Airplane Inflight Emergencies – Not “If” but “When”
Posted by Jeffrey on March 16th, 2011
How many times do you get into an airplane and just…”GO”?
Well maybe this story will help.
We were starting a trip. Everything was going well. We had a good airplane with one minor deferred item, the weather was VFR, and it was the first leg of a four-day trip.
In preparing for the flight, I hadn’t done anything different than I do on every flight. I brief the crew, take my time, make sure all the checklists are done, provide a complete takeoff briefing, maintain a nice tempo, and maintain a “sterile” flight deck.
After pushing back from the gate, we taxied up to the hold line for the runway and waited for our clearance. At this point I take of few seconds to imagine the takeoff, especially a takeoff where something goes wrong. Usually I imagine an engine failure at V1. I think about my call outs and where we are going to go.
During this takeoff roll, right at V1 our nose wheel tire impacted something. I never saw it. Since we were at V1, there wasn’t much choice…we had to take it into the air. I could have done a rejected takeoff and our available stopping distance may or may not have been enough to stop the airplane safely, but it has been drilled into me that it is better to get airborne and deal with it than to risk running out of runway and possibly hurting the passengers and damaging the airplane further.
There is also another reason to get airborne. Let’s say you do overrun the end of the runway. There are no emergency vehicles waiting for you. If you get airborne, you can take care of the problem, declare an emergency, and prepare the cabin for an emergency landing. You are in a way better position for a safer outcome. Having emergency vehicles right there waiting for your airplane is priceless.
So back to the event.
We get airborne. Since we don’t know the extent of the damage to the nose wheel we decide to leave it extended. We climb to a safe altitude and tell tower we are an emergency aircraft, that we impacted something on the runway (FOD) and that we will be returning for a landing.
For the next 20 minutes we discuss our options both worse case and best case. We declare an emergency and communicate with the flight attendant, the passengers and ATC. I believe that communication is just as important as anything else you will do during an emergency. Not THE most important thing, but important!
So, our worst case scenario is that we’ve damaged the nose wheel strut and that once we land it will collapse and we will evacuate onto the runway or that both our tires disintegrate and our strut just digs into the runway, breaks, and collapses and we evacuate onto the runway.
Our best case scenario is that we have our nose wheel tires and that our nose wheel strut is intact and we can clear the runway and then continue back to the gate.
About halfway through this 30 minute flight, ATC offers and coordinates a flyby on a nearby tower. We take the offer. We have lots of fuel, plus we need to burn some of it off. We head to the airport and drop down to 1,000 feet AGL and slow the airplane. Tower informs us that it looks like we have both our nose wheel tires which is great news.
Finally, I talk to the flight attendant one more time and tell her to prepare the cabin for an emergency landing…just in case the nose gear fails.
Once she calls back and tells me the cabin is ready, we were committed.
The landing went without any problems and we were able to taxi clear of the runway. Fire/crash/rescue inspected the tire and the airplane and didn’t see any apparent damage, so we continued to the gate.
Once we got back to the gate it was all about logistics now, i.e., taking care of the passengers and getting a new airplane.
Other than some flow control delays, the rest of the day went without incident and we finally got to our destination late that night.
So, will it happen to you? Will you be ready? I always prepared for it. I didn’t know when it would happen but it did. Of course there are few things that I would have done different but not much. There is always room for improvement but for now I have a great learning experience behind me. You can bet that I won’t forget it soon. Plus, I think I will be a better pilot for “when,” if ever, it happens again!
To Your Flying Success,
Jeffrey
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April 24th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
[...] out this article on Airplane Inflight Emergencies and what happens when they really do [...]
April 26th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
nice post very interesting !!!!