Pushback by SLF in Arctic.

[juice]

People pushing the airplane, which is frozen to runway. Only in Russia! - YouTube (http://youtu.be/zfMuKmvyR4E)

Irish Times:

'About 70 passengers, including shift workers in Arctic oil and gas fields, had to get out and push after the airplane they were due to travel on was frozen to the runway.

The plane chassis froze in the -52C weather, as did the braking system in the landing gear.

The plane was departing Igarka, at the edge of the Arctic Circle in central Russia, on Tuesday. The destination was Krasnoyarsk, Russia, a 2hr 45min flight south. The passengers had got off to make the plane lighter, and started pushing the aircraft when the pushback tractor could not budge it.

Though the airplane finally started moving, the passengers may be in trouble for helping out. Passengers are not permitted to push aircraft because that can damage it. There may be investigations into whether air safety laws were broken.'

What laws?

[Annex14]

What a joke !!
But instead of sitting stuck in -52 deg looks like a better solution to use human power!!
And who cares far east in Siberia about rules??
Anyway. looks like a good old Tu 124? / 134? both are built and sturdy like a tank !!

[Midland 331]

Only in Russia?

I have a vague memory of this happening in Glasgow or Leeds in the 1980s with a Shorts 360. No tug, and some reason that reverse couldn't be used on stand.

The captain presented the passengers with a choice:- get out and push, or spend another hour or so waiting for a slot.

I suspect that the airline was the long-gone Leeds-based Capital Airlines. The passengers were probably mainly home-bound pragmatic Yorkshiremen, a ethnic group renowned for their straightforward approach to all matters, especially getting back to God's Own Country.

Someone will be along to confirm/deny sometime very soon.

[JW411]

I flew into a snowy Manchester on 21.12.81 from Barbados in Laker DC-10-30 (G-BGXE). I was told that we were to deadhead back to Gatwick in a Euroair Bandeirante (which was a bit of a squeeze with three flightdeck and eleven girls). The Bandit was parked on a remote stand and it was surrounded by snowbanks apart from behind. The lad who was driving it said that we would have to wait until the snow banks were cleared. That was never going to happen. I told him that we had just come from Barbados and it would be a bloody sight quicker if we all got back and pushed his aeroplane around such that he could taxi out the way he came in. And that is exactly what we did. I wish someone had got a photograph of the event.

[flyingtincan]

I noticed that the original report was in the Irish Times.
It bought a wry smile. It could happen. Nahh!

[PAXboy]

Imagine the same scene in Alaska US of A ...


Pax does the push
Gets home on time
Complains airline 'made' them do it
Sues for back injury

:}

[EEngr]

Some passengers reported hearing the pilot yelling something about V1 from the cockpit window.
;)

[rottenray]

Some passengers reported hearing the pilot yelling something about V1 from the cockpit window.That's the spirit!

Frankly, if US pax had even a shred of this type of *honest* frontier "get it done" behavior, we wouldn't need the ridiculous laws we have.

Three cheers and a Grey Goose to those Ruskies!


Imagine the same scene in Alaska US of A ...


Pax does the push
Gets home on time
Complains airline 'made' them do it
Sues for back injury

Yup. Sad beyond belief.

Sometimes, adversity can be fun if you look at it the right way. I wonder what all of these "do it ALL for me" arseholes will have to tell their grandkids when they're old, not rich, not attractive anymore.


Cheers...

[bburks]

Actually, I have seen first hand many examples of this initiative, albeit mostly up north in Alaska.

Wether passengers helping to push my BE-1900 or Cessna Caravan through the mud on a dirt/gravel runway during Spring break-up, helping un-load barrels of fuel, or my favorite story, the Captain taking the initiative to de-ice his aircraft with Vodka (whilst in the Russian Far-East) when no "authorized" de-ice fluid was available; there are many examples of this "can-do" spirit still around. Most likely not as often witnessed in "urban" environments.

Cheers!

[FlamantRose]

I worked for BEA in LFPB in the 60s and every night at around 01:30Z we had the LHR/LBG/LHR Argosy freighter with 6 or 8 pallets (not sure now as that's roughly half a century ago). However one night the acft arrived and parked as usual. Turnaround programmed 30 mins. All pallets unloaded and ours loaded. Operation on time. All doors closed, engines start up and as usual off you go.
Well believe or not this time the acft didnt budge 1 inch. Crew kept increasing rpms but no luck it wouldnt move. Well it was decided with the crew that we (me D/O together with our cargo Agent and a bunch of loaders) would push as hard as we could on the 4 wheels with the 4 Rolls Royce Dart engines increasing the rpms, but still no go. We tried and tried and tried again but we finally came to the point where the acft was to be declared AOG. The crew remained on board and at around 05:30Z they wanted to make a last attempt. So I attended the start up and when crew increased the power the Argosy rolled away normally and we stood there and we just couldn't believe our eyes. This happened in June and the skipper had left the parking brakes on upon arrival.!!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/BEA_Armstrong_Whitworth_AW-650_Argosy_102_Robbins-1.jpg

[Pali]

Well, if Air Florida Flight 90 would be pushed like this instead of using reverse thrust maybe it wouldn't end in Potomac. Although it is unthinkable on an airport like DCA regardless if such solution would work the best for given circumstances. :rolleyes:

I live in ex-soviet block country (EU now) and I am more and more horrified by the amount of regulations implemented on anything. := This kills "can-do" attitude in many instances.

Can't comment on regulations in aviation but I can imagine that being stuck like this in remote siberian airfield and wait for conservative way to solve the problem would probably mean to stay there for days.

We have also different attitude to (mis-)use the legal system and I can hardly think that anyone involved would sue the carrier after such a situation. You would merrily explain your experience to your friends but you wouldn't ask your attorney to act.

[Green Guard]

https://www.facebook.com/#!/lifenews.ru/photos/a.215245715164129.56975.190542150967819/850802494941778/?type=1&theater

[DaveReidUK]

http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/551916-pushback-slf-arctic.html

[Mikehotel152]

And they took off with 20 pairs of gloves frozen onto the leading edge! :}

[Teevee]

I just hope certain lo-co's don't see that and suddenly see an idea for saving a bob or two on pushback tugs ....

[Langball]

Reminds me of a story a fellow told me (maybe 15 years ago). He was strapped in a pax seat on some Russian aircraft in some outback area. The commander walked down the isles and announced "ladies and gentlemen, this aircraft is u/s and need this part (which he held aloft), and it costs x dollars. Suggest you all chip in and pay x or we're going nowhere fast". And they did just that.

[silverstrata]

Been there, done that.

What else do you do, if the airport (middle of the Atlantic) breaks its only tow-bar??

[ilesmark]

Just seen this on my usual accurate and unbiased news source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-30235844 and note the comment 'Because there was a large distance between the wings and the wheels it gave the people pushing greater leverage. "It's the principle of the spanner - the longer the spanner the less force you have to apply in order to shift the nut,"'*

Correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure you all will) but, given that they were pushing it back in a straight line, isn't that statement complete bollocks?

[PAXboy]

No idea about leverage but (after looking at the video again) there is a tug attached on a tow bar - so they might just have needed enough extra force to move the tyres out of the dips they will have created and break the frost immediately behind them.

It looks to me that, once the a/c is rolling, the folks drop off very quickly and it keeps moving.

Many hands make light work ...

[DaveReidUK]

Correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure you all will) but, given that they were pushing it back in a straight line, isn't that statement complete bollocks? I think the answer to that depends on whether we're talking about the wheels being stuck to the axle, or being frozen to the tarmac.

[Donkey497]

Personally, I think the pilot deserves some sort of medal for having the nerve to tell a plane load of oilfield roughnecks that after a month freezing their tails off in the a$$ end of nowhere that their only way back to warmth, civilisation and the associated fleshpots of depravity wasn't going anywhere.........


Brave guy.

[Downwind Lander]

Those Siberians are made of stern stuff. No capitalist namby pambies over there. Maybe communist tow trucks are not as good a capitalist ones. Anyway, they got home.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/26/travel/russia-plane-passengers-push/

[Flightwatch]

I had a similar experience in the early 60s as a teenage schoolboy. I was trying to get home from boarding school to Jersey for a long weekend break and had made it by train to SOU for the evening BEA Dak flight. It had been raining heavily for a few days previously and SOU wasn’t blessed with any tarmac runways in those days.

Taxying out to the threshold we became firmly stuck in the mud. After some serious spade work by the resident BEA staff all the male passengers were invited to deplane, (BEA Daks had airstairs) and push on any available piece of undercarriage leg we could get a grip on. I can only think the engines were turning to help (I doubt there was a tug on the station), but the upshot was we got out of the ruts and after climbing back on board we continued the flight and get back to JER 30 minutes or so late.

H & S would have a heart attack now, not only were we in close proximity to whirling propellors but there wasn’t a high viz jacket in sight!