Transat 737 cargo. Ditch 2 miles offshore after an engine problem on takeoff. Both pilots in good condition.
would the crew have egressed out of the overhead hatches or somewhere else like pax door?
Whew, glad they lived, I assume neither had any buoyancy on to help stay afloat. Close run thing for the 58 year old. Still.
Your concern was warranted. Lost a generator on taxi at Lemoore to fly back to CV . Started APU and given the good weather and need to get back to the ship, we pressed on. Not 5 minutes after take off the other generator dropped off line. Yep, same sailor over serviced both. They quit within 15 minutes of each other.
No overhead on 737. Cockpit side "clear view" windows slide open. It is a tight fit for some guys. Front left main cabin entry is required to be armed even when only cockpit crew on board. SOP was to simply open that door and exit. Slide can be used as raft and I am sure larger raft was in the cabin overhead. Probably not worth the effort given proximity to shore and good mayday. They could have grabbed personal flotation from under or behind their cockpit seats on way out.
It was immediate. Basically a loud pop (probably the bolt head hitting the tail rotor cuff) and then some heavy vibrations from the tail. The Enstrom has a very very docile autorotation but without tail rotor control you need to milk the throttle and collective to keep the nose more or less forward. The POH says I could continue on for a bit but the sudden yaw in the nose and strength of the vibration shook my confidence so down I went. If I had been with another pilot we might have gutted it out together with some shared headwork.
Griz, Don"t sell yourself short. With your time in aircraft, high DA going into unprepared zone was a bit of outstanding flying. Having T/R gearbox failure while high and (too) slow in UH-1 was a handful but worked out OK, as well as engine failures a couple of times at sea level pretty much standard day was routine after 1000 plus hours and many practice autos in the UH-1. I would say all of mine were cakewalk compared to yours.
