Dearest safetypee
Since your very first flight your instructor told you for sure that you have to stay ahead of your airplane, and not behave like what Demosthenes reproaches his fellow Athenians: "While Philip acts, you are here to discuss and make like the boxer who covers after he took the shot."
This translates to: plan , plan , plan and predict events, as far as it is humanly possible.
Today, also thanks to I-pad, I-phone etc., you can have a real-time enough detailed picture of the operating environment in which you are going to make your flight , and then decide in advance what to do, if necessary to postpone the departure or approach, divert, proceed to the alternate.
This does not mean of course (and here I come to you) that the unexpected is definitively overcome, indeed!
A shining example of management of the unexpected was offered to us by Captain Chesley Sullenberger on 15 January 2009, who was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff , due to a bird strike that damaged both engines of his Airbus A320.
He found himself in a position like the engine failure in a single engine, and acted accordingly:
- Airpeed
- Best Place
- Check list
- Declare
- Emergency landing ( ooops! : Ditching )
With regard to the incident involving Air France 747, object of this post, let's wait and read something official to learn from their experience.