Does This Happen Often On Airplanes You Think?

[longtail]

a friend just sent me this e-mail what do you think and how often does this kind of thing happen and not go reported?

Hi kids I'm home,

Only just made it home....was pretty scary real life drama stuff...my plane from Bangkok heading to Syd developed an electrical controls problem after take off and apparently eventuated in a little flight deck fire etc etc etc and we did an emergency landing in Indonesia Bali - surprised it hasn't made the news I think British Airways are keeping it under wraps. The air crew were running in the aisles the last few minutes of landing and were checking life jackets with 20mins to go! Then plane was surrounded by fire trucks, police, ambulance etc....Didn't sleep for 2 days as after much drama they put us up in hotels in Bali (actually in a lovely resort!) and flew in a new jumbo from Singapore to collect us at 1am a day later and just got home after lunch Tuesday.So feeling a bit shattered. Luckily I sat next to a good guy on the plane so we hung out most of the time and will stay mates now,.... I think the fingernail marks I put in his arm as we were landing are still healing!

Take care,

K

[Soph]

Wow, thats super scary! Had I been on that flight, I think you could safely say I would probably be applying for Citizenship in Bali - certainly wouldnt ever dare fly anywhere again. Im worse enough on normal flights.

A friend told me that they once set off from Sydney to NZ and one of the engines failed, they had to make a round turn straight after take off and make an emergency landing.

I remember landing at Krabi airport, and after landing the plane ran down the runway making a horrible noise, then turned sideways - we ended up off the runway, on the grass, sideways on. Everyone on board was extremely shaken up, and when we got of the plane we saw that the tyre was flat. Was shaken up for days after.

I would imagine things go wrong lots more than we hear about - probably a good thing!

God, ive got to fly in 1 month

[soundman]

a friend just sent me this e-mail what do you think and how often does this kind of thing happen and not go reported?

Hi kids I'm home,

Only just made it home....was pretty scary real life drama stuff...my plane from Bangkok heading to Syd developed an electrical controls problem after take off and apparently eventuated in a little flight deck fire etc etc etc and we did an emergency landing in Indonesia Bali - surprised it hasn't made the news I think British Airways are keeping it under wraps. The air crew were running in the aisles the last few minutes of landing and were checking life jackets with 20mins to go! Then plane was surrounded by fire trucks, police, ambulance etc....Didn't sleep for 2 days as after much drama they put us up in hotels in Bali (actually in a lovely resort!) and flew in a new jumbo from Singapore to collect us at 1am a day later and just got home after lunch Tuesday.So feeling a bit shattered. Luckily I sat next to a good guy on the plane so we hung out most of the time and will stay mates now,.... I think the fingernail marks I put in his arm as we were landing are still healing!

Take care,

K

Don't know of the statistics on the subject. But stuff like this has happened to me on a few occasions.

1. Flying out of Alice Springs - Commercial Flight - Cargo door on B737 opened & mangled itself on takeoff. (not in the news)

2. Flying out of Adelaide - Commercial Flight - Small electrical fire and a small amount of smoke in Cabin (B737) (not in the news)

3. Flying in Central Australia - Piper Cherokee (My plane) - Stall detector and surrounding apperatus come loose & start flapping about on the wing. (not reported - maintenance sheet only)

4. Flying in Victoria - Piper Cherokee (My plane) Substancial electrical failure - (not reported - maintenance sheet only)

There are probably many in flight incidents that occur in flight that are serious but not overly threatening to a plane's safety that are not reported or even noticed by the passengers. The situation outlined by the OP sounds borderline - if it was major the flight crew would have flown over Chonburi, dumped the fuel, & then returned to BKK. All the fire trucks & life jackets are there, the staff will use them, lest somebody sue the airline for not performing due diligence during an emergency, even if it was not a major problem. Better safe than sorry. As to passenger confidence - thats a whole different kettle of fish.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[meom]

Couple of years ago I flew with Gulf Air from Bangkok to Muscat. While descending on approach to Muscat there was a big bang in the plane which got everybody's attention. Instead of descending the plane went up again and the pilot announced on the intercom that the landing gear had failed to go down so they had to fly out over sea to dump some fuel after which we would be making an emergency landing. That scared the shit out of a lot of people including myself and the situation on board got even more frantic with people all over the plane lighting up cigarettes and the stewardesses warning people not to smoke.

On approach everybody had to sit with their head on their knees and that's how the plane landed. Smoothest landing I had ever encountered so I guess they managed somehow to bring down the landing gear before we would be torn apart in a big splash of fire and burning flesh.

Everybody happy of course and smoking was no problem anymore.

[GuestHouse]

I think the thing to note here is that the crew obviously reacted to the fault and the aircraft did land safely.

All airlines suffer equipment faults, it is the response to the fault that makes the difference in safety.

And that comes down to training and procedure.

[lomatopo]

a friend just sent me this e-mail what do you think and how often does this kind of thing happen and not go reported?

What day did this flight depart? What was the flight number? (Answering my own questions: BA009 LHR-SYD 17th Feb)

I am not sure what you mean by "not go reported"? If you mean that newspapers, TV, bloggers have yet to report this story, then that is one thing, and you should ask them why they haven't reported on this story to your satisfaction. You should not assume, or infer, that BA is not following all required procedures for documenting this incident with the relevant internal and external authorities. With 300+ people on board BA really has zero incentive to try and hide anyhting.

First-hand, detailed report and comments here.

Quite frankly it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, and by all accounts BA dealt pretty well with the situation. I'd suggest your friend is maybe a novice flyer, or a bit afraid of flying and/or jet-lagged.

[soundman]

I think the thing to note here is that the crew obviously reacted to the fault and the aircraft did land safely.

All airlines suffer equipment faults, it is the response to the fault that makes the difference in safety.

And that comes down to training and procedure.

True words.

Things are always malfunctioning on planes.

Three words: Training, maintenance & redundancy.

Trust the pilot - trust the plane.

Soundman.

[britmaveric]

Apart from getting struck my lightening or turbulence - nought has really happened on an airplane and I hope it stays that way.

[Ulysses G.]

Apart from getting struck my lightening

That sounds PLENTY bad to me!

[Farma]

Lightning hit the wing on my flight as we were on finals coming into Don Muang a few years ago. Everyone gasped and my heart missed a beat. Even the captain commented on the strike. Landed safely though.

[lannarebirth]

I was on an 8 seater belly landing seaplane once in Akutan. While taxiing out to the sea ramp one of the engines started shaking violently. The pilot cut the throttle sharply and a few seconds later the engine was on the taxiway. What a racket! Good thing I still drank back then. Sounds like the BA crew did a great job in the OP's post.

[toptuan]

On a flight Seattle / Tokyo a few years ago, we lost one out of three engines on a DC-10 jumbo (left wing engine) somewhere almost half way between Seattle and Honolulu. Because we hadn't reached the "point of no return" between Seattle & Honolulu, we had to turn back to Seattle.

The pilot assured everyone that these planes are engineered to fly on only one engine if necessary. (True) What he DIDN'T tell us was how much missing one engine throws off the stability of a plane in the landing process. When we approached Sea-Tac airport, the plane seemed to be coming down at an odd angle--definitely not straight on. We could feel the pilot struggling to correct the angle of the aircraft.

After what seemed an eternity of slow approach and mid-air corrections, we finally hit the runway at a gawd-awful angle which caused the aircraft to lurch back and forth (zig-zag fashion) for half the length of the runway. Everyone felt like the pilot was desperately fighting for control. Don't know if that was really the case (they always say soothing things over the PA to the shaken passengers right afterwards, trying to minimize their trauma), but it certainly was the absolute-worst landing I've ever experienced. When the DC-10 FINALLY straightened out, half the passengers wished they'd worn diapers.

After 2-3 hours they brought in another substitute aircraft (another DC-10) to try again to take us to Tokyo. About a third of the passengers were too shaken to join us. I had to go, as it was a business trip with a tight schedule in Japan (a schedule of which I was now already behind).

Mercifully, it was a trouble-free flight, and the airline wined and dined everyone in literal first-class fashion. Enough little cognac bottles finally took the edge off.

It's been about 10 years, but I think the airlines was the old Northwest-Orient Airlines (now Northwest). I've watched their maintenance/equipment failure statistics on several aviation hobbyist websites. Not too impressive. On my over 40 flights to and from Asia, half the time the video or audio entertainment systems never worked, or the seat wouldn't recline. I had often thought, "If this is how badly they maintain the passenger cabin systems, what about the rest of the aircraft?" I think I got at least a partial answer on that confidence-shattering DC-10 flight.

(I know you're thinking, "Why didn't you bloody change your airline?" Answer: 500,000 Frequent Flyer miles.)

Edited February 22, 2007 by toptuan

[Mid]

[toptuan]

Caption: What's wrong with this picture?

Note: We have articulated buses in Seattle that bend in the middle, too. Didn't know the principle could apply to aircraft as well. Same purpose? To go around corners more efficiently?

Edited February 22, 2007 by toptuan

[jasreeve17]

Is the DC10 the plane that's so bad they had to rename it MD11?

[skippybangkok]

a little flight deck fire etc etc

If there is one thing worrying crew, and thats a fire in the cabin. Many a tubes have gone done cause of this. At altitude can call the fire brigade, and the little extinguishers and axes wont get u far.

Good u made it down safely ( I think a swiss air want down out of USA many years ago with same issue )

[Upcountry]

Glad I wasn't on that "flex-landing" in Indonesia(?)! I remember an aborted landing attempt to the (then) new Denver international airport years ago.

It all comes down to engineering, protocol, good flight trainging, nerves (on the part of the flight crew), and luck - oh, and good PR (not to mention the comforting skill of the pilot and crew)!

[Donz]

like i posted in anothe thread, i been in a plane that did a llittle dive for 10-20 seconds.

now that is freaky

[jasreeve17]

like i posted in anothe thread, i been in a plane that did a llittle dive for 10-20 seconds.

now that is freaky

Shouldn't you be "sexing it up" with your new wife. Or is what they say about Australians true?

Edited February 22, 2007 by jasreeve17

[cdnvic]

Is the DC10 the plane that's so bad they had to rename it MD11?

Actually, the DC-10's largest and longest operator, Northwest, flew it with a prefect safety record for 34 years. N223NW was retired with 131,000 hours on the airframe, the most ever flown in a commercial aircraft. The accident rate of DC-10s over all airlines is on par with the 747.

The MD-11 is just a streched, and updated DC-10.

Edited February 22, 2007 by cdnvic

[Diablo Bob]

After every flight, Quantas pilots fill out a form,

called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about

problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the

problems, document their repairs on the form, then

the pilots review the gripe sheets right before the

next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews

lack a sense of humor.

Here are some of the actual maintenance complaints

submitted by the Qantas' pilots (as marked with a P)

and the solutions recorded (as marked with an S) by

the maintenance engineers.

By the way, it is relevant to note that Qantas is the

only major airline in the world that has never, ever,

had an accident!

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.

S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.

S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in the cockpit.

S: Something tightened in the cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.

S: Live bugs on backorder.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet

per minute descent.

S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of a leak on the right main landing gear.

S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.

S: DME volume reset to a more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.

S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.

S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.

S: Suspect you're right.

P: The number 3 engine is missing.

S: Engine found on right wing after a brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.

S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be

serious.

P: Target radar hums.

S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.

S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under the instrument panel.

Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from the midget.

[jayjayjayjay]

I'd go through that for a couple of days in Bali at BA's expense.

[Gary A]

A friend of mine is a pilot. My girlfriend and I were leaving Krabi for Bangkok and there was a thunderstorm brewing. My friend told me that we would no doubt have a delay to wait for the storm to blow over. There was NO delay. My friend wished us good luck and said we were going to have a VERY rough ride. It’s a good thing my girlfriend didn’t have long fingernails. As it was it took two weeks for her fingerprints on my arm to go away. I’m happy that Boeing builds a tough plane. It was amazing how much the wings can bend without breaking off.

[Payboy]

By the way, it is relevant to note that Qantas is the

only major airline in the world that has never, ever,

had an accident!

On 23rd Sept 1999, Qantas Flight 1, a 747-400 arriving at Bangkok from Sydney, overran runway 15L while landing in a rainstorm. The aircraft came to rest on a golf course - fortunately there were no casualties among the 407 passengers and crew on board. But more than 1 golfer blamed their slice on this accident.

Edited February 23, 2007 by Payboy

[cdnvic]

Qantas "Never ever had an accident" is wrong (They've had two), but never a fatal accident.

[Sing_Sling]

As Mid's picture shows, Adam Air in Indonesia had another 'slight' problem, following hot on the heels of another of their planes that crashed a few weks ago . . . finally they have grounded a part of their fleet.

One of the problems is the rapid increase of cheap-flight-airlines in countries where security and safety is easily overcome by a bit of baksheesh.

[jayjayjayjay]

My best mates a pilot for JetStar. Landing at Newcastle, NSW, AU a couple of years ago, his Boeing 717-200 effectively dropped like a deadweight from 50ft when landing. He was suspended (to and inactive post on full pay, maybe in the Thai police force) until the investigation was completed.

As it turned out, a faultily installed sensor under the wings had interpreted during the landing sequence that the plane was actually on the runway in taxiing mode. The auto system adjusted the ailerons causing the plane to loose it normal glide. When it dropped, witnesses said the fuselage bent like a banana. Believe me he was not ready to fly for a while, the concern of all onboard does play a big part in pilots lives.

Mark was reinstated with full captain status after the investigation cleared him of wrongdoing. A couple of engineers were fired!

[moonoi]

By the way, it is relevant to note that Qantas is the

only major airline in the world that has never, ever,

had an accident!

On 23rd Sept 1999, Qantas Flight 1, a 747-400 arriving at Bangkok from Sydney, overran runway 15L while landing in a rainstorm. The aircraft came to rest on a golf course - fortunately there were no casualties among the 407 passengers and crew on board. But more than 1 golfer blamed their slice on this accident.

You also forgot:

Qantas 747 has Landing Gear Incident in Rome

23 April 2000: A Qantas airlines 747-300, with 303 passengers on board, had a landing gear strut collapse while taxiing for takeoff from Rome. One of the engines was damaged, but there were no injuries among the passengers and crew. This is the second serious incident involving Qantas in less than a year. Last September, a landing overrun involving a Qantas 747 at Bangkok's airport resulted in about $100 million in damage to the aircraft. A Qantas 747 was also involved in a minor landing incident in Perth the same month.

So Diablo Bob think your wrong on your statement

It would be true to say that Quantas has never had a fatal accident, but then thats not exactly unique either. Neither have Finnair, Virgin Atlantic or Emirates as far as major airlines go and theres hundreds of smaller regional and domestic airlines that also have never had a fatality. Pretty sure every single one of them has had an accident of some kind though

Anyway I saw that email you posted about "gripe sheets" a couple of years back, except that time it was from British Airways.......

[CHdiver]

1998 crashed a Swissair MD11 (Flight 111) near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Sea, after a fire broke out. All 229 Passenger and Crew where killed in this accident. Even a "little" fire can get out of hand. So I realy understand that you where scared. You may get some more Informations here Go to the BA Forum there.

[Farma]

P: Mouse in cockpit.

S: Cat installed.

Many years ago I was at end of runway doing some checks on another aircraft when some F15’s lined up for takeoff.

As the first F15 opened the throttles into reheat I could see lots of unusual movement in the cockpit. It quickly moved off the runway and aborted takeoff.

It turned out a cat had somehow got into the cockpit and didn’t feel like flying that day.

Back onto commercial flights, I’ve also experienced a cargo door on a MD90 that opened on takeoff roll in Jeddah and a 747 with burst tyres and brake fire on landing in BKK