How close was I to dying? (serious question)
First of all let me say I tried other places in the net, one of them being Yahoo answers and it was absolutely no help, which led me to look for serious, smart people who are related to actual airliners and flying in general, so I came to this forum, made an account and here I am.
A small introduction, I am a guy who doesnt fly often, I average 12 flights a year I would say and they are all pleasure related. I am no pilot or have anything to do with the airline industry but in the past me and my family were involved in the business enough time for me to gain respect and admiration.
I was never (and still am not) an easy flyer, I love airplanes and airports and traveling but once I am inside the airplane, every single unusual noise or unusual bump makes me nervous, even though deep inside I know all the facts of why such things happen.
So here I am, yesterday, my wife and me took a flight to cancun in a Mexican airline called Interjet, this airline prides itself in having good prices, new airplanes, top of the line service and great comfortable seats. I have flown with them 4 times in the past and I allways loved it.... but then came yesterday.
We got into the plane, a A320, very, very new looking, very clean and we took off.. nothing out of the ordinary until the flight attendant calls for a medic... apparently a lady was feeling sick (or scared, I dont know) and the pilot had to return to the airport and land. Medical personel went into the plane and took the lady and her family member off the plane, they refueled the plane, and off we went.... second try to go to cancun..
Before I continue, there is this sound airplanes make, usualy before they even move away from the terminal, it allways sounds as if the pilot is testing something, I think it is the spoilers moving or something, the sound is like a screeching horrible sound that goes like "Wwwweeeeeehhhhhooooouuu! wwwweeeeeeeeehhhhooouuu!!"
Ok, now that I have told you about that sound, ln, let me continue my story.
We take off again, great take off, no turbulence, everything seems fine, I am sitting right beside the left wing in the exit row, window seat, so I can see the flaps and spoilers (or whatever they are) are still in position, I am just looking, waiting for the pilot to revert them back.. the moment they go back, that screeching sound I talked about before sounded for about 4 seconds and then stoped and right after the sound stoped I could a kind of leak... something bubling or something.... not a good sound to hear inside an airplane.. after that the "wweeeehhhh" sound came again and stoped, followed by the same bubling sound.. and this went on for about 20 times... as if the pilot was trying to make something work but it just wasnt working... then it just stoped.. but the bubbling sound seemed to continue and we flew for about 20 minutes but I noticed we werent climbing.. then I noticed we were turning around.. and then the flight attendant says that we are going back to the airport (AGAIN) because of that sound that we heard a while back.. its not a normal thing that should happen and for security reasons we are going back.
So of course we all went silent.. the whole plane.. then after a few minutes the pilot says this.
"This airplane has 3 hydraulic systems, one of them has failed, the second one has overheated and the third one is working properly, we have attempted to cool down the overheated one and have succeeded and will be using that one to land the plane, which means we will have landed with two fully working hydraulic systems and one failed. This is an emergency but a perfectly doable manuever"
He sounded calm and I know enough to know that we would probably be ok.
The thing is, once we got over the airport, the pilot kept doing circles around the airport and wasnt landing, I know for a fact there was no trafic and as far as I know, dumping fuel is only a procedure you do when there's an engine problem and as far as I know fuel dumping would have taken way longer. But the pilot didnt say a thing, he just kept circling the airport and I was worried then, thoughts of past crashes started filling my head of how hydraulic systems fail and the pilot has no control over the aircraft, I started to think he wasnt able to lower the plane.. simply not able to land.
After about 20 minutes of this, we eventualy heard the landing gear come out (best sound i've ever heard in my life) and we landed safely, the pilot instantly shut the engines off and the emergency crew outside came to check the plain and they confirmed to the pilot what had happened, and the pilot instantly confirmed it to us, he said "as expected, a hydraulic hose was broken"
Then we were towed to the terminal, they changed us to another A320 right beside the one we were in and we took off to Cancun in that one, which I am happy to say, other than horrible turbulence during take off, it was a very, very pleasant flight and right now I am writing this from cancun, very relieved.
Now, after all that story you people are still here and not bored, here are my questions.
First, the not very important question but still looming over my head.. WHAT ARE THE #^$@^$ ODDS OF THIS HAPPENING TO ME! god damn! first the lady feels sick and we return then we take off again and a hydraulic hose breaks? I felt that flight was cursed!
Ok, now for the important questions.
1. How common is this type of problem? I know it's relatively common to have Hydraulic problems in airplanes but what about this specific type of problem?
2. How close were we to actually dying? Honestly, I know A320 planes (and planes newer than the 737) dont have manual controls, they have 3 hydraulic systems and if those 3 were to fail you are basicaly screwed. Sure you can do some maverick stuff with engine thrust and what not but more than likely you are screwed. I know many people will say "Well, thats why you have 3 hydraulic systems, to make sure that never happens" And you would be right.. except the pilot said 1 system failed and the other overheated which means for a while we were relying only in one of them (before the other one cooled i guess) so if two fail like that..... why not 3?
3. Was the woman feeling sick a lucky thing? I am thinking if the lady doesnt feel sick we would have been in the middle of the sea on our way to cancun when the problem would have surfaced.... OR maybe it wouldnt have surfaced at all? Maybe it would have been in the landing or maybe the next passengers on that flight?
4. Why do you think the pilot did so many turns around the aiport before landing? I know it was not trafic and apparently ty the plane was working fine, was he trying to cool down the system a bit more? I dont think he was dumping fuel, that would have taken quite a while longer and we didnt have any type of engine trouble.
Basicaly thats it, I know we dodged a bullet, I just want to know what type of bullet it was, for a while there I was really afraid.. specialy when the pilot kept circling the airport without saying anything. I was expecting a message from the pilot at any moment saying "we're having trouble, we can't land, etc..." I just grabbed my wife's hand and well... you know....started thinking about not very pleasant stuff. There were some "funny types" in the plane that laughed every time there was a turbulence bump and were making fun of everything and even then, when the weird sound came on, they just went silent.
To be honest it was kind of hillarious when we were in the second plane right about to take off and the pilot moves the spoiler and makes the "Wwwweeeeooeoooo" sound again, one of those guys went "Hey wait, this one has the same symptoms as the other!" Me and my wife just had to laugh at that... I am just glad I am here to talk about it.
Alright, thats a big story, sory to bore you, just had to get it off my chest. Please, I beg you, if you know about aircrafts enough to answer my questions, please do so.. the kind of replies I get from Yahoo answers range from "Oh yeah, many times theres accidents due to hydraulics"
to
yeah, thats how "xxx" plane crashed
then the next post is another guy saying "no foo, "xxx" plane crashed because of something else.
You get what I mean.