Taking off on on engine

[Jammers20]

Hi.

I'm not a pilot or a keen flyer but I took my wife to the airport today for an EasyJet flight to Belfast from Stansted. She got there fine but she said as the plane taxied to take off the pilot said that they would be taking off on one engine as they were having problems with the other one. Once they were in the air they would try and get it going.

Now being a nervous flyer I would have jumped off the plane lol. Is this usual practice or was the pilot on a wind up - it sounds ridiculous to me./

Thanks for the time

J

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

After a lifetime in aviation I am astounded at this.. Any aircrew care to comment? For one reason... an aeroplane with 50% or more engines U/S constitutes a Full Emergency and I cannot believe that a commercial aeroplane would take off with such a problem..

[Jgossett]

If they knew before take off that one of the engines wasn't working then they shouldn't have tried to take off. I am unfamiliar with easyjet but If I remember correctly they operate Boeing 737s and A319s. I'm not sure if they can take off with one engine but if they can they would need a heck of a lot of runway to get enough speed to get off the ground. There is no guarantee it would start after take off and attempting a take off would be stupid and probably unsafe. I doubt they had a engine not working or any indication of an engine problem pre flight. Now if they were rolling out and it failed and going too fast then there is no stopping so they would have to continue taking off. They can fly good enough with one engine to get it safely on the ground if an engine failed during flight.

[Pilotdom]

He must have been joking surely? If an engine dont start on the ground whats it gonna do in the air?

[Jammers20]

Thanks for the replies.

It sounds mad to me especially as the flight continued and landed in Belfast an hour or so later. I will have to speak to my wife again to confirm the details and then I think I will report it.

[AlphaWhiskyRomeo]

He's either winding the pax up, or she misheard a comment about something else (like the aircon etc).

Continuing take-off after v1 with an engine failure is one thing, but starting with 1 engine just isn't going to happen.

[BOAC]

Jammers -


First choice - your wife misheard

Second You are winding us up

Third she is winding you up

[PPRuNe Pop]

All of the above......................and fourth, I think the pilot was 'aving a larf! Probably in training for being summarily fired - or for a one night at the Donmar Warehouse!