Here’s a pop quiz! Name three differences between an airplane and your car. If one of
your answers was "I don't fall ten thousand feet when I run out of gas," you and I clearly
think alike. But really, planes are pretty good at staying up in the air when an engine
goes down. So, how do they do it?
First off, it’s essential to distinguish between an engine failing and needing to be
shut down. That might seem strange at first; you wouldn't turn off your car while driving,
after all, but there are a lot of reasons pilots might need to shut the engines down
while still in the air. One of the most common causes is that something
got into the engine’s air intake. Jet engines work by mixing fuel with air and igniting
it. The force of this explosion is what pushes the plane through the air.
The internal combustion engine in most cars works on basically the same principle. The
difference here is that in a car, the explosive force is contained inside the engine and used
to move the pistons and gears that spin your wheels. Also like your car, a jet engine needs
an opening on the front to maintain a constant flow of air. As anyone who's ever driven through
a sandstorm will happily confirm, getting dirt in your engine doesn't exactly make it
run any smoother. In an airplane, birds are among the most significant
hazard when it comes to plugging up the intake, -- and it’s not too good for the birds either.
Hail stones are bad too. Ash from volcanic eruptions and large forest fires are a less
common, but no less serious, hazard to aircraft in flight.
Think of the air intake as the plane’s videogame weak spot, and you get the idea.
The ingestion of foreign objects can result in the engine becoming starved of oxygen,
interrupting the reaction and causing what’s known as a flameout: literally the flame in
the engine going out. One somewhat humorous example of this can
be seen in the US Air Force's A-10 Warthog aircraft. Due do a design oversight, this
plane’s large, fuselage mounted engines had the habit of ingesting the smoke produced
by its own firepower. This would result in a flameout and a very unhappy pilot. While
this problem was eventually fixed, it shows that a bit of smoke can be a big problem,
even for top-of-the-line military hardware. Flameouts can also be caused by an equipment
failure on the plane itself, typically in the fuel pump or other engine components.
Regardless of the cause, the effects are typically the same across the board.
When a flameout occurs, the pilot's first action is to shut off the fuel being pumped
to the misbehaving turbine, quickly and quietly shutting it down. At which point, the pilot
will calmly inform the passengers of the emergency and descend to a lower altitude as the crew
figures out what exactly went wrong. The plane will often have to make an emergency
landing, but the descent isn't exactly going to be a wild ride. The Federal Aviation Administration
requires commercial planes to be able to fly and land safely with only one engine operational.
The stricken aircraft will usually be rerouted to the nearest airport, and emergency responders
will be standing by; but this is mainly a precaution rather than a necessity. Engine
failure is no laughing matter, but neither is it a guaranteed catastrophe.
Have you ever experienced an emergency landing? Let me know about it in the comments!
It’s so easy to land a plane on one engine that many autopilot systems can manage it
without assistance from the humans in the cockpit. Sleeping passengers, or anyone really
engrossed in the cat videos on their phone, might not even know there was an emergency
until they’re on the ground. Now, I've told you that losing one engine
isn't going to send your plane hurtling out of the sky, but what about the worst-case
scenario. What happens if all the engines were to go out at once?
This kind of total failure is extremely unlikely, but there have been isolated incidents of
that very thing happening to aircraft in flight. For example, Air Canada Flight 143 suffered
a double engine flameout in 1983. A series of problems, including technical issues, miscommunication,
maintenance errors, and faulty Metric conversions lead to the plane leaving the tarmac without
enough fuel to reach their destination. Predictably, this led to further problems.
While passing over the small town of Red Lake, Ontario, an alarm sounded in the cockpit.
At first, they thought it was a problem with the fuel pumps, but within seconds of rerouting
to Winnipeg, the left engine went dark. The right soon followed. Oh boy.
So, this is the part where Flight 143 dropped like an aluminum rock, right?
Well, no. A plane’s engines may push it forward, but they aren’t the part that keeps
it in the air. That would be the wings, which provide lift when air passes under them. Losing
its engines cost Flight 143 the ability to climb or accelerate, but it could still glide.
Running out of fuel also caused the 767 to lose all power, disabling not only the lights
and radio, but the controls and instrument panel as well.
Fortunately, like most modern airliners, the plane was equipped with what's known as a
ram air turbine or RAT. These are small wind turbines, often concealed behind a panel in
the fuselage, that can be extended in the event of a complete power loss.
This device allowed the pilots of Air Canada Flight 143 to safely navigate to, and land
in, an airfield-turned-racetrack outside the town of Gimli, Manitoba.
Flight 143 did end up partially losing power again during the final approach. This time
it was due to the aircrafts reduced velocity, preventing the RAT from spinning at full speed.
Despite these challenges, the plane was able to set down with only minor damage. After
undergoing repairs, it was able to continue flying until it's retirement in 2008, twenty-five
years after the emergency landing. The plane, which was officially registered under the
name C-GAUN, earned a new moniker after the incident, The Gimli Glider.
Oh, Canada. Now, you might’ve noticed the conga line
of problems that led to Flight 143's awkward landing. This near disaster was the result
of an unlikely sequence of events, giving you an idea of how many different things need
to go wrong before a complete engine failure can occur.
Tighter regulations and improved maintenance procedures have mitigated the risk substantially,
although there’s still the occasional fluke. For example, the famous "Miracle on the Hudson"
in January 2009 occurred after an Airbus A320 collided with a flock of geese shortly after
taking off from New York City's LaGuardia Airport. The accident resulted in the loss
of both engines and forced the pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, to make a risky
water landing in the nearby Hudson river. Despite the below zero temperatures and the
extreme difficulty of the landing, all one hundred and fifty-five passengers and crew
were evacuated onto boats and carried to safety. While many people had to be treated for hypothermia,
and there were several injuries, only five of them were considered severe.
Multiple engine failures have the potential to become very dangerous, but the good news
is that they’re extremely rare. Now, that covers planes, but what would happen
if a helicopter lost its engines in flight? As it turns out, helicopters have an even
easier time landing without power than planes do. A helicopter's rotors act like a combination
propeller and wing, providing both lift and forward momentum.
While this might seem like bad news at first, helicopters have a saving grace in what's
known as autorotation. If the engine’s revolution per minute ever drops below a predetermined
threshold, a mechanism will be tripped, disconnecting the main rotor from the engine. This allows
it to continue spinning independently on its own momentum, buying the pilot time to regain
control of their aircraft. If left uncontrolled, the helicopter would
tumble out of the sky, very much dropping like the before mentioned aluminum rock. Fortunately,
this rarely happens, as helicopter pilots are trained to pitch the aircraft slightly
down, allowing them to maintain control throughout its descent.
The correct angle will vary depending on the model of helicopter, but that information
is available in the helicopter's operation manual. You got time to open the book? Accounting
for wind speed and other variables can be challenging at first. However, autorotation
landings are considered to be one of the most straightforward helicopter procedures, and
all helicopter pilots have to complete one to get their license.
No matter how you fly, I wouldn’t worry too much about a complete engine failure,
since they’re exceptionally rare and surprisingly easy to recover from. Plus you get to walk
away with a great story to share. Hey, if you learned something new today, then
give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other cool videos
I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!