i hope you weren't on this airplane... (if so, i'm glad you made it back)

queenlives

queenlives

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(this mailed to me by an airline pilot friend of mine. anybody aware of this incident and the involved airline?)

It recently transpired that a little "Rat Jet" / regional flamed out
both engines taxiing back to the gate in Charlotte. Ummm... = That's
affirmative...there wasn't any more fuel aboard the plane just a
coupla' minutes after touching down and clearing the runway.

Here's the punch line: The crew had taken off for a fairly short trip
without ever, actually even, as-impossible-as-this-sounds/no BS
checking the fuel aboard. It gets better....they got almost halfway
to destination prior to sagely determining that things weren't right.

The "Captain" then made the brilliant decision to forgoe sensibly
landing at whatever-tha'-fugg airport was closest...and turned the
ship back to CLT...and bucked nearly 80 knots of headwind in so doing.
 
Wow, why wouldn't the pilot just land at the nearest airport possible, I'd be pissed! That airline would be getting a hell of a lot more than my $.02 that just inexcusable, not checking the fuel!
 
Last time i flew we were held up at the departure gate. People started whining etc about why the plane hadn't left. Eventually the pilot announced the reason for the delay was the plane hadn't been given enough fuel; it was only their re-checking that revealed it. :rolleyes:

A 20 minute delay for fuel was better than running out of fuel 20 minutes from our destination. :)
 
Big_nate said:
"Rat jet"? Sounds like someone with an axe to grind against the regionals. I'll have to call B.S. on this one.

Nate
Click to expand...
i hear what you're saying. having said that, the person who relayed the story to me is one of my three best friends, going back to '66. he's a captain for a major u.s. airline and as well as a retired af major.

if he said it, i believe it.
 
NeoNSX said:
Last time i flew we were held up at the departure gate. People started whining etc about why the plane hadn't left. Eventually the pilot announced the reason for the delay was the plane hadn't been given enough fuel; it was only their re-checking that revealed it. :rolleyes:

A 20 minute delay for fuel was better than running out of fuel 20 minutes from our destination. :)
Click to expand...
last month i was a pax on a regional from ida to slc. we were held up on the ground @ ida due to fog @ slc; eventually the flight attendant came on and said we were going to head off for slc in the hopes the weather would clear while we were en route, but "not to worry, our captain is a seasoned pilot who has made sure we've got plenty of extra fuel on board in case we're put on hold when we approach slc."

at the time, i thought to myself, "geez, who wouldn't think of making sure we've got extra fuel on board 'just in case'?" question answered.
 
queenlives said:
i hear what you're saying. having said that, the person who relayed the story to me is one of my three best friends, going back to '66. he's a captain for a major u.s. airline and as well as a retired af major.

if he said it, i believe it.
Click to expand...

you are not one of my 3 best friends. you do not fly for a major airline. you are not a retired AF major.

you wrote it. i don't believe you. :D :P
 
I was on a regional not long ago that immediately after take-off had the fire alarm trip, overwhelming smell of jet fuel, and began to see smoke in the cabin.

Suffice to say, we made a quick emergency landing and the crew got us new hardware.

One word: Scary.

110mph off the rear bumper of a car in the wet... mine as well be in bed at home reading a book... motorsports you at least have the perception of situational control instead of sitting on your duff in steerage.
 
I suppose we all forgot about the Canada Air jet that flammed out in mid flight back in the 70's. Or more recently the American Airlines flight in South America that had to make an emergency landing on some little Island because it didn't have enough fuel "or" it leaked out.....
 
queenlives said:
i hear what you're saying. having said that, the person who relayed the story to me is one of my three best friends, going back to '66. he's a captain for a major u.s. airline and as well as a retired af major.

if he said it, i believe it.
Click to expand...


I don't doubt your friends credentials and I'm not saying he's the originator of the story. What I question is whether it happened at all, which I doubt. And if it did happen, did it happen as described, which I doubt. It just sounds more like somebody trying to paint a negative picture. Of course, anythings possible. Just my opinion:smile:

Nate
 
Maybe their fuel gauge was faulty. I had a car like that once.
 
So did you ever make it to SLC? You should have looked me up. :smile:

queenlives said:
last month i was a pax on a regional from ida to slc. we were held up on the ground @ ida due to fog @ slc; eventually the flight attendant came on and said we were going to head off for slc in the hopes the weather would clear while we were en route, but "not to worry, our captain is a seasoned pilot who has made sure we've got plenty of extra fuel on board in case we're put on hold when we approach slc."

at the time, i thought to myself, "geez, who wouldn't think of making sure we've got extra fuel on board 'just in case'?" question answered.
Click to expand...
 
Big_nate said:
I don't doubt your friends credentials and I'm not saying he's the originator of the story. What I question is whether it happened at all, which I doubt. And if it did happen, did it happen as described, which I doubt. It just sounds more like somebody trying to paint a negative picture. Of course, anythings possible. Just my opinion:smile:

Nate
Click to expand...
nate,

i completely understand what you're saying... there's lots of room for "pilot error" in the story as reported by my friend. prior to my original post, i checked snopes - didn't find anything. so i'll ping him and see if he's got the documentable goods to back up the story or if this is a UFO.

hal
 
queenlives said:
i hear what you're saying. having said that, the person who relayed the story to me is one of my three best friends, going back to '66. he's a captain for a major u.s. airline and as well as a retired af major.

if he said it, i believe it.
Click to expand...

So was this recent? What airline?
 
710 said:
Maybe their fuel gauge was faulty. I had a car like that once.
Click to expand...

Faluty fuel gauge...that would be a Lamborghini Diablo. When you see the gauge at 1/4 tank of fuel you better be on your way to a gas station immediately!! If not, you will be on fumes within 20 miles....just ask me how I know. :mad:
 
John@Microsoft said:
I was on a regional not long ago that immediately after take-off had the fire alarm trip, overwhelming smell of jet fuel, and began to see smoke in the cabin.

Suffice to say, we made a quick emergency landing and the crew got us new hardware.

One word: Scary.

110mph off the rear bumper of a car in the wet... mine as well be in bed at home reading a book... motorsports you at least have the perception of situational control instead of sitting on your duff in steerage.
Click to expand...

On the way home to Indianapolis from Seattle a couple of months ago we were about halfway to our layover stop in St. Louis when the pilot announced that some people may have noticed we were headed in a different direction....reason being, we were now headed towards Denver. An engine suddenly failed at about 30,000 feet, and we only had one remaining. If that failed, we were screwed. It was on a big Boeing jet, and there were people freaking out. We came into the runway really fast since we could not just reverse the engines to slow down. The pilot did a great job. Scary though.
 
Meeyatch1 said:
On the way home to Indianapolis from Seattle a couple of months ago we were about halfway to our layover stop in St. Louis when the pilot announced that some people may have noticed we were headed in a different direction....reason being, we were now headed towards Denver. An engine suddenly failed at about 30,000 feet, and we only had one remaining. If that failed, we were screwed. It was on a big Boeing jet, and there were people freaking out. We came into the runway really fast since we could not just reverse the engines to slow down. The pilot did a great job. Scary though.
Click to expand...

The reason for the faster approach is due to using less flaps than normal during approach, and thus less drag and higher stall speed with less flaps. For example in the jet we fly, a single engine approach is done with flaps at 20 degrees instead of 45 and we add 12 kts to our Ref speed.

Reverse thrust on landing using only one engine is really moot as reverse thrust (even with both engines) really doesn't help that much to begin with except when the runway is contaminated with snow or standing water, etc.
 
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