RAeS Webinar: The Boeing 777 Accident at Dubai Airport (2016) - Lessons to be Learnt

[@sebinamuwanga]

Passengers ignore the importance of listening to the safety briefing and adhering to safety instructions. This seems to be getting worse!

[@sadiqjohnny77]

As an ancient pilot who flew airliners for 37 years and . started on DC-3s and went on to F 27s, Super Constellations, Tridents, B 707/720s. DC -10s (Chief Pilot and Instructor) and finally 747-200s (Chief Pilot and Instructor--who wrote a modified SOP for that aircraft--approved by Boeing) --I would like to make a few observations. First, when I went on DC10s I noticed that pilots were becoming almost totally reliant on the automated systems, at the cost of their manual flying skills. While the automatics are very useful and they help lessen the workload of pilots, they should never be blindly trusted. This accident, the SFO, and Heathrow BA 777 crash-landings could have been avoided if this mentality had no been present. In my day we had the TOGA/GA systems but they were not always reliable. When close to the ground on an approach on autos it was mandatory to keep your hands on the control column and throttles so that you knew what they were doing. My advice to pilots that I trained was: that on go-arounds first get the power on manually (yourself--in our case the F/E could adjust it later) raise the nose to 10 degrees ( can be adjusted later) and call for go-around flaps. The aircraft WILL then go around without any complications. If a pilot cannot do that he/she should not be in a cockpit. As an example of this sort of action, my DC-10 was approaching at JFK on a cold winter's night with a 747 preceding our aircraft. As is usual at that airport with its high traffic load, the 747 was asked if he could clear the runway at the second intersection. He said that he could so the controller cleared us to land. As we swept over the threshold on a manual approach not using A/T, my copilot shouted a warning-=-the 747 was still on the runway and we were heading for its tail at a fast rate. I gated the throttles, pulled the nose up to 35 degrees (we were light after an Atlantic crossing and the DC=10 had loads of power).called "Going Around" We JUST cleared the 747s tail-. The 747 had skidded on black ice and had no time to call about his problem-there had been no time for us to turn. There is more to this story and it is told in my second book about flying experiences "Come Fly with Me--Jets," which is in the RAeS Library. When flying manually it is a different cockpit system to that of using the autos. The PF asks for the PM to set up his panel by calling out orders rather than doing them himself and the other pilot confirming that it has been done. I know that it would cost more money in fuel used but I think that, every once in a while, in good weather and light aerodrome traffic, a pilot should be encouraged to manually fly the plane down from 20,00 feet to keep his hand in on manual flying. In the SFO case, the pilots had to make a manual approach as the ILS was not available. Unused to doing this the PF engaged the A/T which had not been properly programmed, and left that system to do the job for him. The first thing that is drummed into a pilot on basic training (mine was on Tiger Moths and Austers) is "Watch your airspeed on approach--it's your lifeline!" Those pilots did not do that basic thing and crashed their plane. In the Heathrow accident, they were at 800ft AGL when the throttles began rolling back due to icing causing fuel starvation. They were at approach speed and the copilot had the plane on autos, coupled to the ILS. The captain, for inexplicable reasons, with two failing engines and close to the ground was spending his time trying to start the APU. He DID raise the flaps a bit--at that altitude it would have made very little difference, and still left his crippled aeroplane to his copilot's control, who in turn left it to the autos. With the glide slope engaged and the power falling off, the 777 went into a semi stall mush. The stall warning came, and the copilot disconnected the A/P but it was too late and the plane crash landed short of the runway. Any pilot of my generation would have disconnected all autos and pointed the nose towards the threshold instead of the usual 1500ft inside the runway. He could have made it--proof of this is that the wreck was sitting right next to the threshold. . Yes, hindsight is 20/20 but the only way to avoid repeating an accident is to be honest about what went wrong and make other pilots not make that mistake. A very long "observation" but oldies tend to be like that! An excelled discussion by people who know what they ar talking about. --Capt "Johnny" Sadiq retd. FRAeS

[@kai990]

why would i even evacuate if i cant take my belongings? and nobody in the cabin is going to accept me voluntarily staying behind either

[@billroyce2395]

your belongings must be more important than the safety of your fellow passengers

[@oldmanc2]

Are you serious? Death or Duty Free? I know what I'd choose.