Southwest 906
- Thread starter Wardogg
- Start date
Murdoughnut
Well sized member
Jammed stabilizer not worthy of declaring?
N8631A Flight Tracking and History 17-Jun-2022 (KBWI-KBWI) - FlightAware
Track N8631A flight from Baltimore/Washington Intl to Baltimore/Washington Intl
flightaware.com
It's a NG: N8631A - B737-8H4
CoffeeIcePapers
Well-Hung Member
///AMG
Well-Known Member
0 hours here in a 121 jet, so my opinion matters not, but I'd say if it is an event that involves a mandatory report to the NTSB, it probably warrants declaring. Sounds like the controller did it for them anyway.
edit: style points, it appears they made a sky penis
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Cherokee_Cruiser
Bronteroc
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
Sully never declared either.
Saying the magic word doesn't help the airplane fly better, improve the weather, or buy you more time. If ATC is giving you all the help you need, saying "emergency" doesn't really change anything. Also, a busy flight crew could easily just overlook it assuming they weren't being delayed by ATC.
Having said that, if they aren't getting the message, then "declaring an emergency" will get their attention real quick. If you feel the need, then by all means use it.
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thepotato232
Well-Known Member
The decision making process on that day was a bit more truncated than SWA906 here, of course. There are plenty of factors associated with this event (flight control failure, QRH may say "land at nearest suitable airport," etc) that would have eventually directed the Southwest crew to declare an emergency after the initial shock and procedural wrangling were dealt with. "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" and all that jazz.
ATC here obviously understood the nature of the event well enough to check all the boxes associated with an emergency aircraft, prompt the crew to provide the standard information when workload permitted, and have the red carpet laid out for the return. Taking the time to make the declaration official would have been redundant in this case with such a sharp controller. We should all be so lucky.
ATC here obviously understood the nature of the event well enough to check all the boxes associated with an emergency aircraft, prompt the crew to provide the standard information when workload permitted, and have the red carpet laid out for the return. Taking the time to make the declaration official would have been redundant in this case with such a sharp controller. We should all be so lucky.
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///AMG
Well-Known Member
Waiting on OE 1 still....it's at least down from a high of a 6 week delay pretty recently
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///AMG
Well-Known Member
I agree that it doesn't make the flying part easier. But it could help the situation of the pax once you get on the ground, in whatever manner that happens. I don't think Sully & Co had time to state the obvious, and I would presume that they assumed it was obvious enough to not say. Not faulting these guys either (you do you), jammed stab in this thing in the sim was a handful, but it wasn't like they just omitted the declaration....they said they didn't need it. If I need priority for an emergency return, or 20 miles of unmolested wings-level downrange travel and a block of 5,000 feet over Baltimore to wrangle the beast under control, using the E word is a good way of getting it. Sounds like they did a professional job either way, this is perhaps the ultimate session of Monday morning QB ever
CoffeeIcePapers
Well-Hung Member
Yes, but these guys were asked like 3x. If anything, just say yes to stop ATC from chirping in your ear.
Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
Not only that but when they asked for the trucks to be waiting its almost like they were averse to saying the word.
Murdoughnut
Well sized member
That was my thing - it almost seemed like it created a distraction not declaring.
USMCmech
Well-Known Member
I didn't listen to the whole video, just skimmed through the highlights.
If they had flight control issues and were asked 3X if they were an emergency and said no 3x then I would have serious questions about why.
Flight control issues is one of the things that is automatically a no BS emergency.
roundout
VNAV monitor
When a 70 year old Sunday flying fudd is the Captain
dOn’t wAnT tO fIlL oUt pApErWorK11
guess what dude, if you have a flight control failure you’re filling out paperwork anyway!
NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
It’s always baffled me the hesitation some pilots have with declaring. The only fatality I’ve worked didn’t declare. I wound up declaring for him but his nonchalance at first made me think he wasn’t in as much trouble as he was. Had he declared right away and I could have given him the vector to an airport thr 30 seconds earlier he might have made the runway instead of the trees on 1 mile final. I don’t think he wanted to because it turns out he was out of gas.
thepotato232
Well-Known Member
It's been a few years since I was in the box with a 737 crew, and I am by no means a definitive voice on the subject, but Boeing has been fairly emphatic that a misbehaving stab is a "use all available resources to get it on the runway" scenario since before the MAX took to the skies.
The controllers out of BWI yesterday were top notch. Kudos to the crew for handing the aircraft so well, and for giving us a scenario we can all pick apart from the comfort of our homes with all souls safe on the ground. The crew's handling of multiple prompts about emergency status would be a debrief item after a successful sim session for most instructors I know. Counting on such a proactive response from ATC when things get dicey is tempting Murphy's Law.
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