directbears

I'm tired of reading posts on this forum that contain such things as asking who will hire with zero time, should we kick so and so off the forum, my pft flight school was better than yours, etc...

Let's discuss something interesting, well at least something that seems like it would be interesting to me.

Two topics:

1) What are some close calls (in-flight) that you have had in the past? I mean real ones, not like the coffee pot broke or your number two comm went out.


2) What are some of the craziest or unbelievable things that a passenger has done on your flight?


If this thread goes anywhere I have a few stories to add.

Discuss........

Browntail

I had an F/O once that forgot to check and see that the catering was onboard. Luckily it was, otherwise an ATB was in order.

directbears

Not what I was looking for, but I expect that from you BT. What's ATB anyway? I'm familiar with RTB (return to base), but not ATB? Approach to Base maybe?

Browntail

Air Turn Back

rickair7777

Hopefully there aren't too many REALLY close calls in recent history, that's why have all that redundancy.

This may be the most fun I've had in an airplane in a while: I was climbing out of PDX for PHX at F340 when the cabin started to climb real fast. I was flying, the other guy got the book out, I initiated a full-on emergency descent by telling, not asking, ATC what I was doing...I was racing the cabin to 10,000, to avoid O2 and a rubber jungle. I was coming from above, the cabin from below....6,000+ on the VSI, all the boards out. It was a tie, but the jungle comes on at 14K, so it was all good. Did have to divert since we didn't have gas for the destination at 10K, so unfortunately it sucked for the pax.

directbears

Good point so let me re-phrase. Anything interesting like an engine falling off in flight, a near miss, windshear (real windshear not just the EICAS nagging you in gusty conditions), etc.... Or even one that you have heard.

If it’s too incriminating, well I understand.


Interesting story rickair. I've (thankfully) never had a loss of cabin.

I heard about a FedEx several years back (a 727 I think) that made an emergency landing at SWF due to cargo FIRE. They were something like 30 miles out at 370 and made it down in record time. They "easy victored" there arsses out the door just as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. Close call! I actually saw the airframe (what was left of it) sitting in an alley way at the airport.

DaveP2

1. Almost any air refueling training sortie that we fly with students here at the schoolhouse can be "exciting." The C-17 bow wave is pretty big and one of the dangers is the tanker autopilot kicking off because the student closes too quickly. Almost every time the tanker will dive down into you, I've gotten as close as 6 feet during one of those.

2. We transported the first 20 Al Qaeda prisoners out of Kandahar; they were cuffed and in leg irons, just like you would see for a standard maximum security prisoner. One of the terrorists had an artificial leg and was causing some trouble (as much as he could being secured to his seat). Anyway, he started thrashing around and his artificial leg detached; he was waving his "stub" around trying to hit whoever he could. The aeromedical guys had his leg (the foot end still cuffed to the floor), trying to reattach it. Pretty funny.

directbears

Serious stuff, but I would be laughing my a$$ off the whole time while they attempted to secure him.

Good stories!

rickair7777

that was a UPS DC-8 at PHL last year. One of my navy buds flies that aircraft, he gave me the rundown.

rickair7777

Pretty professional the way they handled it. I probably would have shot the guy (yes I was one of those guys who carried hot weapons on USAF iron )