If a 747s engine;s failed midflight could it glide down and land safely?

[FlyingVisit]

Supposing a 737 or any other airline passenger jets engines failed at 30,000 ft could it glide down and land safely? What's the odds?

[AdamFrisch]

It sure can. Even the hydraulics will work with either an electrical backup pump and a windmill generator.

[Northbeach]

Read the following link to an incident. It was Air Canada flight 143 involving a large Boeing 767 that lost all engine power and landed safely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider)

[privateer01]

Well an Airbus can, as its already happened.

Air Transat Flight 236 dead sticked into the Azores.

Any Aircraft in theory could if done correctly.....they all glide until stopped by ground level.


Air Transat Flight 236 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236)

[FlyingVisit]

Must be difficult to find a good place to land surely?

[Wyle E Coyote]

Any aircraft can glide with out power, you just have fewer option in a bigger aircraft as they come down quicker.

I had an examiner kill both engines on me in a sim ride on a 737 a few years back. There's no procedure, you just have to find somewhere to put it, and fast.

It's so unlikely to ever happen for real, but it sometimes does. A BBJ just went into Riyadh a couple of days ago with it's engines both choking on sand, and the pilots calling a mayday due to zero thrust from either engine. They got it down ok..... and probably found a bottle of hooch pretty fast

[mutt]

and the pilots calling a mayday due to zero thrust from either engine. They got it down ok I would have thought that any airliner that lost both engines on takeoff would crash straight ahead and not return to land.

It would be interesting to know just how much thrust they actually had.

Mutt

[Old Aero Guy]

The ability have a controlled glide and accomplish a landing flare with all engines inoperative is a certification requirement.

A safe landing is not guaranteed though.

[Wyle E Coyote]

It would be interesting to know just how much thrust they actually had.

I wonder the same thing myself. I can tell you from experience that at 10,000ft on a straight out departure, I did a teardrop onto the reciprocal and fell short by about 10 metres. Not pretty but survivable.

When the engines quit, they rapidly start to resemble the 30-odd tons of Aluminium they're made from.

[wiggy]

Answering the thread title: You'd glide OK in a 747 but a neatly flared landing might be a tad more problematic, though it might not be impossible.

There's no RAT ("windmill") to give you back-up power so you would be relying on the engines themselves windmilling or perhaps imaginative/non standard use of the APU and hydraulic pumps to give you adequate hydraulic power to operate the Flight Controls. It was certainly not a procedure covered in any of the manuals for the 744 variant I flew and I never saw it taught in the simulator in over 20 years on the aircraft .

[L337]

It will even do an autoland !

[al446]

Think 777 into LHR.

[Pugilistic Animus]

I would have thought that any airliner that lost both engines on takeoff would crash straight ahead and not return to land.



I wonder the same thing myself. I can tell you from experience that at 10,000ft on a straight out departure, I did a teardrop onto the reciprocal and fell short by about 10 metres. Not pretty but survivable.


Regarding a teardrop return

even on a flat gradient you would have to be assured of obstacle clearance and that would require extensive knowledge of the airport environment

when landing straight ahead you at least hopefully have a better guarantee of obstacle avoidance

so, perhaps except in a few rare situations a turnback will not be advisable ans any turning will also increase sink rate

:)