LAX Fedex Incident

ATC audio....

Sounds like a great job by the crew, the video online shows them tracking straight down the centerline minus the left main gear in a 767. Unfortunately one of the pilots was apparently injured climbing down the rope from the DV window.

Sucks about the injury. LAX airport fire is one of a good few large airport departments that has an air stair truck emergency vehicle that responds with crash trucks for transport-category aircraft. In fact, its right there on the video as one of the first arriving trucks on scene, just ahead of the crash trucks.

With no active fire or immediate danger showing, egressing the plane via the cockpit rope, which is never practiced, is more risk than reward. If no one has done that before, it’s more difficult than it looks, and many people find they don’t have the strength to hand-over-hand their own weight down the rope, much less properly transition from leaving the window onto the rope. Appears he may have fallen from the rope from some height.
 
Sucks about the injury. LAX airport fire is one of a good few large airport departments that has an air stair truck emergency vehicle that responds with crash trucks for transport-category aircraft. In fact, its right there on the video as one of the first arriving trucks on scene, just ahead of the crash trucks.

With no active fire or immediate danger showing, egressing the plane via the cockpit rope, which is never practiced, is more risk than reward. If no one has done that before, it’s more difficult than it looks, and many people find they don’t have the strength to hand-over-hand their own weight down the rope, much less properly transition from leaving the window onto the rope. Appears he may have fallen from the rope from some height.
You're probably not the right person to ask, but would the crew even know airstairs would be available or would the SOP be to jump out the window?
 
Video


In a situation like this would you shut down the engine that’s going to be scraping or would it not make any difference in terms of fire risk?
I wondered the same thing. The left engine seemed to be running as it slowed down (pretty impressive), I'd guess the thinking would be "It's already a bad situation, let's not make it worse.".
 
Video


In a situation like this would you shut down the engine that’s going to be scraping or would it not make any difference in terms of fire risk?

Makes no difference for the approach Fire-prevention wise. All you’re doing is adding another emergency situation unnecessarily. Secure the engines on skid-out or stop. It’s going to likely get FOD-ed anyway.
 
Video


In a situation like this would you shut down the engine that’s going to be scraping or would it not make any difference in terms of fire risk?
No reason to make a potentially 'interesting' landing even more complicated in my mind. Come to a stop, run the engine fire checklist for the side you scraped (blow the bottles essentially) and then see what's going on. Won't make judgement, but a bit surprised they bailed out the windows.
 
Did they try to take their carry ons with them in the evacuation like FedEx 647 did?





Luckily not. What a complete shambles that one was.

You're probably not the right person to ask, but would the crew even know airstairs would be available or would the SOP be to jump out the window?

No reason to make a potentially 'interesting' landing even more complicated in my mind. Come to a stop, run the engine fire checklist for the side you scraped (blow the bottles essentially) and then see what's going on. Won't make judgement, but a bit surprised they bailed out the windows.


Not sure if it was told to them specifically regarding that truck being on scene. However, once the cockpit window is opened, its prudent to take a look back to where you know the problem was on whichever side of the aircraft, and make a quick assessment to whether there’s a situation where you need to egress now with no precautions (active fire or such), or can be a little slower and careful and with a little more of a plan.....or see which vehicles are arriving. Otherwise the risk of injury is highly elevated when it may not have needed to be. Probably a good debriefing or advisory point.
 
No reason to make a potentially 'interesting' landing even more complicated in my mind. Come to a stop, run the engine fire checklist for the side you scraped (blow the bottles essentially) and then see what's going on. Won't make judgement, but a bit surprised they bailed out the windows.
I don't know if both pilots bailed out on the rope or just one. Can't figure out why the hell he or they did that with no fire and no smoke. Long way to fall/hit the asphalt. May have just panicked. I agree with you.....run the checklist and blow the damn bottles.


At 1:00, you can see one pilot on the ground and rolling around some.Ugh.Hope he'll be okay.
 
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Apparently no slides in the cargo only 767...there’s an inertia reel system located at the forward left side door.

Yup.

I took this Fedex flight several times when I did the EWR-LAX commute. I assumed that doorway we entered from had a slide. Nope. A CA told me if there's an emergency, you grab that handle-looking thing in the ceiling and out we go. And apparently there's even a harness where if one guy is unconscious, you put that on them so they can be lowered (thrown?) out. :eek:
 
I don't know if both pilots bailed out on the rope or just one. Can't figure out why the hell he or they did that with no fire and no smoke. Long way to fall/hit the asphalt. May have just panicked. I agree with you.....run the checklist and blow the damn bottles.


At 1:00, you can see one pilot on the ground and rolling around some.Ugh.Hope he'll be okay.

Poor dude is on the ground probably writhing and the stair truck is feet away. I'm sure in the moment it's fight or flight.

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Poor dude is on the ground probably writhing and the stair truck is feet away. I'm sure in the moment it's fight or flight.

Agreed. Fight or flight moment sure, but take a moment when opening the window and look around. Get some SA. Keep your head. As they say.....hack the clock and don’t take any sudden actions? They just solved the hardest part of the puzzle successfully: the inflight emergency and landing, likely in a cool and professional manner. Why lose it now?

If things outside looked like the FedEx jet in FLL post landing, then that’s another story.
 
I don't know if both pilots bailed out on the rope or just one. Can't figure out why the hell he or they did that with no fire and no smoke. Long way to fall/hit the asphalt. May have just panicked. I agree with you.....run the checklist and blow the damn bottles.


At 1:00, you can see one pilot on the ground and rolling around some.Ugh.Hope he'll be okay.

Video? I can't see one in that link?
 
Yup.

I took this Fedex flight several times when I did the EWR-LAX commute. I assumed that doorway we entered from had a slide. Nope. A CA told me if there's an emergency, you grab that handle-looking thing in the ceiling and out we go. And apparently there's even a harness where if one guy is unconscious, you put that on them so they can be lowered (thrown?) out. :eek:

And it has to be done correctly. The inertia reels stop at preset lengths. And the handle is designed to be held at chest height. In one is unable to do that and allows the handle to extend above their head, there’s a chance they can hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, before the inertia reel system engages. If there’s time to don the harness and clip it in at the waist as designed, that’s better.
 
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