Herr Vanka you are as usual qvite right; I underschtand zere vas in fact nein crossvind und zee piltos vere merely sheise-faced. Allegedly.
Zis vas eine Lufthansa flugen as vell!
On eine serious note - zese vere in fact tip-top flugen skills. I bet zee fuhrer vishes he had pilots of zis calibre for zee Battle of Britain?
Talking of vich:
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them.
The following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206 was funny.
Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The PA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
You could be right Vanker.
I was on a flight from Helsinki to the Kola Peninsula a few years back in an old Illyushin piloted by the most drunk Russian I have ever seen. The co-pilot was sober, but had no idea how to fly an aircraft. Either way, it didn't really matter, because the plane wasn't particularly airworthy anyway and a baboon would have had as much chance of getting it to land in a straight line.
We eventually came down in a field about 400 meters from the end of the runway, having lost a wheel and about a third of the undercarriage. The worst thing about it all was that half an hour later me and two other guys had to get on a Sikorsky chopper for the last leg of our journey.
Guess who the pilot was....
Not trying to be funny gymyg, but who was driving the bus - your friend (hit by aircraft piloted by Russian?), or the Russian pilot (driving the bus your friend was in?)
What was the story?
This happened in Hamburg, Germany, only 2 days ago during heavy storms. The aircraft was hit by a gust of wind from the left side but the pilot luckily could take off again.
There is currently an investigation why the airport kept that runway open even though they have one that was less affected by the wind. As you can see from the sideways position in which the plane is flying there is a strong cross wind. The pilots were cleared of any guilt and were commended for their coordinated reaction that saved the aircraft.
The plane touched down safely about 15 minutes later.
My story is one of lightning, as in a bolt hitting the wing of a puddle jumper I was flying in somewhere over Alabama about ten years ago. My daughter was with me, she laughed and laughed, said "this is fun daddy" (this from a 12 year old that was afraid of roller coaster rides!). After losing a couple thousand feet in altitude, real quick, bouncing around in a horrendous thunderstorm, then seeing the damage on the wing....I've decided to stick with the big jets!
The scariest moments in flight for me were not in commercial aircraft, I'll save those stories for another time.
Lightning hits those big jets too. I was looking out the window somewhere over Arizona, and boom a bolt hits the top of the wing and conducts around and out the bottom of the wing. It was pretty cool!
When I was working on my pilots license back in '89, I was coming in for my third solo landing. Suddenly the tower comes on and says "Charlie foxrtrot alpha tango, veer to your right immediately!" Me, being pretty green and thinking I had done something wrong, throttled up and cranked it starbord. As I veered away, I watched a Learjet approaching the same runway. Couple o' good 'ol boys in daddy's jet. Called for landing clearance, TO ANOTHER AIRPORT! Fuckin' near landed on me. Took some of the fun out of it for a while but I got back on the horse. Probably my shakiest landing ever though when I finally did land.
I experienced a cross-wind smack-around like that, whilst a passenger in my brothers' helicopter. That wind smacked our helo around pretty good, but I can't say it was as severe as what was shown in this clip.
*ding*... this is your captain speaking..... we're currently flying at an altitude of 10 meters...... and kinda.... well, we're experiencing a lot of unusual..... OH SHIT>>!@!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Woahhhhhhhhhhh..............*pant ... pant pant...... choke... cough****
Leaving Thursday for a flight to our kids in N. Carolina. Looking forward to the peanuts, and whatever else we might be able to buy enroute (probably not much).
Have flown a bit, probably not as much as many on this thread. Never had a harrowing experience, tho' I have recollection of a landing where the plane was being "crabbed" to offset crosswinds....mildly hard touchdown, but have had harder without weather excuses.
*ping - ping*
"....awwhhh, this is Captain McElhany....USAirways regrets the inconvenience you may experience due our late departure from Logan Airport. We will attempt to regain some time during our flight to New Orleans...in the meantime, complimentary codcktails will be provided for you by USAirways, as will our midflight meal....thank you for flying USAirways". *ping*
This is my scary flight experience it was from San Fran 2 New York. Twice during the flight the fasten your seat belts light came on & the jet shook & vibrated only for a sec or 2 twas very scary anyway the shopping in New York was faaabulous & Ashley (he is a top fashion designer) made it all UP 2 me.
Mako -
On package flights I think it's down to passengers' inexperience of flying and general lack of brain cells.
On Aeroflot, it's a genuine reaction to the unusual event of a safe landing.
By the way charliebad - I think the effect of the wind at the time of this attempted landing was a little more than "simulator basics". I'm no expert, but people I've spoken to who are say the captain did really well to save the day on this occasiion.
Since found out that this was during some very strong storms in Europe over the weekend in which a number of people died, with 100mph winds in some places. Am not saying this was the case here but there were obviously pretty hairy crosswinds which I know do get taught in simulators
That said, and of more interest to me in this particular case, the co-pilot was a 24 year old woman who was being allowed to try and land for crosswind experience
The 39yr old senior pilot obviously insisted that 'he had control' at a certain point during the attempt. I wonder whether he said it quite that calmly though?
BTW I'm not berating the fact it was was a woman co-pilot as women make very good pilots, but one questions the sense of the senior pilot in allowing someone with little experience to attempt a crosswind landing when conditions were this extreme... Everyone has to learn sometimes I guess and the senior pilot did brilliantly to save the aircraft and passengers.
As I wrote before the pilots have been cleared of any faults by the investigation board. Though the yellow press did of course pick up the fact that a woman (good looking blonde by the way) was flying and tagged her as inexperienced.
If you look closely at the video you will see that there was no pilot error. The plane touches ground and begins to line up with the runway when it gets a violent wind blast from the right.
life's about choices. hopefully, however, my life's not about some other boner's choices... if ya know... what I'm tryin... ta say..... to youuuuuuuu.....
that pilot should have been sacked ... firstly he should have gone round again at about 200 feet and secondly because he didn't, he should have never 'turned left' when the wind had blown him to the right edge of the runway ... didn't he know that his wing would have dropped when turning left ? ... or don't they teach you that when learning to fly nowadays ?
The scariest moments in flight for me were not in commercial aircraft, I'll save those stories for another time.
I have read this news and many people are discussing about this on RichMingle.com, a site for celebrities and wealthy people. Really hot!
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