Alert women pilots save over 48 lives aboard Air India plane - The Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Alert-women-pilots-save-over-48-lives-aboard-Air-India-plane/articleshow/13997260.cms)

GUWAHATI: The presence of mind of two women pilots saved the lives of 48 passengers and the crew aboard a Guwahati-bound Air India plane on Sunday after it was noticed that a front wheel of the aircraft was missing as it came in to land here.

"During a pre-landing check, the ATC discovered that one of the two front wheels were missing. The pilots were immediately informed and an emergency was declared at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport," a source in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here told reporters.

The ATR flight from Silchar was being flown by Urmila Yadav and co-pilot Yashu.

They kept the aircraft circling for more than two hours over the airport to burn off the fuel while preparations were being made for an emergency landing, the source said.

"In such a situation, the remaining fuel is always burnt off to lighten the aircraft and prevent a fatal accident while landing.

"It was a good decision to burn the highly inflammable fuel as it sometimes lead to fatal accidents during emergency landings, the source said.

Although panic gripped passengers after they came to know about the snag, the plane landed safely and the passengers and crew were evacuated safely, an AAI official said.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated the pilots over the phone for their courage in landing the aircraft and saving precious lives.

The aircraft lost its front wheel during take off, a statement issued from the chief minister's Office here said.

Good Job Crew :ok:

Alert women pilots save over 48 lives

- oh! Spare me please:ugh:Alert? Does that mean not asleep like some others?

Excellent journalistic work, Times of India. I feel like I'm right there in 16C, "gripped with panic" :-\

They really need to stop using that "highly inflammable fuel"...............

Seems to me as a humble slf that the pilots did a good job, though no more than would be expected of a competent pilot. And if I had been a passenger, though I would not have panicked, I would have been somewhat concerned for my welfare and double checking that I knew the drill for an emergency evacuation. I would also want to know how come the wheel dropped off in the first place.

No doubt it is no big deal for a professional pilot but it is a big deal for passengers.

If you want to hear a real scare story about bad maintenance, a hang glider pilot of my acquaintance screwed up when shortening an attachment loop to his hang glider, and ended up taking off 'secured' to his glider only by gaffer tape, which parted when he was 30 feet up.:eek: He lived to tell the tale but never lived down the embarrassment.

All very dramatic....

Not sure how one would judge whether the pilots did a good job or not. Landing a light twin without a nose wheel is not exactly death defying stuff.

Although I'm sure heart rates would have been elevated for all onboard :p

Landing a light twin without a nose wheel ATR = light twin? Spoken like an A380 driver...

one of the 2 front wheels were missing? Does that mean they still had the other front wheel? if so, its a none event. IMO not even worth burning off extra fuel

ATR = light twin? Spoken like an A380 driver...

Thought someone with a size complex may bite....:E

Why is the sex of the crew relevant to the outcome?

Exactly wiseguy, its just that india is catching up with the modern times and women doing well in a mens world is newsworthy I guess.

Who noticed the missing wheel?

According to the post, it seems it was ATC. So good job on their part for checking. Not that the flight crew didn't do a good job bringing the plane down on the remaining wheel.

Actually, how would a flight crew even notice a missing nose wheel, alert or not?

Also, I wonder whether or not anyone on the ground at the departure location ever noticed a spare wheel lying around?

http://www.pprune.org/%3Ca%20href=http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=2012-06-10_1746069juu0.jpg%20target=_blank%3E[img]http://www.abload.de/img/2012-06-10_1746069juu0.jpgFirst class maintenance.OIM from May 2012:

http://www.abload.de/img/2012-06-10_1746069juu0.jpg (http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=2012-06-10_1746069juu0.jpg)

So, if you don't do the nose wheel up correctly, a main wheel can fall off?


Just a piece of bumf, that reminds me why I used to file the circulars in the trash.

We had this happen on departure at LGW, wasn't noticed until the crew did the walk round in RTM. (the ground crew chocked it without noticing anything unusual).

The wheel was eventually found off the end of the runway back at LGW. What we don't know was how many days it was missing before someone noticed ....... ;)

Nobody, or almost nobody, is downplaying the fact that the crew, regardless of gender, dealt with an irregularity resulting in a good outcome.

The article, however, due to the manufactured and excessive high drama, borders on ludicrous is deserving of the most severe derision.

Who noticed the missing wheel?

According to the post, it seems it was
ATC. So good job on their part for checking. Not that the flight crew didn't do
a good job bringing the plane down on the remaining wheel.

Actually, how
would a flight crew even notice a missing nose wheel, alert or not?


Also, I wonder whether or not anyone on the ground at the departure location
ever noticed a spare wheel lying around?


And how many tower controllers would notice one missing nose wheel?

I wondered if somebody at the departure end hadn't noticed it coming off, passed the word, and ATC at the destination simply visually confirmed it was missing? That would be consistent with the way the story was reported, given the lack of diligence of the media in general...

I hereby deride the article most severely

Crew 10.0, journalist 0.0

Women are better , get over it :ok:
That said ATRs have a long history of loosing weels . Not the first and not the last one.
As to ATC noticing it, whoow ! they must have very good eyes in India and plenty of time to check the number of wheels on each aircraft before clearing them to land.:E

We had this happen on departure at LGW, wasn't noticed until the crew did the walk round in RTM. (the ground crew chocked it without noticing anything unusual).

The wheel was eventually found off the end of the runway back at LGW. What we don't know was how many days it was missing before someone noticed .......

Ah yes CPB - I remember the good 'ole days at LGW:}

Wheels? Luxury lad....:}

Hello? Where do I return a wheel from one of your aeroplanes? It just landed out back. . . Hello? Hello?:rolleyes:

NOw of course, if the women pilots had been really good, they would have noticed the missing nuts on the nose wheel on the walkaround. Then they would have written it up and had it fixed.

sheesh,

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated the pilots over the phone for their courage in landing the aircraft
For sure. They could have just stayed up there.

The wheel was eventually found off the end of the runway back at LGW. What we don't know was how many days it was missing before someone noticed .......I'm sure management raised hell about the wheel not being returned to spares promptly.:uhoh:

Why is the sex of the crew relevant to the outcome?

No male pilot would take the time to do a walk around before landing in order to notice the missing wheel.

They saved 'over 48 lives'
48.5 or some such I suppose...

Mechanical failure or poor preflight, who cares if it is crack or balls in the the seat when ATC reported the loss of a wheel. I feel like I am degrading myself by commenting on this...

As far as the fuel burn goes, it was the correct decision.

God knows what would have happened with ordinary male Pilots :ugh:

See Incident: India Regional AT42 at Silchar on Jun 10th 2012, dropped nose wheel on departure (http://avherald.com/h?article=450f22c7&opt=0)
Apparently tower saw an object fall from the plane on take off from Silchar...

Media today is dominated by females always choosing such non newsworthy "events" to big note their gender. Here they failed because it was folk on the ground who spotted the missing wheel and possibly saved lives as for the pilots it was a fairly routine be careful or else landing. Any recognition for the gender of those folk with presence of mind who spotted it? Derhhhhh.

"Alert", "alacrity" etc.

just a cultural tendency to be verbose

Your memories must be bad. The Times of india, in it's ballyhoo lauded a young lady, with 9W, who saved the day in April of 2010 when she engaged the second autopilot while performing an autoland:eek: in VOCI after the skipper took ill. She even said it was a non event, event and the skipper was concious and alert during the descent, arrival, and landing.

Well Pravda, err.. Times of India has to report the news as they fantacize... err as it actually happens:}. The world according to Garp.:E

So in fact it was an alert ATC op (whose sex at this point is worryingly NOT reported) who was alert (or possibly alerted by someone at the departure airport who WAS alert - OMG - we DON'T know who was alert....). The crew simply did what they were supposed to as far as I can see (perhaps the most heroic thing they did was NOT slam the remaining nose-wheel on to the deck hard enough to blow the tire) - the fact they were female seems exceptionally irrelevant.

But wait a second could this not be a great way of reducing costs! Obviously the second wheel is not strictly essential....

Two of our female pilots took off from SJC and lost an engine of a 737. I ran into her later in the day to take her aircraft after they did another two flights back to SJC. She told me about their engine failure when I noticed her FO was also a woman. I said two women flying a jet airliner and losing an engine successfully returning for a safe landing? She said superior airmanship and cunting. She was one of the really fun ones.

Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive me for being out of the loop of aircraft maintenance and technology for a long time but is it not possible to introduce a simple sensing device into the nose-wheel system, like checking its weight when airborne for example, so that a missing nose-wheel can be detected on the flight deck? I appreciate this would be yet another expense and yet another warning for the flight crew but it does seem to me that the loss of a nose-wheel is a not uncommon occurrence.

It must have been a slow news day. Landing with one nose gear wheel missing is a non event. No nose gear might make the news because they couldn't taxi to the gate at taxi power.

Apparently tower saw an object fall from the plane on take off from
Silchar...

Hmmm. Imagine that...


:cool:

Challenging job.Axlenut,bolt,whasher,nut and a cotterpin.

http://www.abload.de/img/p1070223yq7qj.jpg (http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=p1070223yq7qj.jpg)

well to all those who are wondering why was the gender of the pilots highlighted, read this:Man refuses to fly with female pilot | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/man-refuses-to-fly-with-female-pilot/story-e6frfq80-1226013368608:hmm:)

the article talks about a male pax who refused to fly when he learned that the pilot was female. this is not an isolated article, but one quite recent that i could recollect. i guess media is trying to reassure indians that ladies can fly just as well as the male counterparts. :D

one of the 2 front wheels were missing? Does that mean they still had the other front wheel? if so, its a none event. IMO not even worth burning off extra fuel

Unfortunately, the front landing gear is NOT fully redundant (& difficult to diagnose whilst in the air...)

i guess media is trying to reassure indians that ladies can fly just as well as the male counterparts.

Well then, they failed dismally... :ok:

How about they write a story "Two female pilots complete flight completely uneventfully - not one thing went wrong or fell-off. All safe!"

Is there going to be a parade??? fanfare??? State Dinner of this minor event?:}

Landing with one nose gear wheel missing is a non event. I trust one never falls on you, then.

I was in India when this happened. By God, they really need to grow up already!

And that bit about the press highlighting the acheivement of "women" pilots is quite extraordinary. Were they expecting some of us male pilots to do any less? Nothing against anyone, of course, but they did what they were trained to do. Period.

Hello guys,
ATR is not a "light twin" to me but maybe just because I'm a woman ;-)
An Airlinair ATR lost a wheel 3-4 years ago, the crew was advised by the ATC!! The wheel has been found on the runway, after searching with serial number, they found which aircraft it was and then contact the crew, easy...

Given this appears to be a regular occurrence with this A/C you'd think they could paint the nut white or red to make it's absence easy to spot on preflight?

Who is gonna clean the dirt off the nut so one can see the paint on the nut?:}

You guys are missing the point. It is good for the public to know we are doing something more than pushing buttons and sometimes earn our pay( sorry the peanuts).Raises our profile just like Scullys splashdown.

You guys are missing the point. It is good for the public to know we are doing something more than pushing buttons and sometimes earn our pay( sorry the peanuts).Raises our profile just like Scullys splashdown.

How you dare compare this (more or less) non-event to ditching a dual-engine out aircraft from which everyone walked away. It really shows how much of an idea you really DON'T have. The hardest part in this non-event was avoiding blowing the one remaining tire on touchdown - everything else was standard ops. :ugh:

Oh, please! Comparing this to Scully?! Isn't this what you are supposed to do? What you are trained to do?

So true, one wheel falling off made all this news because they were female? If they had landed normally not knowing one nose wheel fell off the next crew would probably have noticed it on the preflight. If not somewhere down the line someone would have noticed, not worthy of news report in my opinion.

I just wonder...what would the indian press say if the BA747 that lost an engine out of Los Angeles and continued to just short of london...if the pilots had been women/

Heroic women pilots fly long haul route using only 3 engines whilst male pilots wastefully use 4.

Did they know the wheel was missing, wouldn't be the first time my missus totally destroyed a car tire through driving several miles with it flat and maintaining that it must just have happened!!!!!!

I am not comparing anything to any one. It is not about a man or a woman in the cockpit. It is all about A PILOT who is perceived by the public to have done well. Specially in India where pilots have been fairly agitated and being played against each other by the "Higher Powers"

I am not comparing anything to any one

Yes you ARE.

You wrote this:

Raises our profile just like Scullys splashdown

How about you take your political agenda and go play with it in the street? :=

If there was anything at all newsworthy here it was/is that certain aircraft are NOT being very well maintained in India - if the damn wheels are falling off here and there, what else isn't being done right? :ooh: