10 greatest emergency landings?

[stepwilk]

I'm a writer (and a working pilot since 1967) doing an article for the U. S. magazine Aviation History with the tentative title "The 10 Best Emergency Landings Ever." Obviously, the event that generated this assignment was the USAirways 1549 yachting adventure, so that's certainly one of them.

I have all the obvious ideas--the Gimli Glider, Al Haynes' DC-10 at Sioux City, the Pan Am 377 ditching next to the Coast Guard cutter, Neil Williams' Zlin--but I'm wondering if anybody has any further suggestions, particularly in the realm of GA and the military, since spectacular airline events are not that hard to find.

Either post them here or send them to me at [email protected].

For you UK readers, I wrote Pilot Magazine's "Letter From America" for many years back when the magazine was run my my friend James Gilbert.

[Flap40]

I'd vote this one in there somewhere.

Air Accidents Investigation Branch: 6/1994 G-BMGH (http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/publications/formal_reports/6_1994_g_bmgh.cfm)

PA-31 that lost a blade from the left engine which went through the fuselage and removed the propeller and engine from the right engine (and put it into a spin!)

[windriver]

Tough assigment if you have to pick only 10... But for my money the story of how William Reid came to be William Reid VC must be worth considering.

VC Recipients | M - W (http://www.rafbombercommand.com/people_vcwinners_citations002.html#williamreid)

[JEM60]

StepWilk.
Sorry for slight thread drift. Always enjoyed your writings in 'Pilot' especially your sympathetic account of 'G-AWNO' Hope you are well.

[seacue]

Not extremely dramatic, but the zip-top 737 in Hawaii.

[dixi188]

I would nominate the DHL Airbus A300-B4 OO-DLL in Bagdad after being hit by a missile and losing all hydraulics and flying controls.

The wing was on fire and the crew managed to fly the aircraft using engine power alone.

I still fly with the captain sometimes.

[Luap]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_96
Remarkable because this happened again later, this time with loss of all people on board:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_981


And the 747 with all 4 engines stopped by vulcanic ash.

[Phileas Fogg]

The 2 engined B707-F over France (circa 1994/5) ..... but without listening to the F/O's account of it!

[stepwilk]

Thanks, pals, all good suggestions. I particularly like the William Reid VC one because it in a sense encapsulates so many WWII heroics, recognized or not.

[Seat62K]

How about the other Canadian "glider" (Air Transat, I think)?

Was the Pan Am 747 which landed at Newark with no fuel remaining an emergency landing? If it was, I'd nominate that, too.

[Stationair8]

The DC-10 in the states about 1989, Captain Al Haynes?

The A320 on the Hudson River

[nacluv]

DC10 (MD11?) Sioux City must count at least as a partially successful EM landing. Or is that the Al Haynes one referred to above?

[treadigraph]

Hi Stephan

The American doctor whose PA-24 landed itself dead stick in a snowy field after he passed out through CO inhalation sort of counts, even though he didn't have much say in the matter! Maybe you could include a list of runners up?

I enjoyed your contributions to Pilot and also SAMI when Mike Jerram was editing it. Perhaps you could let us know when your article appears?

Regards

Treadders

[AES]

How about the BOAC B707 that had an engine fall off (into a reservoir) soon after TO from LHR in the late '60s/early '70s? There was a thread on here somewhere with a lot of detail just recently.

Krgds
AES

[JW411]

The PanAm 747 which landed at Newark (if it is the one I am thinking of) with very little fuel was a cock-up. They diverted from JFK but their computer fuel plan only allowed straight line distance to Newark (something like 21 nms) when in fact it takes more like 100 nms to get out of the JFK pattern and into the Newark pattern.

I was based at JFK at the time and our computer plans were programmed never to accept an alternate distance of less than 150 nms.

Shortly after the event, I flew with the Feds and they were impressed with this idea. They told me the PanAm tale and how such an idea would have saved their bacon. It was almost a disaster.

[Level bust]

I can't remember the year, possibly late 90s. there was the Air Canada (I think) B767 which ran out of fuel at 30 odd thousand feet over Canada because they had their pounds and kilos mixed up.

They ended up gliding into an airfield that was used for gliding that the F/O knew of.

[Warmtoast]

Whether it justifies the sobriquet “10 Greatest Emergency Landings,” those where a passenger with no or very little experience, takes over the controls and lands a plane when the pilot is incapacitated is worth considering. I know there have been a couple in the UK but confess I can’t recall the details (Wales and Sussex come to mind).

However there is the recorded occasion when an 81-year old landed a plane successfully after the pilot suffered a heart attack in the USA. Details here.

Pilot Dies and Passenger, 81, Lands Cessna - Los Angeles Times (http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jun/18/news/mn-61237)

[stevef]

In Jack Currie's excellent Lancaster Target, there's a section on him bringing a Lancaster back from a night bombing mission in Germany after physically losing both ailerons in a cu-nim. He flew using differential engine power to induce bank.

[alistair®]

I vote for the Air Canada 767 glider too. Level Bust it was actually 23 July 1983.

[windriver]

In Jack Currie's excellent Lancaster Target, there's a section on him bringing a Lancaster back from a night bombing mission in Germany after physically losing both ailerons in a cu-nim. He flew using differential engine power to induce bank.


Yes.. and there's a compelling piece in the 1945 Air Ministry Account (Atlantic Bridge) of something equally dramatic and similar happening to a Catalina en route from the USA to Africa (via the Azores)...

(I suspect many on this forum will have copies of the many accounts in this series, and like me have never actually read them... until recently that is!)

[ehwatezedoing]

Already mentioned but the Air Transat A-330 in the Azores (24th Aug 2001) is a good one.
Air Transat Flight 236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236)

[ehwatezedoing]

oh! and Apollo 13 :ok:

[India Four Two]

Stephan,

Another "glider" incident is Hapag-Lloyd 3378 at Vienna on 12 July 2000 and a flight test forced landing was a Bristol Britannia on the mud flats of the Severn Estuary on 4 Feb 1954.

In terms of military aircraft, the only one I can think of is the landing of an RN Sea Harrier on a Spanish container ship.

I also remember a story about aircraft "landing" on the Greenland ice cap while in cruise. An Islander?

Simon

[stepwilk]

Thanks again, all.

My favorite emergency landing so far, though it hasn't come up here, is the time Corky Fornof had a flame-out in his Bede BD-5J microjet. He landed it on an Interstate, kept his speed up, rolled off at the next exit ramp and used his downhill momentum to pull into a gas station--in the U. S. they're typically clotted around Interstate exits--and with a last gasp rolled across the little rubber hose that makes a dig-ding in the gas station office (remember those?) and pulled up to the pump. The attendant came out and Corky said, "fill it with Jet A, please."

Actually, I made up the last sentence, but he might as well have...

[treadigraph]

Corky Fornoff recreated his emergency when they used the BD-5J in one of the James Bond films (Moonraker?), and Roger Moore said "fill her up please" in the script. :)

[con-pilot]

One would have to be the PanAm 707 that departed SFO and shortly after takeoff the number 4 engine exploded, separated from the wing and removed all the wing outboard from the number 4 engine pylon. At first the captain was going to ditch, but a few minutes of flying with a quarter of the wing gone he made a successful landing at Travis AFB.

Looked it up, it was PanAm flight 843 on June 28, 1965.

[Brian Abraham]

A pretty good effort was that of Henry Adlam, Royal Navy who dead sticked a Wildcat (Martlet in UK parlance) onto the deck of HMS Illustrious (straight deck remember) during the WWII Salerno operation. Caused by engine failure due to burst oil pipe and picked up the #1 wire. Not bad going in my book.

[V2-OMG!]

This is an oldie, but since successful "ditchings" have grabbed the public's attention at present, how about the Pan Am B-377 Stratocruiser between HNL and SF on October 15th, 1956?

The only casualties were 40 crates of canaries....and the Stratocruiser.

[henry crun]

V2-OMG!: I suggest you read post #1.

[Fareastdriver]

Going back to 1977-78 I saw a 737 at Cognac air force base. It had been involved in a collision over the south of France. I believe the other aircraft crashed with all on board.

IIRC the port wing had been chopped off outboard of the engine pod.

[Fantome]

Greetings Mr Wilco . . . Ann Welch in 'Accidents Happen' tells of a Chilean glider pilot whose Blanik was caught in such a powerful storm front up draught that according to his baragraph he exceeded 50,000 feet. There was no oxygen and his last memory on the rise was passing rapidly through 20,000 feet. The next thing he knew was coming round as his iced up machine contacted a steep hillside, eventually sliding to a halt. He was not badly hurt!

Last I heard the Falco is well and still receiving the tenderest of care.

[flugholm]

FedEx 705.
Flight crew attacked by jumpseating suicidal employee.
Very scary!
FedEx Flight 705 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Flight_705)
CVR Database (http://www.tailstrike.com/070494.htm)

[treadigraph]

Another one that's just come to mind is the Miles Messenger that shed its engine and promptly performed a rather tight loop.

The pilot managed to crowd his passengers forward over the instrument panel which restored the c of g sufficently to enable a controlled force landing, if I remember correctly, somewhere near Dover. This was shortly after the war.

Anyone remember the details? The pilot was well known, Lindsay was his first name.

[Karl Bamforth]

This one is going to be difficult to identify guys but probably should be in the top 10.

Female crew flying a twin jet on a night medical transfer in the USA.

Suffered numerous problems which included-

Elevator trim run away/jam, partial electrical failure steadily increasing to total electrical failure, patients medical equipment on back up power, loss of radio and nav aids, and realising late on that they need to pump the gear down to land at night on an unlit runway.

If I remember correctly the runway was a tad short too but they stopped it with nothing worse than blown tyres.

Was caused by a damaged pin in an engine electrical plug which had played up a few days before.

Anybody remember it ???????????

[sandiego89]

From the military side: April 4, 1963 when Stu
Harrison dead-sticked an F-8 Crusader on to a carrier. He was hot and high in the groove approaching the carrier and the engine quit. He managed to bring it down. The squadron had been experiencing engine seizure issues. Highlighted in Admiral Gillgrists book.

A-6 partial ejection by the Bombadier/Nav. Seat went half way up the ejection rail and through the plexiglass. Very dramtic photos of him hanging in the breeze while the pilot brought it back to the carrier.

[paulc]

One that was local to me - a BAC1-11 from BHX suffered a decompression after the Captain's windcreen blew out. Captain (Tim ? ) was kept inside the plane by cabin crew as the co-pilot made an emergency descent and safe landing at Eastleigh. The cause was found to be the wrong length bolts used when refitting the windscreen.

[JW411]

treaders:

I think the tale is told in one of Peter Campbell's excellent books. I've just carried out a quick square search through my copies with no results so I might try the creeping line ahead method later.

I had it in my mind that it happened over France heading south. It started with the prop coming apart followed by the engine falling out. He got the wife and the kids out of the back seats and stuffed them under the instrument panel and that changed the C of G just enough to enable him to make a successful landing in a field.

[Madbob]

Stepwilk, in trying to give you one or two military examples I would say the landing on an Israeli F15B with c. 80% of one wing missing following a mid air with an A4 during a DACT (dis-similar air combat training) sortie has got to be up there.

It's a pretty famous incident and a YouTube clip exists somewhere.

MB

[treadigraph]

JW411, found a sentence in British Civil Aircraft Volume III - it was R Lindsay Neale, Bolton Paul's CTP in G-AJEY, and you are quite right, near Bait, SE France, 28/6/47. It was written off!

I'm sure I have read more elsewhere, no doubt in a Bunny Bramson test flight article or similar.

BAC1-11 from BHX suffered a decompression after the Captain's windcreen blew out. Captain (Tim ? )

Tim Lancaster rings a bell on that one?

Stephan, I reckon you could prepare a whole series on this subject!

[Double Zero]

I'd vote for this one, as recounted in the late Don Middleton's excellent 'Test Pilots' ISBN 0-00-218098-7, Collins Willow publishers - every Pprune member should have a copy !

On testing the Dart Herald ( please forgive the longhand verbatim copy, not able to scan successfully ) ;

" Handley Page's attempt to return to the civil market after the war was in the Dakota replacement category.

On 25th August 1955 Sqn Leader Hedley Hazeldon flew the herald for the first time. It was a 37 seater, later in its' turboprop form stretched to 50 seats with four Alvis Leonides engines.

Clear evidence of the success of the R-R Dart led to the abandonment of piston engines, ....

En route from Woodley flown by Hazelden, to the SBAC 30th August 1958 Farnborough show, the opportunity was taken to photograph the twin Dart Herald, and an accompanying Victor, from a Hastings.

Just before his descent to Farnborough at 6,000', there was a bang from the starboard engine which then caught fire.

Hazelden closed the fuel cocks, feathered the prop' and activated the extiguishers.

There was no response; the fire contuned to burn furiously.

With 8 other people on board including his wife and the chief engineer who commented " I'm impressed - the main spar should have given way long ago ! " Hazelden looked for an imperative landing site.

He throttled back the port engine, but severe vibration was setting in and control was difficult.

The aircraft suddenly rolled to starboard, leading Hazelden to think 'the wing's gone, so that's it !'.

In fact the starboard engine had dropped off, leading to a very hairy landing in a field, including the fuselage being pierced by a tree stump - all survived "

[Fantome]

George Errington, another Handley Page test pilot, conducting load and C of G tests on the Dart Herald, came to grief. Happened when the C of G was so far forward that George ran out of up elevator coming over the fence, so that the Herald slammed onto the ground with such force that both engines and their mounts were left hanging down at extreme angles.

When George retired he was farewelled by the company and his mates in style. Don't know about the gold watch but he was presented with a beautifully made representation of a ship's telegraph mounted on a fine wooden base. And to what command was the indicator fixed?

FINISHED WITH ENGINES

[spekesoftly]

Fantome,

I don't think that was George Errington - he was killed in 1966 when the Trident he was test flying with Peter Barlow failed to recover from a deep stall.

I suggest it was Ron Clear test flying an Airspeed Ambassador.

[FLCH]

The IAF F-15 minus a wing gets my vote.

[Double Zero]

Spekesoftly,

Quite right.

George Errington had, some might say, an unhealthy fascination with stalling, until he tried it one day in the Trident, taking his flight test team with him.

He was mainly an Airspeed Test Pilot, along with Ron Clear & Bob Milne, as far as I know.

[Stan Evil]

Another military one - In the 60s or 70s Flt Lt Dick Schuster landed a Canberra in Singapore after the explosive collars designed to sever the elevator and aileron control rods in the event of ejection fired by themselves. He got a well deserved AFC.

[SASless]

How about the two B-17's that collided on the way home from Hamburg...got stuck together as a very tight formation stacked vertically...the lower one on fire....and ultimately crash landed in a field.

Two B-17s Collide And Stick Together in Flight (http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/mshwma30.htm)

[Fantome]

Can't see how you could leave this one out, Wilco -


Title: The 65th Anniversary of the Piggyback Ansons

September 29, 1940 found LAC Jack Hewson flying an Avro Anson and enjoying the exhilaration that only command can bring. His assignment was a cross-country exercise that had begun at Wagga Wagga a RAAF training airfield in New South Wales, Australia.



Ahead lay the tiny sleepy township of Brocklesbury - he was spot on course. The day was one of glory with an azure sky and unlimited visibility. Yet, disaster lay but a heart beat away! Above him another Anson, commanded by LAC Leonard "Lenny" Fuller, gradually reduced height to his assigned altitude of 3000 feet. With Jack's Anson in his blind-spot he pancaked onto the lower plane and stuck fast.When Jack felt the collision he applied full-power, locked the controls with a spare harness, then he gave the order to abandon aircraft. LAC Hugh Frazer, a crew member, managed to push a parachute through the squashed flight deck entrance before he jumped. Jack struggled into the parachute then, in a daze, smashed the fractured Perspex that obstructed his escape and after what seemed an eternity thrust his way out of his doomed plane. He crawled past the screeching over-boosting port Cheetah 1X engine and slid along the buckled wing. As he fell away Jack breathed a sigh of relief he was still some 900 feet above the ground and had ample space for his chute to open. Then his exaltation turned to dismay as he realised in the confinement of his battered cockpit he had incorrectly buckled the chute harness. Hurling towards the ground he calmly sorted it out and pulled the ripcord. Left with a bare 100 feet of altitude the chute only partly opened - he struck the ground with sickening force.

Meanwhile, Lenny, realising that Jack's remarkably perceptive action of selecting full power had compensated for the weight of his colleague's plane, had quickly regained control. Gradually he reduced power to descend at 200 feet/minute. At 500 feet the over boosted engines of the Jack's plane seized and the locked planes hurled towards the ground. As Lenny slammed open his throttles he saw his rate-of-descent was above 2000 feet/minute. Just as they were about to hit the screeching tortured engines, assisted by ground-effect, returned the rate-of-descend to zero - Lenny slowly pulled back the throttles and turned off the fuel. He found himself hoping there would be no explosion or fire. The plane touched down like a feather. He had performed a remarkable feat of airmanship that became known as the piggyback (pickaback) Ansons.

Jack spent the next five months in hospital where his broken back gradually mended - he resumed flight duties at the beginning of March 1941. With a little over 300 hours he was sent to the Instructors Course at the CFS at Camden, then on to 10 EFTS at Temora as a flying instructor - much to his disgust. He remained at Temora until the end of August 1942 when he was posted to 1 SFTS instructing on Oxfords. He finished the war as a C-47 captain with 38 Squadron.

This WW11 veteran was born on August 11, 1921. He gained his 'A' Flying Licence at Newcastle Aero Club on July 27, 1939 and was accepted into the RAAF on April 29, 1940. He began his RAAF flying training under Allan Clancy on April 30 at Mascot with 4 EFTS flying DH-60s. When he left the RAAF in February 1946 he had logged a total of 2,473 hours.

Jack Inglis Hewson died in a motor accident on March 26, 1963 and the light went out for his beloved wife Peg, and sons Allan and John.

(I am indebted to the Hewson Family for the splendid photographs. Especially, I thank John for his comprehensive outline of the event and again later for his suggestions to enhance the story. Chic Eather ©)

Google Piggyback Ansons for more.

[News Shooter]

Not sure if this one has been posted yet or not, but I recall it was pretty amazing


In May 1988, a more serious incident occurred as TACA Flight 110 from Belize to New Orleans, Louisiana, was descending to land. This 737 was passing through a series of thunderstorms when it suffered a double flameout. The engines had been throttled back for landing so the internal heat was minimal. The storm was strong enough that the engines ingested heavy rain and hail that simply put out the flame heat source. The crewmembers managed to briefly restart the engines but were forced to shut them down again because of overheating. The pilot managed to pull off an amazing emergency landing as he glided the plane to touch down on a strip of grass next to a levee embankment along a lake. The passengers and crew evacuated using escape chutes with no injuries. The 737 was recovered and is still flying today for Southwest Airlines.

[FlightDetent]

DHL A300 in Baghdad? GAPAN citation "only".

[bluesilk]

another military for you was Shackleton 3 phase 3 out of Kinloss late 60s if memory serves. Pop Gladstone suffered prop overspeed engine caught fire then fell out of wing. Crash landed at Culloden. Aircraft destroyed. Crew all survived and were I believe entertained at the local dance whilst waiting for the "crew bus". I expect others on here will have more details.

[JEM60]

News Shooter. I believe the 737 was actually flown off the embankment it landed on!!! Any confirmation of this ????

[Brian Abraham]

JEM60, yes it was flown out.

[Saint-Ex]

Having worked on and off over three years on OO-DLL in Baghdad and seen the incredible amount of damage it sustained, I have to add my vote to the DHL A300 landing. With no flying controls and extra drag from what remained of the flaps and outer aileron on the port side, to achieve a landing with under 2g recorded and on the runway is almost beyond belief. Our stress engineer reckoned they had about 20 minutes before the port wing departed.

[mustpost]

Ansons...

YouTube - Two Avro Ansons landed together after mid-air 1940 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp478Tgm5gg&feature=channel_page)

[wayoutwest]

hi all.i think that a thread like shows what training and cool head can do.how about the ba 747 that lost all engines when it flew into a volcanic cloud over indonesia back in 1982 i think.but i do think that that poor sod hanging out of a 1 11 held back only by the crew at least deserves a change of underware.:D:D

[wayoutwest]

sorry underwear.teach me to read before i post.:{