From flying through volcanic ash cloud to getting blocked out of the aircraft, here
are the 6 worst things that can happen while piloting a plane:
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Number 6 Flying through a Volcanic Ash Cloud On June 24, 1982, British Airways Flight 9
from Heathrow to Auckland was flying over Jakarta, when the Boeing 747 lost power in
all four of its engines.
The crew didn’t initially understand why this had happened.
Volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Galunggung had blocked the engines, causing them to flameout.
The captain and crew tried restarting the engines but they were unresponsive.
Captain Eric Moody made the following announcement to the passengers ‘Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.
We have a small problem.
All four engines have stopped.
We’re doing our damnedest to get them going again.
I trust you’re not in too much distress’.
Fearing for their lives, many passengers started writing messages for their loved ones.
As the cabin pressure dropped, the oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.
Moody decided to slowly descend to an altitude with enough air pressure to allow for normal
breathing.
A risky ocean ditching was slowly becoming the only solution.
Fortunately, as the plane flew out of the ash cloud, the engines were successfully restarted.
The ash cloud had also sandblasted the windshield and landing light covers, which hindered visibility.
The landing was difficult, but Captain Moody managed to put the plane down safely and nobody
on board was injured.
Number 5 Pilot’s Prosthetic Arm Falls Off On February 12, 2014, as a Flybe flight was
approaching Belfast City Airport the pilot’s prosthetic arm fell off.
According to the report, the pilot was manually controlling the plane to better deal with
the windy weather.
Shortly before landing, his artificial lower left arm became detached from its yoke.
There wasn’t enough time for him to get the co-pilot and there were also challenging
weather conditions to deal with.
The pilot moved his right hand from the power levers to the yoke in order to regain control.
This resulted in a bounce following the normal touchdown, which caused the plane to land
heavy.
Fortunately, no one on board was hurt.
The pilot stated that, in the future, he would assume additional precautions to prevent a
similar incident from happening again.
Number 4 Multiple Failures on a Superjumbo Dealing with multiple failures on an aircraft
is no easy feat.
However, when said aircraft is the Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane in the world,
the stakes are definitely higher.
On November 4, 2010, Qantas Flight 32 suffered an uncontained engine failure around 4 minutes
after it took off from Singapore’s Changi Airport.
The Airbus’ engine No. 2 exploded, sending pieces of metal at the Indonesian village
below.
As the engine disintegrated it caused further damage to the landing gear, fuel system, wing,
flight controls and controls for engine No. 1.
Fortunately for the 466 passengers on board the plane was captained by Richard Champion
de Crespigny.
Even though the flight control panel was flashing multiple alerts, Champion de Crespigny kept
his composure throughout the incident and focused on the aspects that kept the double-decker
functional.
There were five other pilots in the cockpit at the time and they assisted the Captain
as he concentrated on flying and managing the plane.
Champion de Crespigny also re-assured the passengers and provided constant updates.
Two hours after take-off, the plane returned to Changi Airport and no one on board was
hurt.
It was the first aviation incident for the Airbus A380.
For his role in preventing what could have been a catastrophic event, Champion de Crespigny
was hailed as a hero and subsequently appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.
Number 3 Running Out of Fuel Due to a combination of company failures,
human errors and confusion over unit measurements, Air Canada Flight 143 took off from Montreal
on July 23, 1983, with insufficient fuel.
This went unnoticed as the initial fuel load had been incorrectly introduced by the ground
crew and subsequently approved by the flight crew.
The fuel had been calculated in pounds, but it should have been calculated in kilograms.
The plane was loaded with only half the fuel it needed.
As it was cruising over Red Lake, Ontario, at approximately 41,000 feet the 767 lost
all power and most of the flight control instruments went blank.
Flying a plane that had lost all its engines hadn’t been covered in training so the pilot
and crew were confronted with a new and frightening situation.
Fortunately, Captain Robert Pearson was an experienced glider pilot and accustomed to
techniques not normally used on commercial flights.
The pilots re-routed the plane to RCAF Station Gimli, a former air force base.
What they didn’t know was that the base had been converted to a race track complex.
Part of the decommissioned runway was used to stage a race at the time.
The plane didn’t have any power so the pilots used a gravity drop to release the landing
gear.
The landing itself was hard and fast.
Pearson had to brake so hard that two of the airplane’s tires were blown out.
The plane’s nose fell off and scraped along the ground.
A small fire broke out in the nose area, which the racers and course workers put out.
In the end there were no serious injuries among the 61 passengers.
Pearson and his crew were commended for controlling the plane under such grave circumstances.
The plane involved in the incident would be known as the Gimli Glider.
Number 2 Forced Water Landing Even with several safety measures put in place,
landing on water is extremely dangerous and can have catastrophic consequences.
This is why the efforts of leading pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeffrey
B. Skiles have been hailed as the leading force behind what’s known as the ‘Miracle
on the Hudson’.
It has been described as the most successful water landing, or ditching, in history.
It took place on January 15, 2009.
Shortly after it took off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, US Airways Flight 1549
hit a flock of Canadian geese.
This resulted in the plane completely losing engine power.
The pilots issued a mayday call and established contact with air traffic controllers from
nearby airports.
Sullenberger concluded that, without any engine power, they wouldn’t be able to return to
LaGuardia nor safely reach Teterboro Airport, in New Jersey.
After the plane was given permission from Teterboro, Sullenberger responded ‘We can’t
do it…We’re gonna be in the Hudson’.
Over the cabin address system, Sullenberger told the passengers to brace for impact.
The two pilots then glided the plane to an unpowered water landing in the Hudson River,
off Midtown Manhattan.
Rescue boats converged to the location of the plane and all of the 155 passengers were
saved.
Sullenberger, Skiles and the flight attendants were all hailed as heroes.
The incident inspired Clint Eastwood’s 2016 film ‘Sully: Miracle on the Hudson’ with
Tom Hanks in the title role.
Number 1 Getting Propelled out of the Plane Dangling outside a plane in midair at a speed
of nearly 500 mph and sub-zero temperatures has to rank at the top of worst things that
can happen to a pilot.
On June 10, 1990, British Airways Flight 5390 was heading to Spain, from Birmingham, with
81 passengers on board.
About 20 minutes into the flight with the plane already at an altitude of around 17,000
feet, passengers were startled by a loud bang that came from the cockpit.
An improperly installed windscreen panel had broken away from the captain’s side of the
flight deck.
The rushing air from the decompression forced Captain Tim Lancaster out of his seat and
propelled him head-first out of the window.
His knees got caught on the flight control panel as his upper torso dangled outside to
endure the extreme wind and cold.
Flight attendant Neil Ogden, who was present in the cockpit at the time, rushed to grab
Lancaster’s belt and held on to him.
Other cabin crew members secured loose objects and told the passengers to brace for an emergency
landing.
In the incident, the autopilot had been disengaged and the plane was descending rapidly.
The flight deck door had been blown inward, into the control console, blocking the throttle
and causing the plane to gain speed on its descent.
There wasn’t enough oxygen for everyone on board so co-pilot Alastair Atchison assumed
control of the aircraft.
He began an emergency descent to an altitude with sufficient air pressure.
Atchison re-engaged the autopilot and issued a distress call, but the wind noise made communication
difficult.
By then, Ogden had dislocated his shoulder and developed frostbite on his face from holding
on to the Captain.
Two other crew members took over the task, and, as Lancaster moved a few more inches
outside, his head was repeatedly hitting the fuselage.
The crew was convinced that the Captain was already bread.
They continued to hold on to his body for fear that it might fly into one of the engines
and damage it.
Atchison eventually received clearance for an emergency landing from Southampton Airport.
Captain Lancaster suffered bruising, several fractures, shock and frostbite but, amazingly,
survived his ordeal and continued to pilot commercial planes for another 18 years.