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> (And, incidentally, airlines do not, in fact, train pilots for "all engines failed"; it is considered too unlikely and too unsurvivable.) Nope, that is wrong
by zaarn 5y ago
> (And, incidentally, airlines do not, in fact, train pilots for "all engines failed"; it is considered too unlikely and too unsurvivable.)
Nope, that is wrong. Even before Sully, pilots are trained for All Engines Out. Aircraft even have systems to handle this like the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) which deploy on loss of power to enable critical systems like control surfaces and basic navigational gear (GPS, Radar, Artifical Horizon). Prop planes will feather all engines to maximize gliding distance. All Engines Out is definitely survivable and in some cases was even recoverable in flight.
After Sully, the practise of training for All Engines Out was expanded to even lower altitudes and earlier in the takeoff procedure (as noone had failed all three engines that low before). You can read that in the FAA report (and the Mayday Episode summarizing it).
There is other episodes too, like cases where the aircraft ran out of fuel (Gimli Glider) or flew through Volcanic Ash (BAF 9).
- ncmncm 5y agoMy brother is an airline pilot. He is given exactly zero hours of simulator time for "All engines out". That flights have survived the event does not contradict the fact.
- zaarn 5y agoWell, probably ask your brother again, because All Engines Out is required for a pilots license in the US and most other countries. Even Helicopter pilots have to train in the simulator for engine failure (autorotation landing). It must come up in training atleast once and every aircraft has an "all engine failure" checklist for this exact situation (The FAA recommended the addition of a "all engine failure at low altitude" checklist as well, which I believe has occured). Either your brother is incorrect about the simulator requirement, forgot about it or is flying a two-seater Cessna. You can verify this also by watching some of the videos of popular pilots on youtube such as Mentour of 74Crew.
- ncmncm 5y agoHe flies 747s at the moment. Those have 4 engines. But he has logged a lot of 2-engine airliner time. Yes, there is a checklist to pull out if all the engines fail. But, as I already said, the airline allows him exactly zero minutes of simulator time for it. I questioned him very closely about this. People flying single-engine light aircraft have to think about engine failure all the time; but there are no single-engine airliners.
- avianlyric 5y agoAll engine failures in commercial airlines happen about once every two years. Since 1953 there have been ~38 incidents where an airliner has been forced to glide (I.e. complete failure of all propulsion). That’s 38 incidents in 68 years. The incident rate has been falling while flight numbers have been increasing. Since 2003 (it’s hard to get date before then) there have been ~600,000,000 passenger flights, and seven gliding incidents. So the odds of being on a plane with an all engine failure is around 1:80,000,000. Winning the lottery is around 1:45,000,000. As failure cases go, thats really not bad. In the US around 104 people die every day in traffics accidents. So if you wanna get hot and bothered about public safety, I would suggest you start there. Rather than criticising the safety procedures of the safest form of transport.
- ncmncm 5y agoI have not, in fact, criticized the safety procedures of aviation. I have corrected your absurd claim that aviation emergencies are "not dangerous". It is an uncontroversial fact that people have died in aviation emergencies.