Incident at Heathrow

[LeadSled]

Ham Phisted,

I didn't say there was a dire emergency, but maybe you should re-read the original poster's comments. As I said, they were entirely reasonable on the basis of his whole post, and the sniffy ripost was uncalled for. You and Daft Nigel aren't "children of the magenta line", by any chance??

I well recall a double engine failure in an aircraft on approach to EGLL, fortunately it had two more ---- on the flight deck one reaction was to burn off fuel, as the SOP recommendation was to reduce weight to a minimum for a two engine approach.

However, the command decision was to get on the ground ASAP, given the strange but similar symptoms of two engine failures in quick succession, an emergency was declared, and believe me, the briefings were very brief, almost limited to "what the bug speed?"

It was a good decision, the problem was caused by contaminated fuel in Bahrain, either of the two remaining could have quit at any time. An SQ 747 staggered into EDFF on the same morning, same reason, same fuel source.

In a somewhat similar case, double engine failure on approach, this time already past Stonecutters for RW 13 at the old Hong Kong ---- what would you do there --- no time for the whole two engine approach briefing ---- and would you want to try a two engine missed approach there, with the gear already down.

A B747 almost ran out of fuel (no fault of the crew) going into Newark, diversion from KJFK, the symptoms were two engines quit in quick succession. The Captain short-circuited the normal approach,(and all the preparation and briefings for a two engine out approach) and joined the ILS at the OM, a third engine quit just after touchdown. What do you think the result might have been if they just "followed standard procedures". Could you hand fly and capture the ILS at 1200 feet, and "fly the aeroplane" in IMC.

Sullenberger was able to do what he did, because he could fly the aeroplane, almost instinctively.

An adequate briefing is a statement of intent, unfortunately, in some airlines an departure or approach briefing is more like a student briefing for a flying lesson --- and pilots who are so constrained that they locked into briefing of the latter kind, and are incapable of anything else become a hazard in an emergency.

And, after some 25,000h, I don't think I need somebody like you to teach me how to suck eggs. Fortunately, I come from a training background where SOPs (nice simple ones) are the norm, and thinking "outside the box" when necessary is all part of the training and indoctrination system ---- some people call it airmanship, I call it common sense.