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Monday, April 19. 2010

It would unquestionably be terrifying.

Suddenly, flying 30,000 feet above the ground, a massive depressurization takes place and the airliner starts to break apart. It tumbles toward the ground, bucking and spinning, as the last seconds of your life turn into a living nightmare.

The only good news is, in the chaos around you, your mind would be so overwhelmed that you'd be in shellshock, with no time to contemplate what could have been, no time to regret what never will be, and no time to say goodbye to life, itself.

But, as ugly as that is, there is one scenario that might even be worse.

You're flying along at 30,000 feet when suddenly...

Click.

All four engines stop.

You don't like the depressurization scenario? Well, lucky you, you now have minutes upon minutes to contemplate what might have been, to regret what never will be, and plenty of time to say goodbye to life, itself, before you cartwheel into the sea and disintegrate.

Lucky you.

A few weekends ago I decided to wig out and watch every single 'airline disaster' show on YouTube. There were about twenty of them.

And, as terrifying as many of them were, there was one that stood out above the rest.

The one where the engines suddenly went click.

Posted by Dr. Mercury in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 17:00 | Comments (31) | Trackbacks (7)

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Comedy & Videos - Index
Videos: The Deafening Silence � My favorite 'airline disaster' episode Men & Women of Film � A Hollywood collageTrain Story with a Twist(er) � Kids! RC Madness � Three R/C airplane vids Happy Guy Fawkes Day � How this day has been spun around

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The continuing mystery of Flight 447
I confess before God and a jury of my peers: I'm an airline disaster buff. They're the ultimate Sherlock Holmes mysteries. You're given mere scraps of information, the wreckage is usually twisted beyond recognition, and you're faced with the kn

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Comments

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Airliners are good gliders.

In fact Air Canada had a famous one, the Gimli Glider
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

``I certainly hope that's the fuel pump'' famous last words.

It wasn't. They were out of fuel.

#1 rhhardin (Link) on 2009-08-25 17:16 (Reply)

Thanks for the tip. The episode's on YouTube but didn't come up in my "airline disaster" search, so I missed it. Got it bookmarked now, and thanks again.

#1.1 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2009-08-25 17:21 (Reply)

YouTube overhypes the side slip terror. It's a very common and handy maneuver if you don't have flaps or other spoilers.

You get to come in too high every time (so you're never short) and take off the altitude at the last second when it's obvious it's not needed.

That's back from the days when every landing was taught as dead stick, instead of dragging the plane in under constant power.

But videography makes a terror of everything that it's possible to make a terror out of.

#1.1.1 rhhardin (Link) on 2009-08-25 19:17 (Reply)

RHH,

There was also a flight that ran out of fuel after leaving
Europe. It glided for what seemed like an eternity and landed on a runway deemed to be too short on some small island in the Atlantic.

It was on one of those disaster TV shows.

I'm sorry I don't have more detail.

#1.2 Barrett on 2009-08-25 18:33 (Reply)

Barrett,

That was the Air Transet 'Canary Island Glider'...another wonderful story...this "up front crew" were actually heros...that was the "fuel pump" 'problem'...

#1.2.1 Garry on 2009-08-25 20:46 (Reply)

rhharden,

The "Gimli Glider" 'problem' was caused by:

1/ bilingualism (official, of course) !!

2/ metrification (government mandated, of course) !!

3/ a malfunction on an instrument that actually weighs the
B767

4/ a Capt who didn't confirm he had enough fuel to make it
to destination + 2 approaches + fly to alternate airport +
an approach + 45 minutes reserve.......

Stewart was his name (I recall)...almost wrote off his passengers + Crew...hailed as a hero...go figure!! ??

#1.3 Garry on 2009-08-25 20:41 (Reply)

Next time I fly, I will be donning my wing suit before I board the plane.

#2 The Distributist on 2009-08-25 17:28 (Reply)

Thanks a lot, Dr. Merc. I needed that.

#3 bd on 2009-08-25 18:16 (Reply)

Always good to viddie something like that before a flight... makes the landing so much more special.

Airport bar, straight to in-flight cocktails.

#3.1 The Distributist on 2009-08-25 19:04 (Reply)

Having spent 11 years in the Air Force, and 7 of them as Flight Engineer on C-5 and EC-130, the scariest for me would be Engine Fires. Especially with Magnesium engine mounts.

Airplanes can glide reasonably well with engines out. Limited hydraulics and electrical should be available. Finding a landing spot may be iffy. But fires are just plain scary. No escaping a fire, especially if there's smoke in the cabin.

I hate flying commercial nowadays. No situational awareness at all.

#4 az.mrmacs on 2009-08-25 20:44 (Reply)

Merc,

Talk about "Flash Player"....I have retained an FAA Fact Finding Board Transcript, concerning MULTIPLE in-flight losses of separation at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport (it's a tough read) that would BLOW your socks (toupee ??) off...(it's the worst (best !! ??) I've ever read...sometime in the '80's - early '90's.

#5 Garry on 2009-08-25 20:54 (Reply)

Jeez Louise, Dr. Merc ... I'm glad I don't even try to fly any more. Between you and your airline disaster movies, and the airport security people who, the instant they see me enter, back me up against a wall to 'wand me,' make me take off my jacket or other things, argue with me, etc., you make flying sound thoroughly unattractive. I'd rather ride to my destination by pony express or by burro. It might take awhile, but at least I might get there eventually.

Because our airport security managers refuse to take advice from Israel, one of the most threatened countries in the world, on how they run their airport security, [and they haven't had a plane hijacking ever, IIRC,] we are developing more and more inconvenient, ineffectual, insulting-to-the-passengers techniques to try to spot terrorists. Eventually, this will kill flight for the fly-for-pleasure portion of the public. Then the government will take over the airlines.

Which is probably what they intended all along.

Marianne

#6 Marianne Matthews on 2009-08-25 21:20 (Reply)

MM,

You must fit the profile. You know a pistol packin' grandma from Texas!

Just remember, I pick you for my team!!!

#6.1 Barrett on 2009-08-25 22:35 (Reply)

Barrett, kind friend, and I pick you for mine.

Some day, if I'm ever forced to fly again, and the security people go through their usual threatening dance, I'm going to ask them how many 80-year-old terrorists they have arrested. That will really drop me in the soup, undoubtedly.

By the way, unlike many Texas women, I don't have a carry permit. But I do have a house gun. Texas still believes that "a man's home is his castle." And he/she has a right to defend it.

Marianne

#7 Marianne Matthews on 2009-08-25 23:09 (Reply)

The Distributionist -

(We really need a nickname for a handle that long. Ah, I got it.)

Dear Stribby:

Great video! Crap, that must be fun. I watched it twice. And the site, itself, was quite interesting. I had to dash off for dinner and didn't get back till late, but that one that turns Google into a "file-server" for MP3 songs looked quite interesting. Thanks for the great link.

MM -

"back me up against a wall to 'wand me,'"

Well, look at it this way. If the inspector is young, then, indeed, it sounds like harrassment.

However, if it's some old dude, maybe there are other motives involved.

Maybe he's using the wand metaphorically. :)

#8 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2009-08-26 10:38 (Reply)

Wish I could figure out why I can't play your vids! I fixed what I thought was the problem yesterday, and now I can play everyone else's vids, but still not yours. I tried to find this on YouTube, but there aren't enough clues to tell me which one this is.

#9 Texan99 on 2009-08-26 11:07 (Reply)

Tex -

You're subscribed to this thread? Please stick with me on this. I'm truly interested in ironing out the problem.

First off, are you on a Mac? I don't believe you said before.

Second, did you go to my 'Short Web Vids' page and you can't see those, either?

Let's start with those two questions and we'll work from there. At some point I'll make some experiements with different settings in the video conversion program and ask you to try them all. But I need the answers to the above two questions first.

Also, let me have a few specifics on your system, like the OS, amount of memory, ISP connection rate, and anything else that springs to mind.

Doc

#9.1 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2009-08-26 11:23 (Reply)

Merc & Tex,

Could this 'problem' also be why I have the same 'problem' opening the vids? I believe it is localized as others report no difficulties.

#9.1.1 Garry on 2009-08-26 11:34 (Reply)

Dr. Merc ... The last time airport security did this to me, I said loudly that if they were going to do this, they'd better get the best looking male on their staff to do it.

That was a conversation stopper -- for a little while at least. But in the end they didn't do it.

Marianne

#10 Marianne Matthews on 2009-08-26 11:19 (Reply)

MM -

As far as I can tell, both the airport guys and the subway security people are bending over backward to keep from being accused of the heinous crime of (gasp!) profiling.

That last time I flew, about five years ago, there was actually a group of Arab-looking men in front of me in line. Naturally, none of them were 'wanded'.

Me, a white-bread 55-year-old with a pleasant face and a very American-sounding name, got the full treatment. Well, not the body cavity strip-search, but they were probably contemplating it.

I mean, look at it logically, Marianne. What better person to use for a terrorist act than someone like you or me? Using an Arab would just be OBVIOUS at this point in time.

And there ya go. Not only are you a possible terrorist -- but a likely one!

#11 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2009-08-26 11:34 (Reply)

Had a similar experience once. 1963 - orbit over the middle of the Sahara. Air turbine motor went sput. Hydraulics and electric gone. Pilot deploys the little gadget on the starboard side - propeller driven mini-ATM. Minimum hydraulics, minimum electric. About 400 hundred miles from Wheelus. No nav-aids out there. Dead reckoning. Closed the bar at the NCO club that night.

#12 Roy Lofquist on 2009-08-26 19:09 (Reply)

Papa was over the Salmon River, rough country, in a single engine plane he'd hired to take him to Boise. Engine quits, Pete the pilot tries and tries to get the engine started, finally figures out he hadn't turned the switch on for the second gas tank. Dad asks, what would you have done, Pete, if you couldn't get the engine going? "Would have landed on a sand bar." heh, dad never bought that, though he might have been able to do it, guy was a crop duster.

#13 bob on 2010-04-19 23:08 (Reply)

"And there ya go. Not only are you a possible terrorist -- but a likely one!"
And there ya go. Nor only are you a possible terrorist--but a likeable one!

#14 bob on 2010-04-19 23:12 (Reply)

nor = not

#15 bob on 2010-04-19 23:23 (Reply)

My last command was a squadron where Navy and Marine aviators were trained. My first civilian job after getting out was in an aircraft component overhaul shop. I will never get on another airplane again. I know who flies them and I know who works on them.

#16 jdgjtr on 2010-04-20 10:50 (Reply)

Sheesh, Merc, the video does not play well for me, either.

How about a less-demanding link to YouTube? Please?

#17 anon on 2010-04-20 20:21 (Reply)

anon - Sorry about that. FWIW, the previous complaint was a year ago, when it was first posted. That was when I was just starting to post FLV videos instead of WMV (so the Mac users could view them), and I have no idea what program or settings I was using back then. At the moment, I'm re-rendering it with what I use today, but it'll be a few hours before the render is done and it's uploaded.

In the meantime, if you just can't wait, do a YouTube search for "british airways flight 9". It'll pop up in all its multi-part glory.

And work on that handle, okay? I'm pretty sure somebody's already using it.

#18 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2010-04-20 20:42 (Reply)

Yeah, about that video... that incident occurred when the aircraft was very close to the volcano, where the ash cloud was dense, when the incident occurred.

By the time the ash cloud from Iceland reached Europe, it was very disperse. Test flights proved there was no danger. Planes in the USA routinely fly in Hawaii during volcanic activity without a problem. When Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, was air traffic shut down in New York City?

#19 V the K (Link) on 2010-04-24 11:50 (Reply)

V - I agree 100% that the situation in the movie was vastly different than what they were experiencing in Europe, but the article I read said that the big problem was that the ash doesn't just float along in a big, wide cloud, it goes in streams, so a test that's done in one area might not detect the ashes nearby. They probably went overboard, but, by the same token, if you were ever going to apply the old adage, "Better safe than sorry," it would be in the aviation industry.

#20 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2010-04-24 11:55 (Reply)

I thought that there were more than twenty of these, as the series is in its twelth season (between three and six episodes a season). It is a canadian production and I have found most of the episodes by searching under its canadian title Mayday. For the benefit of my children, I avoid the episodes with lots of death, as they like to watch what I watch. Luckily, several of the featured crashes are events with no dead.

#21 Richard Bell on 2012-11-07 03:25 (Reply)

I said twenty of them on YouTube. I think the show's about in its 10th season. What's odd is that sometimes a season has a bunch of shows, sometimes just a few. Marvelously done, though, as you know. Great special effects work.

#21.1 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2012-11-07 06:20 (Reply)

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Monday, April 19. 2010

The Deafening Silence