# Air Disasters



## oldman (Mar 14, 2016)

This is kind of a long story and if nobody reads it, that's fine. I am writing it to help relieve myself of the stress that I feel when it comes to mind. Last evening, I was watching "Air Disasters" on the Smithsonian Channel and the new episode was about an Airbus A-340 with 309 passengers and crew on-board going off the runway during a violent thunderstorm. The plane then caught fire, however, all of the passengers and crew were able to get off the aircraft in the 90 second time frame, so there were no fatalities. As is usual, the TV version did not report all of the facts. The final analysis of why the accident happened was due to a multitude of factors. You may read about it here.......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_358

I was flying a similar plane at the time. It was a Boeing 767, which is a two aisle, wide body. I believe we also had about 300 passengers and crew on-board the day that this story is about. It was the day after Christmas. I had flown an earlier flight from Washington, D.C. to Chicago-O'Hare very early in the a.m. I believe that we had landed in Chicago at around 8:00 a.m. Our next and last flight of the day was to fly down to Miami and lay-over. We had a lot of very excited and happy tourists on-board. They were glad to be leaving cold, windy, snowy Chicago for hopefully, warmer, sunny weather, which it was. Temperatures out of Miami were reporting mid 70's. We were also alerted of impending thunderstorms about arrival time which was mid-afternoon. The thing about Florida is that it never just 'drizzles' there. When it rains along the coast, either side, it puts it down in buckets.

As I remember it, the flight down was very typical for that time of year, meaning that we had some light chop as we passed through the middle states. We had just entered Georgia when the weather forecast was updated and again, we were notified of rain was beginning to fall around the Miami airport with an expected increase in winds and heavy downpours with the possibility of some lightning. The "L" word is never good for a pilot. My First Officer had handled the takeoff back in Chicago and I was going to do the landing in Miami. We were about 80 miles from the airport when we began our initial descent. As we got closer and closer to Miami the winds and rain were picking up. Miami is a strange place to land sometimes during t'storms. A pilot can go from landing into a headwind to landing into a tailwind in just seconds, so caution and being alert to wind direction change is always advised. 

It was very bumpy as we were descending through the clouds and we had warned the F/A's (Flight Attendants) to make sure everyone was belted tightly. We had been flying under IFR (Instrument Flight Rules). I wanted to land as near as possible to the start of the runway, so to allow the plane plenty of distance to slow and stop. This would, hopefully, prevent any skidding or hydroplaning. I was very happy with the touchdown when all of a sudden the plane wanted to run left for me. I held on tight to the wheel, but I could feel that we were about to go into the grass on the left side of the runway. We may have drifted about 2-3 feet off center, but thankfully, the thrust reversers and spoilers slowed the plane enough that I was able to gain additional control of the plane. I did pass my intended taxiway and I had to explain to the tower what had happened. The lady in the tower told me to check my tires when I exited the plane because she was seeing smoke come off of the undercarriage (landing gear). 

After I had exited the airplane, I looked underneath and there it was. I had blown not one, but two tires on the left side of the plane. The passengers never knew how close we had come to being on a TV show that afternoon. A couple of older ladies wanted to see the Captain as they were exiting the plane, so I went to the door and they were telling me how scared they were, but they knew that God had the controls and we would be OK. I thought to myself that maybe he did, but I wished that he would have told me. It would have saved me from sweating bullets. And, that's the second closest time that I ever came to having an accident. 

If you read this story, thank you. If you are one of the millions of nervous fliers, I hope that it instills some additional confidence into you as to how safe flying really is.


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## Pappy (Mar 14, 2016)

Great story, oldman. Thanks for sharing.


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## BlunderWoman (Mar 14, 2016)

That was really an interesting story. Thank you for sharing that.


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## Ameriscot (Mar 14, 2016)

Scary experience Oldman.  Glad it turned out all right!  I'm not a nervous flyer at all.  I find lots of turbulence more of an inconvenience than scary - drinks spilling, can't go to bathroom etc.


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## Falcon (Mar 14, 2016)

AS,  If it's scary enough, you'll "go to the bathroom" whether or not you want to.


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## Don M. (Mar 14, 2016)

"Air Disasters" is another one of the very few "Quality" shows on TV.  It shows just how complex flying can be, and the jillions of things that can possibly go wrong.  However, flying is still FAR safer than virtually every other form of transportation, so the passenger concerns should be minimal.  The one that scared me was the Airbus crash, last year, where the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin, and flew the plane into the Swiss Alps...committed suicide, and took 150 passengers with him.


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## Ameriscot (Mar 14, 2016)

Falcon said:


> AS,  If it's scary enough, you'll "go to the bathroom" whether or not you want to.



So far I haven't been scared....


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## oldman (Mar 14, 2016)

Falcon said:


> AS,  If it's scary enough, you'll "go to the bathroom" whether or not you want to.



I can remember the F/A's telling me that we had a few of those on-board from time to time. I also remember the time we had a lady on-board with a bladder problem and had to use the lavatory often. We had no sooner taken off when she rang her call bell. The F/A's must stay seated until the plane climbs above 10,000 ft. The F/A said she looked at the woman and it did not appear to her that she was in any distress, so she gave her the "wait a minute" sign. All of a sudden, the lady zipped out of her seat and ran back to the lavatory. Hey, when you gotta' go, you gotta' go.


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## Ameriscot (Mar 14, 2016)

Don M. said:


> "Air Disasters" is another one of the very few "Quality" shows on TV.  It shows just how complex flying can be, and the jillions of things that can possibly go wrong.  However, flying is still FAR safer than virtually every other form of transportation, so the passenger concerns should be minimal.  The one that scared me was the Airbus crash, last year, where the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin, and flew the plane into the Swiss Alps...committed suicide, and took 150 passengers with him.



I enjoy it as well.  I love to see how they figure out what happened and why.  My favourite episode is Sully Sullenberger and his perfect landing on the Hudson. What a pro!!


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## Ameriscot (Mar 14, 2016)

oldman said:


> I can remember the F/A's telling me that we had a few of those on-board from time to time. I also remember the time we had a lady on-board with a bladder problem and had to use the lavatory often. We had no sooner taken off when she rang her call bell. The F/A's must stay seated until the plane climbs above 10,000 ft. The F/A said she looked at the woman and it did not appear to her that she was in any distress, so she gave her the "wait a minute" sign. All of a sudden, the lady zipped out of her seat and ran back to the lavatory. Hey, when you gotta' go, you gotta' go.



I drink tons of water and other beverages while flying and sometimes I've had to get up when the seatbelt sign is still on due to turbulence.  I've seen many others get up as well.


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## oldman (Mar 14, 2016)

Don M. said:


> "Air Disasters" is another one of the very few "Quality" shows on TV.  It shows just how complex flying can be, and the jillions of things that can possibly go wrong.  However, flying is still FAR safer than virtually every other form of transportation, so the passenger concerns should be minimal.  The one that scared me was the Airbus crash, last year, where the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin, and flew the plane into the Swiss Alps...committed suicide, and took 150 passengers with him.



At United, we had a standing rule that if either of the two pilots left the flight deck, the Purser was to come and sit in the vacant seat. Now, however, with the new doors and depending which door has been installed, there is a way of the door being allowed to be opened by a pilot on the outside, if he enters the correct "E" code. However, again, there is also a way for the pilot inside the cockpit to over-ride the "E" code, so that entry will be denied. There is a switch in the cockpit that the pilot can use to toggle it to either; Lock-Unlock-Norm. But when the "E" code is entered there is a 5 second lapse of time until the door unlocks, which gives the person inside the cockpit time to lock the door again. As of this moment, there is no way that the cockpit door can be locked and access through it will be allowed. I would have thought that after the German crash, the NTSB would have devised a plan or door that the FAA would have implemented to somehow allow for the person locked out to gain entry.


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