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

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

[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/America...ines_Flight_96
Remarkable because this happened again later, this time with loss of all people on board:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish...nes_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]

"Top 10 Emergency Landings"

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

[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!)