Experience of Emergency measures

[OZDUCK]

A

My track record in helicopters has been a bit mixed. Just a one ditching into the North Sea at night when heading back from the rigs to Aberdeen. We did what we were trained to do, got out, inflated suits and bobbed around for 20 minutes until we got picked up by the rescue boats from the rig and then taken back there, to be on a another helicopter the next morning. And being dry, we didn't get the chance for a stiff drink.
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You just reinforced my desire to never be on a helicopter. Glad you had a 'pleasant' swim in the North Sea and returned to tell the tale.

 

[straitman]

You just reinforced my desire to never be on a helicopter. Glad you had a 'pleasant' swim in the North Sea and returned to tell the tale.

... and I have flown over 15,000 hrs in helicopters and never been close to such an issue. I hope you give up driving as it's a lot more dangerous.

 

[OZDUCK]

... and I have flown over 15,000 hrs in helicopters and never been close to such an issue. I hope you give up driving as it's a lot more dangerous.

I know that you are absolutely correct but I just can't get over the fear. If I was trapped on a sinking ship or a flooded roof I am sure that I would quickly get aboard. But as I have never had to use one I am happy to put them on my avoid list.

 

[AviatorInsight]

A question for the pilots (wrong thread I know) but I'm of the belief that the Twotters have a ceiling of 10000. We have regularly gone to 14000. Then there are some times the pilots decline to tell me the altitude, but I have noticed pax falling asleep (I haven't ... yet) but I certainly notice it hard to breath and the pilot wearing oxygen makes me wonder just how high I've gone unpressurised. Any hints??

Doesn’t sound like the Twotter was in Australia but here are the local regulations anyway for reference.

Supplemental oxygen for passengers

6.4 Where an unpressurised aircraft carrying passengers flies for more than 30 minutes above 10 000 feet altitude and up to and including Flight Level 140, the aircraft must carry sufficient supplemental oxygen to supply:

(a) 10% of the passengers with oxygen for 30 minutes; or

(b) 20% of the passengers with oxygen for 15 minutes.

6.5 Where an unpressurised aircraft carrying passengers flies above Flight Level 140, the aircraft must carry sufficient supplemental oxygen to supply each passenger with oxygen during all periods that the aircraft flies above Flight Level 140.

 

[eric2011]

If we are talking about knowing people who have.....I lost a very good friend when a Air NZ, flight 901, DC10 flew into Mt Erubus. IIRC ~250 pax were killed, RIP

 

[kookaburra75]

You just reinforced my desire to never be on a helicopter. Glad you had a 'pleasant' swim in the North Sea and returned to tell the tale.

... and I have flown over 15,000 hrs in helicopters and never been close to such an issue. I hope you give up driving as it's a lot more dangerous.

For all of us on board, it wasn't a dangerous situation, it was just something that happened and we followed our training for that situation. No panic, some corney jokes at my expense, and we were warm and dry in our immersion suits. I think the drive to the airport is the most hazardous part of my travel these days.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Doesn’t sound like the Twotter was in Australia but here are the local regulations anyway for reference.

No, not in Australia. Does "Flight Level 140" mean 14000? The whole trip is only about 35 minutes and we're not above 10 000 for the whole trip, but I have taken a few where we have spent much of it about 10000 and some of it above 14000.

 

[Goaty]

Whenever someone brings up scary plane stories I always tell the one of being up the front of the plane and we were on a BA flight trying to land in Hong Kong in a Typhoon... We didn’t realise how bad it was until one guy stood up and said we are not lined up with the runway and then at the same time the captain came on and told everyone what was going on..Luckily there were not many of us in our cabin as the guy standing up didn’t help the situation...On the 3rd attempt a women started crying and saying she didn’t have her Will sorted and if I survived she wanted to leave everything to her son..! We made it ..!! The captain was fantastic and had such a soothing voice ...

 

[farmboy]

United Airlines, seven hours out over the Pacific, en route from LAX to Sydney, Boeing 747.
"Lays and gentlemen, this is the captain. We have lost oil pressure on one engine and are shutting it down and diverting to Hawaii.
We will be dumping fuel......" I didn't hear the rest.
The plane went deadly quiet for a few seconds, and then when we realised that nothing had changed, animated chat resumed. I'm glad we were warned about the fuel dumping because pretty soon we saw a massive fire hose like release from the wing tip.
And that was it, nothing happened and we landed without incident in Hawaii.

 

[AviatorInsight]

No, not in Australia. Does "Flight Level 140" mean 14000? The whole trip is only about 35 minutes and we're not above 10 000 for the whole trip, but I have taken a few where we have spent much of it about 10000 and some of it above 14000.

That’s right. Although where I’m guessing this flight occurred, the level at which you convert to flight levels is 20,000ft. In Australia, it’s 10,000ft. Also, I’m sure more often than not, rules are broken there, just due to the nature of the beast.

 

[higheden]

Shortest flight ever. I flew Chicago to MSP to get my status credits one year. I wanted to keep my gold status so badly!
Leaving Chicago and at height, the Captain announces there was a smoke smell in the galley. He said we had priority to land in MSP. We went straight down to landing, minimal cruising time etc;
Have never had such a short flight since. All I could think of as I hung on to the edge of my seat petrified was, I only flew this flight for my status credits!

 

[OATEK]

Back in the late 1980s I was flying in a two seater over the Barrington Tops, when the Pilot told me that his father was somewhere down below us. Apparently a propeller blade had parted company and the wreckage was never found (perhaps it has been since).

 

[faz]

I've had two actual emergencies thus far in my travels:
A decompression, complete with the lovely (smelly) oxygen masks. This wasn't an explosive decompression, the first we knew anything was wrong was the pilot announcing 'prepare for rapid descent' just before or after the masks dropped. As there was massive flooding in Queensland at the time, we then spent quite an amount of time flying around trying to find an airport where we could both land and had access to emergency services. There was probably around 45 minutes between the announcement and hearing back from the flight crew as apparently they were busy making sure we all stayed alive and healthy. The two things I will always remember from this event is the look of utter shock on some of my fellow passengers - once I had my mask on I looked around to see all kinds of weird behavior, including other passengers making zero effort to put a mask on. The second thing was the reports from other passengers about the terror and feeling the plane 'dropping rapidly' where as to me it felt pretty much about the same as any other descent - which either means I'm way to blasé about such things or others are somewhat prone to suggestion and panic.

The other was a (contained) engine failure taking off from Fiji (Nadi) - sadly/luckily on the other side of the airplane from me. Passengers reported the inner engine (B747) turning into a comet of flame immediately following the very loud bang that everyone on the plane heard. Fairly immediate shouts of 'emergency, emergency - grab your ankles' (this was pre instructing people about how to brace) was enthusiastically followed by everyone I could see. We ended up stuck on the plane for quite some time, as emergency services etc did their thing, and chatted with the flight attendants near us, who were fairly in the dark at this point. When asked what they had thought was going on when the alarms started going off they casually replied 'we assumed we had blown a tire or cluster of tires since the runway is fairly rough' we felt all reassured until someone asked 'what would that mean' at which point the crew member (said with a very sincere look on their face) 'we probably would have skidded off the runway and possibly hit the ground with a wing / rolled. Amazingly even though the crew were obviously more than a tad concerned their training must have wonderfully kicked in as they were nothing but amazing and in control the entire time.

I tell people I fly with that they are almost certainly not going to be involved in an emergency now as I'm probably well above my statistical lifetime chance - some people are not even close to reassured tho.

 

[DJDBNE]

Two oxygen mask incidents, both on PX F28/100 aircraft. 1. POM LAE depressurisation over the Owen Stanley ranges, masks down, rapid decline as much as possible over the mountains while returning to POM. 2. Bird strike killed one engine on take off from Nazdab airport (Lae), masks down while pilot circled for a landing back at Nazdab.

 

[drron]

I guess there was one occasion when I wasn't worried at the time but on reflection should have been.I went through what I guess isn't uncommon of wanting to learn to fly.I knew one of the local instructors quite well and he offered to take me up for a free lesson.leapt at the chance.
I thought it a bit unusual when we were coming in to land he handed over to me giving me instructions.I thought I was a natural as only one little bounce on landing.

A week later he came to see me professionally as he felt he was going blind.He was indeed legally blind with Glaucoma.I said how did you pass the medicals-i know those eye charts off by heart.
I never had a second lesson.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Two oxygen mask incidents, both on PX F28/100 aircraft. 1. POM LAE depressurisation over the Owen Stanley ranges, masks down, rapid decline as much as possible over the mountains while returning to POM. 2. Bird strike killed one engine on take off from Nazdab airport (Lae), masks down while pilot circled for a landing back at Nazdab.

Question to our pilot contributors or @DJDBNE :

Lae is basically at sea level, so why the need for masks?

 

[drron]

Some pretty big mountains between POM and Lae.
I did it in an old TAA DC3 back in 1969.What is this pressurisation thingy.

 

[DElliott]

Quite a few years ago, a rough landing in SYD on a then TAA A300 (?) from BNE , overhead lockers opened and oxygen masks came down !
A couple of aborted landings in CNS due to severe weather.

 

[p--and--t]

40+ years on various aircraft from balloons to gliders, ultralights & helicopters, 2 seaters single engines thru to A380's and touch wood, narry a single oxygen mask drop yet. In that time had a few scary car accidents but nothing too bad in a plane. I guess that says something about how safe airline travel really is.

Some flights have had some real woozie turbulence with drinks flying around and the sound of vomiting in other rows, but no injuries on board.

I guess the scariest 2 out of a few relatively few minor incidents...

Had 3 go-arounds arriving at PER on a Ansett Skystar with windsheer with women screaming and crying and someone yelling from the back of the plane OMG we are all going to die. On a couple of them I was sure we were within only a couple of metres of touchdown when the engines started screaming as we pulled away. I don't recall being overly concerned, even after the brace requests until the pilot announced this will be the last attempt to land because we are low on fuel..... and then what seemed a lifetime pause until he added..... if we are unable to land at PER we will divert to another airport. It didn't help that the businessman sitting next to me had grabbed my knee and squeezed it so hard it was painful. The look in his eyes was of pure terror and a bit unsettling.

In the days when there were only two late afternoon flights a day out of Darwin (one TAA and one Ansett), roaring down the runway and just about to part ways with the ground when all of a sudden we were thrown forward in our seats as the pilots aborted the landing and tried to stop the plane in a big hurry. As we taxi-ed off the runway the pilot announced sorry about that we had a fire alarm warning from one of the galleys and will be returning to the terminal. We all sat on the plane while personnel scurried about and checked the galley etc and then we were off loaded for an hour or so. We then re-boarded and taxi-ed to line-up at the end of the runway. The engines were powered up and we started rolling, gathering speed and then a repeat sudden halt and taxi-ed back to the terminal. All off loaded and sat in the terminal for a couple hours after which airline staff rolled up with hands full of vouchers and announced the plane wouldn't be going anywhere today as parts were being flown up from down south overnight and we were all on tomorrow afternoons flight. Non-locals were issued with vouchers for hotel rooms and dinners for the night and a bus arrived to cart us to our assigned hotels. Just another day at the office LOL.

 

[straitman]

Some pretty big mountains between POM and Lae.
I did it in an old TAA DC3 back in 1969.What is this pressurisation thingy.

I remember being on the flight deck of a C-130A tracking from POM-LAE many years ago.
We were at FL160 and weaved our way between mountain tops and CBs.