Concorde/Sky News

[WenWe]

sky's top story 'Concorde in mid air emegency over the atlantic - 1 engine has failed, etc etc etc'
FFS!

[Carnage Matey!]

Just seen a fantastic performance by former Concorde pilot John Hutchison on Sky News. The newscaster was constantly probing for any form of sensationalist story, be it the cause of the failure, the reason for the return to LHR, the 'inadequacy' of the JFK emergency services, 'similarities' to the Paris crash, handling difficulties on the approach and several other banal points. John addressed each of these ludicrous ideas in turn, with simple facts and plain speak to show that this was not a 'major news event' but a complete no-drama incident. He did, in his own words, 'pour cold water on the afternoons top news story'. Nice one John!:D

[mutt]

Carnage Matey!

I'm disappointed to see that as of 1330 utc, SKYNEWS still has this as their top story. I guess that it must be a really slow news day.

Mutt :(

[nojacketsrequired]

Can't believe it's still on the news.I watched it coming back in
whilst doing some photo's for my website and all looked well.
Show's how the Chancellor bored the media!!!!!!.


Safe landings,
NJR.:D

[hobie]

I didn't see the Sky bulletin but there web page on the item seems very straight forward and reports the relevant facts ....

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1057727,00.html

[BEagle]

Does anyone still bother to watch Sky News since it adopted this awful 'tabloid' style with huge, irrelevant graphics and silly noises every time a banner changes. So lower-deck!

Give me BBC News 24 every time - and that from a previous fan of Sky News when it wasn't so trashy. Plus Beeb 24 is at least widescreen compatible!

I have no doubt that Capt Hutchinson gave an unemotional and clear explanation.

Just because a Perf A aeroplane could cross the pond with one engine out doesn't mean it should !

[t'aint natural]

Sky News? It was also a major item on the ITV and BBC TV news at 6pm, complete with emotional terminology about "safety scares" and flashback footage of Paris, and has featured on BBC News 24 for most of the afternoon. Can't wait for tomorrow's papers.

[EGLD]

I am 100% in agreement with the views expressed about press over-reaction both previously and in this thread, and showing clips of the Paris incident is just ludicrous, however, as a passenger, a 'mis-firing' of an engine at almost 60,000 feet and twice the speed of sound, is news and of interest to a lot of people

Comparisons like 'its just like your car mis-firing' are equally nonsensical, as a car that misfires is generally an old piece of cr*p, and this is a regularly maintained supersonic airliner. Also, not a lot can really go wrong at 1.5 feet and 15mph

Just thought it worth mentioning that this is indeed news worth reporting, just not in the manner we now get from the likes of Sky

[Send Clowns]

Sorry to be so forthright, EGLD, but balls.

This aircraft had an engine surge. This is a forseen occasional problem, and the redundant systems (other engines) are more than capable of taking the workload. All gas turbines have occasional surges. They are of minor interest to us here in a large transport aircraft, as are all aviation incidents, but there is not a lot that can go wrong at 50,000 ft due to a surge! When my friend had one at 30' in the hover, attached to a ship (hover in-flight refuelling) then that could have developed into a news story, but in Concorde in the cruise? Not news at all, never any chance of developing into news, and certainly not the major news that was presented to the public by irresponsible news media.

I think you mistake the special interest of those here to whom it is news for importance to the general public, who will misundersrtand this if it is presented as news at all, however that is done. Even mentioning such a trivial incident on national news makes too much of it, so misleads the public.

[EGLD]

okay point taken

after posting, I thought how the media would react had it been a jumbo. I assume this would pass unnoticed?, apart from here where the likes of me come to find out info such as that

is this kind of thing common on other transatlantic flights? what about if it was a twin engine airliner

[Send Clowns]

:D Entirely agree about the 747. Sorry about he robust post, but the press irritate me about this sort of thing.

Surges are not common, perhaps someone more knowledgeable could say how rare, but they are expected to happen occasionally. The twin crossing the Atlantic would be ETOPS cleared, so the engines have to be proven in service to be very reliable - the distance it is allowed from an alternate (in terms of time at one-engine-inoperative speed) is determined by exactly how reliable (so can change - this is why twin jets will rarely actually shut down an engine, if possible just power back a problem powerplant, to keep the engine type's ETOPS statistics. Remember a surged engine could be used again, if really required).

[mahonysherms]

how many returns/diversions has that been since reintroduction? is it in line with before?

[Send Clowns]

mahonysherms

The sample size will be too small. The problem is that the combined fleet is below ten at the moment, so the expectation number of problems is statistically insignificant. Therefore no hypothesis can be tested - your question is impossible to answer unless a massive increase is experienced.

[Ghostflyer]

Flew on Concorde to the States once. It turned back, because the gear wouldn't go up. Capt's PA went something like 'Ladies and Gents, had a minor snag, returning to LHR, you will all be disembarked into the Concorde lounge whilst another aircraft is prepared for service.'

To me this meant more vintage champagne, 2 Concorde flights in a day and still beat the Jumbo by several hours. Now I didn't make the news that day but I spotted the snippet on Sky today and all I can do is echo the comments of my fellow professionals: ' What a load of old senstionalist misinformed b**locks!'

Ghost;)

[luoto]

Trouble is poor old BA would have been shat upon if the event had turned into something else, by some of the press, the public and the rent-a-quote MPs alike. I guess the commander took the decision and he must have had his/her own reasons for doing it at the end of the day.

[slj]

Carnage Matey

It could have been that the Sky reporter was feeding John Hutchinson with the questions as prompts for the required answer. Note, I say could. Still the nice Mr Murdoch is grateful for the publicity you give to his organ.

Ghostflyer

You go on Concorde. Gear doesn't come up. You return. Not much of a flight is it? And "beat the jumbo by several hours"

Perhaps you are using a little journalistic licence when you describe your adventure as two trips :D

[nojacketsrequired]

According to my next door neighbour (Concorde Engineer) a compressor component caused damage to the engine and the a/c would require an engine change.

NJR.