Miracle over Pacific

I saw an hour long documentary TV show about that...........the guy was a hero for sure...........RIP.

A badge latch design and an electric glitch caused the problem IIRC......and a total loss disaster was prevented by Boeing's excellent fuselage and bulkhead design.
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When did that happen?

 

Friday, February 24, 1989

 

2.24.89

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_811

 

Every time I read/think about this event I can't help but wonder what happened with those people who were sitting in the plane one second, and then suddenly falling to the next. RIP.

Also, the part of the story where the flight engineer leaves the cockpit to check to see what happened - I wonder what he really said when he got back to the cockpit.

 

They would have probably have been immediately knocked unconscious as a result of be injected into the airflow at high speed (400 knots, like hitting a cement wall)......or died immediately from broken necks and/or other bones due to the same thing. Hypoxia and or the cold would have never played much if any part in it at 22,000'..............

 

He was climbing at the time, so they wouldn't have been going that fast at all. Best ROC is 304 kts for a loaded 747. If the seats went straight out the people would have been slung forward since the seats are light and have more aero drag, but the deceleration was probably very survivable, probably less than 20 or so g's. Might have blacked them out but unless they hit other parts of the plane on the way out they probably didn't die until they hit the water. Pure speculation and I'm open to other theories, but going out at 300kts wouldn't kill you from the aero forces, the "parachute effect" of seats hurt, but it's probably no more than opening a chute when you are going 150 kts. JMHO

 

Explosive decompression in the Comet incident occurred in less than 1 /10th of a second and emptied the cabin in that span of time. Those who are subjected to that much acceleration don't know it. The 747 passengers who were blown out above the door I would imagine experienced the same instantaneous G that the Comet pax did and hitting air flow at 340 knots would be deadly. Then some of them hit the number three engine (they found some human remains there) and maybe the number 4 engine, and the wing. I probably shouldn't mention it but I have been in three violent incidents, the last a head on collision when I was in college and somehow survived it when I was unbelted in the passenger's seat. My upper body went through the windshield and believe me, you don't know it and you don't feel it. It's a different story the next day. In my humble opinion , I don't think that those passengers knew what happened when they were fired out through the hole in the fuselage.
Switches

 

Not a Hero, just an Airline pilot (and a good one at that) doing his job.

 

Flying from point A to point B is his job. Taking a plane with a huge hole in the side of it and only has two of it's four engines working and landing it safely, preventing the loss of countless lives is a little beyond that don't you think? Anyone who saves lives is a hero in my book regardless of whether it's part of the job or not. This guy is no different.

 

Not to take away from the pilots of United 811 - they saved the day and performed both heroically and professionally.

However it was the Campbell family from New Zealand that everyone who flies today must thank. Their son was one of the persons killed in the accident.

They felt Boeing was hiding facts, and NTSB wasn't performing their duties to the best of their abilities. They hired their own investigators and spent two years and all their own funds to prove the cause of the accident.

In the end the NTSB, and Boeing altered their own findings, and accepted fully the Campbells privately funded investigation.

Changes were made to the door locking systems, solely due to the efforts of the grief stricken but highly focused Campbell family.

As for the crew of Flight 811, they directed immediately for passengers to have their seatbelts securely fastened, and then flew the badly stricken airplane to safety.

 

There was a TV documentary about them as well..........

 

I just watched a documentary on them. Wow, you're absolutely correct. They are serious heroes themselves.

I really hope Boeing and the NTSB learned a lesson from that.

 

Was there any mention ever of recovering any of the victims? They got the door...
surely at least a few of the poor passengers would have been strapped in (during
ascent) and would have stayed with their seats.... just wondering what the closure
for the families was. I know that were it one of MY family this happened to I'd
want someone to put as much effort into finding them as they did the door.

Jedi

 

Ive had two engine failures in my airline career, one that smoked up the cabin pretty well, I landed the airplane safely with one engine because i was trained to deal with emergencies, does that make me a hero???? That CREW did an awsome job for sure, but i dont really see it as heroism.

 

–noun, plural -roes; for 5 also -ros.
1.a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
3. the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.
4.Classical Mythology .
a. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.
b. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.
c. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.
5. hero sandwich.
6. the bread or roll used in making a hero sandwich.

According to three of the six definitions the pilot that landed the 747 was a hero. If you have a hangup about being called a hero because of your distinguished ability (see 1 above) then that is okay. We will just chalk it up to your training and no other intangible qualities.

 

First off I agree that it was an outstanding effort and the pilots deserve congratulations and respect.

Disagree with that. Flying from A to B can be, and often is, done by computer. The pilot is there to supervise but more importantly the pilot is there for when there is a problem the machine cannot cope with, such as this one.

Since the pilot was just doing his job is he still a hero? Absolutely!

 

http://www.rgj.com/article/20101005/NEWS/101005056

The man was a hero! Sullenberger and him will go down in history as examples of why we can't water down pilot training in exchange for computer automation.