this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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>Volcano erupts in Indonesia
>Locals don't notice because they have shit weather radar
>747 flies through the dust cloud
>All 4 engines get filled with volcanic ash and burn out
>"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."
>Spend 12 minutes gliding, dropping 23,500 feet in the process
>The pilots are preparing to be the first 747 ever to attempt a water landing
>Finally one of the engines restarts
>But ILS is offline
>Windscreen is completely opaque due to ash, no way to clean it
>Manage to land running entirely on instruments
>Fatalities: 0
>Injuries: 0
Survivors: 263

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

And not a single drop of tea was spilled that day

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Missed the best part, they got a once in a lifetime lightening show located entirely in their kitchen I mean 747

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Mentour Pilot did a good video on this, including an interview with the pilot. https://youtu.be/YYwN1R8hVsI

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

That only had 262 people aboard the flight though.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Read "The Checklist Manifesto" and you understand why pilots follow their protocols. Outcomes like this are because they did everything exactly according to the checklist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Checklists and training/preparation.

A lot of times these super professional responses are from having practiced emergency procedures until the checklist may as well be tattooed on the back of their eyes.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago

Seriously fantastic book and it's a quick read. Definitely recommended.

It's written by a surgeon who was involved in helping promote the use of checklists in healthcare. A lot of the book is about looking at their use in other places like aviation and construction and realizing why they work and how they can help in other places. The book spends a lot of time on the idea that some fields have become so complex with so many pieces that it's impossible for any one person to be able to track it all in their head on the fly and the effect that has in "can't afford failure" industries.

A book about checklists sounds like it'd be dreadfully dry and boring but the author is a solid writer and the book is full of a ton of really interesting vignettes -- I find people tend to fly through it. I first read it probably 10 years ago and it's one of those books that has really stuck with me since.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Checklists are great and they work.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

In case anyone's wondering, this was British Airways 009.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The calmness and professionalism in the face over terrible odds and potential catastrophe just scream "british"

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could have been a very different outcome if not for the quick thinking of the cabin crew brewing up more tea for the pilots.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Sometimes you just need a cuppa.

[–] [email protected] 97 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If I had a nickel for every time a 747 lost engines going through volcanic ash and recovered with no fatalities, I would have two nickels.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement"

I didn't believe that was an actual quote but here we are.

On the descent without visibility....

Moody described it as "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse."

Oh my word. HAHAHA!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I mean, it begs the question as to how he knows what the inside of a badger's arse looks like lol

[–] [email protected] 62 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

When I was a kid, there was a TV show on the Discovery Channel called "Mayday" where they would reenact famous plane accidents. The episode about this particular incident (Falling from the sky) was my absolute favorite.

One thing anon left out is that they didn't actually realize what was going on at the time, and they witnessed something called "Saint Elmo's Fire" which looks a bit like the way they show stars whizzing past the Enterprise in Star Trek when they warp. So these pilots were not only flying blind and lame, but the whole time were seeing something that looked like they had just been teleported to another dimension out their window.

Edit: It turns out the full episode is on YouTube. Enjoy!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That show is now called Air Crash Investigation and it still airs! Its my favourite, I highly recommend catching up the recent seasons

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

show is now called Air Crash Investigation

According to the wikipedia I linked, the name varies based on where the show is aired. In Canada and the US, it's still called Mayday

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago

I can recommend the YouTube channel Mentour Pilot who breaks down flight accidents and incidents, how they happened, what went wrong and why and what lessons were learned from them.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 8 months ago (4 children)

And that's how pilots learned to never fly around an erupting volcano and several years back all air traffic in Europe was halted when a volcano with an unpronounceable name in Iceland had a bad moment.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

When talking about things in Iceland, the u pronounceable part can be safely assumed. You only need to clarify if it can be pronounced.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Catch a throatful from the fire vocal With ash and molten glass like Eyjafjallajökull

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago

That was shortly after their economy crashed. I remember people saying that the last wish of Iceland's economy was to have its ashes spread across Europe.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Hey, it is easy to spell how Icelanders pronounce it in my native language:

Eyyafyatlayakötül

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Or a cognate, Eyfallicle; ey as in island, fall as in a valley(?), icle from icicle.

Mér líkar þetta málið!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Islandmountainglacier. Got it. Why didn't they say that in the first place?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

On an island full of mountain glaciers, it does make you wonder how they came up with that name.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

The rest of them have names like "NoNotThatIslandMountainGlacierTheOtherOne"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The others have names like "rock flake", "old hag", "cloak", "broad shoulders", "Erik's "glacier" and "baldric's bump" from what I can quickly find. It seems they gave up with the Islandmountainglacier.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Baldric's got a bump that looks just like a turnip

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Good thing they're pretty isolated over there then

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