Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
i was at the toronto airport a couple of years ago when there was a minicrash (i think a plane slid off the runway; nobody was killed iirc). we could see and smell the smoke coming from the plane. i don't recall what the monitor said, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember watching this on CNN. There was minute-by-minute coverage, until........CNN found out that nobody died. I have never seen a story go from "this could be one of worst tragedies since blah, blah.....to......"let's move along - no story here."

Re: Airplane crashes
 

Jet engines were actually tested by firing frozen turkeys or chickens, I can't remember which, through a running engine to test. It's entirely possible that a bird could get sucked into an engine and the engine would keep right on going.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

completely irrelevant, but whatever....

Caught a plane out of the Amazon in a small 10-seater, the runway was a grass strip cut into the forest, which was originally made for use by Colombian trafickers.

I look over the pilots shoulder and he is holding a book, with the page opened to "Checklist for take-off".

He didn't speak English.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How do you do searches like that JJ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Some new fangled technology called google or something, I don't remember exactly [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
This plus the other poster's name (Oblivious) made me think for a second this is one of the better gimmick accounts out there.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
completely irrelevant, but whatever....

Caught a plane out of the Amazon in a small 10-seater, the runway was a grass strip cut into the forest, which was originally made for use by Colombian trafickers.

I look over the pilots shoulder and he is holding a book, with the page opened to "Checklist for take-off".
He didn't speak English.

[/ QUOTE ]

GTFO! Do you speak spanish? That could quite possibly call for an emergency "stop the plane and let me out" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
I mistakenly thought that 90% of all crashes were pilot error. It turns out that only about 78% of them are pilot error. The rest are mechanical failure or weather or jihadists.

[/ QUOTE ]

You realize that close to 0% of commercial crashes are pilot error, right?

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
completely irrelevant, but whatever....

Caught a plane out of the Amazon in a small 10-seater, the runway was a grass strip cut into the forest, which was originally made for use by Colombian trafickers.

I look over the pilots shoulder and he is holding a book, with the page opened to "Checklist for take-off".
He didn't speak English.

[/ QUOTE ]

GTFO! Do you speak spanish? That could quite possibly call for an emergency "stop the plane and let me out" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you kidding me you don't want the pilot doing a take-off checklist? Or you think they should do it from memory?

I dunno man if I owned an airline I would require all pilots to go through the take-off checklist every time. Given the circumstances of my post above, I think if they had actually got out the take-off checklist and gone through it they wouldn't have forgot to pressurize the cabin.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

Ya, it seems like they should be able to do it by memory. I guess it's a good idea to go through a checklist but it would have me worried if I'm flying out of the amazon on a grass strip with who the hell knows in the cockpit. Wouldn't the thought of this guy not even knowing how to operate an aircraft cross your mind? It's not something we ever see in the U.S so it would have to be a little concerning.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
Jet engines were actually tested by firing frozen turkeys or chickens, I can't remember which, through a running engine to test. It's entirely possible that a bird could get sucked into an engine and the engine would keep right on going.

[/ QUOTE ]


The bird test(not frozen) is about ensuring the failed engine doesn't cause the aircraft to crash, not to ensure the engine still runs. It's a jet engine for crying out loud, not a gravel crusher.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
Ya, it seems like they should be able to do it by memory. I guess it's a good idea to go through a checklist but it would have me worried if I'm flying out of the amazon on a grass strip with who the hell knows in the cockpit. Wouldn't the thought of this guy not even knowing how to operate an aircraft cross your mind? It's not something we ever see in the U.S so it would have to be a little concerning.

[/ QUOTE ]
On big commercial planes there is a copilot who can help to make 100% sure the pilot has done everything right at takeoff. With one pilot it makes perfect sense that he checks the book every single time, just in case.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
So a couple days ago they are returning home and at 24000 feet they suddenly felt this explosive decompression and the cabin filled with smoke and really hot air. No masks dropped down (charters don't have masks(?)) so they had to breathe through their shirts. Meanwhile the pilots make a quick descent to 10,000

[/ QUOTE ]

the aircraft has to have oxygen masks if the airplane is going to be higher than 14,000 feet far 91.211 , so i am assuming what they told you was true about the backup system, and the cabin depressurized from around 7-8 thousand feet up to like 12-13 thousand and therefore the masks would not drop.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ya, it seems like they should be able to do it by memory. I guess it's a good idea to go through a checklist but it would have me worried if I'm flying out of the amazon on a grass strip with who the hell knows in the cockpit. Wouldn't the thought of this guy not even knowing how to operate an aircraft cross your mind? It's not something we ever see in the U.S so it would have to be a little concerning.

[/ QUOTE ]
On big commercial planes there is a copilot who can help to make 100% sure the pilot has done everything right at takeoff. With one pilot it makes perfect sense that he checks the book every single time, just in case.

[/ QUOTE ]

there are different types of checklists, a few are do-lists, like engine start where you must go step by step and do it in that order. most are flow patterns that you learn as a pilot and the checklist is then used for redundancy to ensure all things were completed, that pilot could be certified in several types of airplanes and therefore it would be very hard to memorize all the different checklists. So the fact that the checklist is out is very standard and should comfort you more than anything showing he is actually verifying he did everything.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

incidentally the COO and pilot of that flight came in today to talk to staff (and apologize I guess). They explained everything and he just forgot to flip the switch that pressurizes the cabin. The plane was at 24,000 feet, meanwhile cabin pressure was steadily dropping. The "effective" altitude or whatever of the pressure inside got to something like 8700 feet when the backup system kicked in. Evidently the pressure then has to go back to being effectively below 7000 feet or so before the backup system will turn off. THe pilots couldn't get it down so they decided to just descend to 10,000 feet and finally the backup system turned off. Nobody was ever in danger other than the 5 guys were absolutely terrified and the pilot kinda "forgot" to tell them everything was ok.

Re: Airplane crashes
 

one uncle of a friend of mine was one of 10 passengers surviving the Kenya Airways plane crash january 30th 2000. he not only managed to swim (the plane crashed into the water) back to the land all by himself, he also switched places with a friend he met at the airport, letting him sit business class and sat economy himself. the friend died. true hollywood.
actually I dont know if he really swam all the way or was fished out of the water later... but still a miracle