adjustment (a completely normal adjustment, any type of wind gusts at all will cause a need for throttle adjustments) at about 600' altitude, about 2 miles from the runway threshhold, and the engines did not respond. The pilots should be able to override the autothrottles at any point. The crux of the investigation will center on:

1. Why the autothrottles did not respond to the command.
2. Why they could not be overridden.

This is a wildly simplified explanation of the issues at hand. The plane was probably being flown by hand at that altitude, but still with the A/T (autothrottles) engaged. At 2 NM miles out they would be flying about 130-140 knots depending on weight and flap configuration. That means they would have about 50 seconds from that point to a normal touchdown. They touched down about 1000 feet from the runway. Why? That's the golden question and Rolls-Royce and Boeing are working on that question right now.

[roman meal]

I'm sure that however unlikely, some folks are asking (or have a job that requires them to ask) whether it could be an attempt at terrorism through sabotage, or whatever- Can these things be rigged to cut out, and not respond to subsequent manual intervention?

[staggerwing]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here (http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html) is perhaps the all time greatest 'save' in commercial aviation.

[Louis]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here (http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html) is perhaps the all time greatest 'save' in commercial aviation.

Given what happened I find this to be unbelievable: "Air Canada Aircraft #604 was repaired sufficiently to be flown out of Gimli two days later."

[rounder]

I have lot's of respect for pilots. I have flown a fair enough amount of times but the one time that i remember most was flying from Chicago to Baltimore about 10 years ago. It was storming when we were about to land...the landing gear was lowered down. There was lightning all over. The plane elevated and we drove around in circles for about a half hour...then tried landing again. Same thing...lowered the landing gear to land but it was still storming and had to elevate again. Flew to Dulles in d.c. for fuel...flew back to Baltimore and landed safely.

The whole landing experience took about two hours...the passengers were all silent...but everyone was paying attention. When we finally landed, everyone applauded the pilots and crew. Good job.

[stevep]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here (http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html) is perhaps the all time greatest 'save' in commercial aviation.

aye, what a story.
remarkable.
those pilots must have collapsed after they were on teh ground

[BumbleBeeDave]

Just in case you haven't seen it, here (http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html) is perhaps the all time greatest 'save' in commercial aviation.

That is UNBELIEVABLE!

GREAT story! Thanks!

BBD

[GregL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

The Gimli glider incident was impressive, but it happened over land, during the day. The Air Transat incident took place at night, over the eastern Atlantic. I couldn't imagine gliding a powerless widebody jet, over water, at night, to an island runway.

Regards,
Greg