I_Money
Moderator
In a huge thunderstorm no less, and did such a steller job, the aircraft was flown away from the accident site back to MSY.
I believe the pilot also had only 1 eye. The airplane is still flying today.
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Any pilots' worse nightmare..
- Thread starter Retired in SAN
- Start date
I believe the pilot also had only 1 eye. The airplane is still flying today.
rwgb1984
Well-Known Member
Wow. Reading that was intense. I listen to a podcast (no longer produced unfortunately) but one of the episodes was an interview with Bo Corby, CA of NWA Flight 41.
The gist of the event is that the crew had a cargo fire indication. They used both fire bottles in the cargo hold yet the indication came on again. At this point the Captain decided that the best course of action was to land the airplane and specifically references several other cargo hold fires in which the aircraft, crew and pax (in applicable events) were lost.
Long story short they put down in Tehran, even though the company had instructed crew to treat Iran as an ocean (indirect quote from the podcast.) It's a real interesting listen and I think it agrees with some of the other comments made: Aircraft fire means put it on the ground.
Link for those interested: http://www.flightpodcast.com/episode-4-bo-corby-nwa-flight-41-into-tehran
The gist of the event is that the crew had a cargo fire indication. They used both fire bottles in the cargo hold yet the indication came on again. At this point the Captain decided that the best course of action was to land the airplane and specifically references several other cargo hold fires in which the aircraft, crew and pax (in applicable events) were lost.
Long story short they put down in Tehran, even though the company had instructed crew to treat Iran as an ocean (indirect quote from the podcast.) It's a real interesting listen and I think it agrees with some of the other comments made: Aircraft fire means put it on the ground.
Link for those interested: http://www.flightpodcast.com/episode-4-bo-corby-nwa-flight-41-into-tehran
DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
How about a fire warning half way between Hawaii and Long Beach. You follow the checklist and descend to 250. Masks are on but you see no smoke. You take a mask off and smell no smoke. Now what? This is the one that gives me chills. False fire warnings are fairly common (though I've never had one).
rframe
pǝʇɹǝʌuı
Spooky!
Like smelling the heat turn on or feeling an engine stutter at night in single, but I can imagine it about 100x worse being out over the water in the middle of nowhere like that...
Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
M&Ms will be melting in my hand by the time I get on the ground, assuming I get on the ground.
It'd be nice to have a loadmaster or additional crewmember. "Take that walkaround bottle and have a look..."
z987k
Well-Known Member
Is there any reason the PNF couldn't do that?
Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
In a smoke/fire situation, neither pilot crew member should leave the controls.
If there's an ACM/IRO around I'd send them, though. (I fly live cargo so it might be different, but I don't want the PM going somewhere and passing out, because then you're really SOL. Sure you can fly it single pilot, but there is enough going on that you'll want help.)
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ackeight
Well-Known Member
In flight fires aren't very fun. This one was caused by fuel and not a battery. I think those batteries should be restricted from aircraft. I would feel super uneasy from flying them around. Could huge fire bags be made for those pallets? Could they hold off the fire long enough for a ditching?
Chills.
Chills.
Retired in SAN
Time to return to the saddle..
Did the occupants walk away? Looks like the landing was successful.In flight fires aren't very fun. This one was caused by fuel and not a battery. I think those batteries should be restricted from aircraft. I would feel super uneasy from flying them around. Could huge fire bags be made for those pallets? Could they hold off the fire long enough for a ditching?
Chills.
Bandit_Driver
Gold Member
That gives me chills as well. Could you imagine a lower aft body overheat in the 727 just past the ETP from LAX to HNL in the 727...
Only the Eastern 727 birds had automatic standby switching (727-225's). The engineers using went
Essential Power - Pretect it all costs.
Galley Power
Cargo Heat
Packs
not exceed the max 32 (1gen), 54 (2gen), 102KW's (3 gen)
Pack fan breakers would eventually get pulled as well window heat, landing lights etc.
In the accident in the 60's over water IIRC the FE accidently turned the battery switch off which left the cockpit pitch black and no instruments. The master witch was then moved to the top of the FE panel (from the middle center) some bird even had glow in the dark stripes put around the swtich.
Bandit_Driver
Gold Member
How about Ejections seats for the crews if it gets that bad....They trust us with everything else I think a professional flight crew would know when to pull the handles and when no to
Bumblebee
Commodore
weight=profit
///AMG
Well-Known Member
That and it would have to be developed from the ground up, including testing, etc. It isn't a bad idea in nature, but funding the mod and then training crews would probably be prohibitively expensive for the lone wolf in the industry that wanted to do this. Not to mention that ejection seats would suddenly make a lot of folks not physically qualified for flight. For tactical aircraft, there are pretty stringent sitting height, knee-to-butt length, etc standards that are not waiverable. On top of that, the weight envelope is like 140 lbs - 230 lbs, or even a max of 217 for some seats. Then start factoring in the older crowd of captains and such who in many cases probably wouldn't survive the shock of an ejection. It is a reasonable idea, but I don't see it taking hold for a lot of the above reasons.
And all other things being equal, statistically, an ejection still equates to serious injury or worse. While a lot of news reports will say an ejection was successful, or the crew survived, or they are in the hospital in stable condition, the only people I have ever known to have used the seat have all been permanently injured to some extent from the experience or did not survive. Better than death, but it would really only be an asset in an extremely unlikely scenario.
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F-111 style?
Bumblebee
Commodore
oh really? Does that do that?
Yes. Ejection is a capsule of the cockpit that separates. Has its own chutes and floats on water. Crew doesn't wear parachutes
