This could have been bad. - Finally a good outcome.

[Schnugg]

Strange place to have a failure.

Why would you say that?

 

[AllAmerican75]

The damage doesn't seem to be all that bad. Probably caused by aluminum fatigue and stress fractures that weren't taken care of properly. As Bogey already said, losing a bit of the fuselage isn't going to cause explosive decompression, nor is it going to make the aircraft less flyable. I'd honestly be more concerned about Qantas' maintenance habits and where the other cracks in the plane are that didn't fail, and why they didn't.

/Enginerd

 

[Flash]

Now, all of that could be bullshit, but I think I'll believe it, bullshit or not, because it's funny as hell. And I know many Israelis (not to mention related to many) and it certainly fits the profile.....

Most of it is true.

I recently saw a Discovery Military channel program that had a pretty thorough segment on that incident, it was in the past month (I watch both a lot and this was the first time I had seen this particular segment, it looked to be done recently). They interviewed the pilot, who was the student, and they had the HUD film and a lot of pictures of the plane. He was able to keep flying it because the F-15 fuselage was large enough that it created enough lift to keep flying, as long as he kept the speed up, which he figured out since he would start to lose control when he would go slower. If I remember from the program correctly, I think he landed at 200 knots or something.

When the MD engineers came out to take a look at the plane they thought it was a taxi accident at first. When they went back and looked at it more closely though they discovered that the plane could fly under those conditions. And I am pretty sure he was a student, and people told him to eject, but he told them he could fly it and he did. I don't remember anything about him getting punished for 'refusing to follow' orders though. And I think they reparied the plane and it is still flying for the Israelis.

 

[HAL Pilot]

IJust look at the classic case of airliner fatigue: Aloha 243. The damn thing landed without half the damn fuselage (entire roof ripped off). Only ONE person, a flight attendant, was lost due to the wind blast blowing her out. Everyone else was seated and virtually unharmed and all survived.

The copilot on that flight is now a new hire at Hawaiian. One of the Aloha pilots we brought onboard recently.

 

[JIMC5499]

I knew they shouldn't have served the bean burritos on that flight.

Funny you should mention that Aloha pilot. I think it was three months after all of the praise for the experience of the pilot in saving the aircraft, he was forcably retired due to his age.

 

[Check Six]

News item on TV here in Kiwiland last night about this accident and it seems they found rust in there, and had known about it for a few months.

Bet someone is going to get their ass kicked.

 

[A4sForever]

"The crew were terrific, they were really good, they kept everyone calm and told people what to do and helped people with their masks and things. Their reactions had a very calm effect on the other passengers."

Someone on another thread was complaining about F/A's in general and wondering what the flight attendants were there for -- and now you know. Like I said ... they are there for safety and for emergencies. If you get waited on in the style that YOU think YOU merit -- then bully for you; that's gravy.

“Upon disembarkation, there were some passengers who vomited ... when the pilot came off he got a round of applause .."

This was a typical reaction on the part of the pax following most of my flights ...

I obviously have no idea what caused this -- but the cargo doors have traditionally been a "weak" spot on the B747. I've had problems w/ them, up to and including a divert back to the point of origin when one came partially open after takeoff.

I'm certain most of you remember this, in spite of it's somewhat hysterical cover byline:

United Airlines Flight 811

 

[Scoob]

Not to mention the first officer on that flight was female, at a time when women were still proving themselves in the cockpit (although I'm sure they still are even today).

How do I know this you ask? I'm ashamed to say i was flipping channels one day, saw a movie playing with an airplane, and then noticed it was "Lifetime". !! Although surprisingly it had no "big bad man" or "evil porn killing out kids" theme to it.

Why did I watch a lifetime movie? Well.... I guess my balls were in the shop that day...

"Lifetime: Television for Idiots"

At exactly what point did you decide that something you saw on Lifetime telivision was somehow of relevance to anything within the world of Naval Aviation?!?!?!?

 

[nugget61]

Didn't they do this on mythbusters a little while ago? Blow a hole in an aircraft to see if it would still fly?

I dunno about that, but they did recently test to see if a bullet could cause an 'explosive' decompression (like in US Marshals)

 

[PropAddict]

Yes, I've seen the light: the F/A's have a purpose.

Inside info on the crash is given here:

http://www.neptunuslex.com/2008/07/26/commwealth-flying/#comments


Turns out the pilot was a retired RAN A-4 driver.

 

[Flash]

Inside info on the crash is given here:

http://www.neptunuslex.com/2008/07/26/commwealth-flying/#comments

Turns out the pilot was a retired NZ A-4 driver.

According to the article the pilot was a former Royal Australian Navy A-4 driver, not New Zealand.

RAN = Royal Australian Navy

RNZAF = Royal New Zealand Air Force