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smackay

It's always impressive to see pilots who are able to recover from seemingly impossible situations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4288383.stm

More tales of derring-do that will be a thing of the past when everything is automated.

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This one impressed me the most: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

After a total hydraulic failure, the pilots still managed to land just using thrust difference between the two engines. I'm impressed anybody survived.

Add the RA-85563 test flight to the list. http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=122072

I've always been extremely impressed and awed by the pilots of the Gimli Glider.

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

"The aircraft's fuel gauges were inoperative because of an electronic fault which was indicated on the instrument panel and airplane logs (the pilots believed flight to be legal with this malfunction)."

Dudes, wtf? Unless Canadian regulations differ from US ones, you're not even allowed to fly a single-seater in day VFR without a fuel gauge.

this story is longer, I think: http://www.damninteresting.com/the-gimli-glider/

it explains why they flew without a fuel gauge. tl;dr - they knew the gauge was broken, but regs allowed the flight if the maintenance crew did a manual sounding of the tanks and the measured fuel was enough. they sounded and measured, but converted incorrectly between pounds and kilos. I think the pilots were severely disciplined for that failure.

They were disciplined by Air Canada as Air Canada held the pilots and ground crew at fault even though the Aviation Board found Air Canada at fault.

Their disciplinary action was later overturned and "the pilots were awarded the first ever Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Diploma for Outstanding Airmanship."

Due to this incident, using thrust vectoring in a control surface failure scenario is now built into flight management software.

That's a hell of a resume item.

I read about an earlier incident where all hydraulics in a DC10 failed as a result of cargo door failure as a kid. The passengers on that plane were very, very lucky that their pilot had practiced doing this for fun in a simulator. I suspect that a lot of pilots learned this technique precisely because of the earlier incident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#America...

The interview of the pilot Dennis Fitch by Erol Morris in the TV show First Person [1] is one of the most riveting interviews I've ever seen -- would highly recommend it.

[1] First Person, Season 2 "Leaving the Earth"

Yeah, that's an amazing story. You know things were bad when your landing kills a third of your passengers and you get a presidential commendation for saving that many.

A Belgian pilot managed to land a DHL Airbus A300B4-200F jet after a missile attack had drained all 3 hydraulic systems and damaged the left wing. He also landed the plane using throttle control only.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Baghdad_DHL_attempted_shoo...

Definitely came to this thread expecting this link. It's a great story.

As an addendum, NASA has been doing research into autopilot control for this sort of scenario. They call it Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA): http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-041...

Personal favorite is the first officer landing the plane while holding on to the captain who has been sucked out of the blown out windshield. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390

That's pretty weird, given that flight crews are required to wear their seat belts at all times.

I'd have to revisit the story to see just how that happened, but explosive decompression is a hell of a drug. When it's happened in the passenger portion of aircraft, seats have been ripped off the floor to which they're bolted. Pulling someone out of a loosely-fastened seat belt (even, possibly, a multi-point harness) isn't beyond contemplation.

[Citation needed]

The few times someone has been pulled out of a plane due to decompression has been because they were stood right under the panel that failed( Ahola 243 ) or have been sat right on top of the cargo door that failed (aa96 and Turkish 981 ). I'd love to know how decompression unbolted a seat.

Acking your cite req. I don't have one handy, though a review of decomp cases should be reasonable feasible -- there are pretty comprehensive lists of aircraft accidents. And I'll admit not being positive of my information, though I do believe there are cases where a seat or seats have been ripped out.

As to your req: TWA Flight 800 incident reports claim that the pilot and 70% of the passengers were pulled from the fuselage following structural failure of the aircraft (the front 1/3 of the plane detached from the remainder following a fuel tank explosion). Several rows of seats were also detached.

Situation would have been massive structural failure and exposure of the aircraft interior to the jetstream and fireball, which is more than an explosive decompression, but it is a referenced case.

Specific mentions begin at about 20 minutes into the following video based on NTSB reports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbny8XnAifY

There's some mention of passengers being hurled from the plane in the NTSB accident report that I can find, but I can't find full cites for the claims of the video:

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2000/AAR0003.pdf

There's the fact that most of the passengers suffered "severe" trauma (described as "internal decapitation" in the video), likely from sudden deceleration as the nose separated.

Read the book that includes this incident Emergency: Crisis on the Flight Deck. Pilot's have 4 or 5 point harnesses, but don't wear outside of takeoff and landing. In level, uneventful flight, it's just the lap belt. Further, if you're walking around, say to the bathroom, you might not yet be belted in.

I co-own a sailboat with two Hawaiian Airlines pilots (both formerly Aloha Airlines pilots). One is my best friend, the other is Mimi Tompkins

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

I know this is kind of nitpicky, but a loss of engine power isn't really an impossible situation if the plane is close enough to a runway. It's by no means easy to land one of those things without power, but they are designed for it to be possible.

In US Airways 1549 mishap, the "miraculous" part is that he ditched in the water in a large airliner with 100% survival. If he had a runway available "down range" it would have been somewhat lesser event to land the jet safely.

That said, I think TACA Flight 110 (737-300) was an impressive "miracle" glide landing too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACA_Flight_110

Ah I see, I missed the water landing part, sorry.

The F-16 fighter has the glide characteristics approaching that of a rock.

Yet this guy still managed to dead stick land his crippled F-16 aircraft.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=21b_1358528621&comments=1

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