Video of recent emergency landing

[EricOldTime]

It's incredible the comments here from the "couch-potato-pilot" peanut gallery here. I don't presume to know "anything" other than what my late father a VERY "experienced" captain has shared with me and my own presumptions....none of which are based on experience....I'm not a professional commercial pilot like my father was.

However. "When was the last time any of you ( even if you are pilots ) experienced a mechanical failure of this magnitude other than at home on your "laptops" playing airline pilot or in your own simulators? I suppose probably pretty close to "0"

So, having said that, enough with the comments criticizing the crew and their actions. It's one thing to comment from the safety of our computer screens and another thing being in the left or right seat dealing with the emergency. The fact of the matter is, most of us don't know "squat" to be quite honest, so I don't think it's right to criticize the crew nor their actions.

[Retroit]

Thanks for posting that transcript, KaaBoom. Unfortunately, I couldn't access the link due to not being a member, but I'll try to give some perspective as to what goes into the evacuation decision-making. I don't know enough specifics about this case, so I'll try to make general statements that may or may not apply to this case.

1. Contrary to what most passengers think, the pilots have limited information on the condition of the plane. They can not see the whole wing or the engines from the flight deck and are left to rely on instrument indications which may or may not be accurate, especially if there is physical damage to the sensors which feed the instruments. The flight attendants may or may not provide accurate info depending on their technical knowledge and workload level. Ironically, there are many situations in which the passengers may have a better assessment of the actual condition of the plane than the pilots for the simple fact they can see the engine(s) and wing(s) from the cabin windows. And of course, they know better what is happening in the cabin. This comes into play when passengers begin evacuating on their own initiative. A pilot would assume that the passengers are aware of a dangerous condition that he/she is not aware of that would necessitate an evacuation. Therefore, once a passenger initiated evacuation has started, it wouldn't be wise to cancel it.
2. The pilot manuals are pretty general when it comes to evacuation. Most procedures say something to the effect "If evacuation is necessary, evacuate; if evacuation is not necessary, don't evacuate." So, in most cases, it is up to the crew to use their own judgment. Is this preferable to having every possible scenario spelled out? I don't know. I personally think pilots should be provided with more guidance, however there are so many variables that would take a great deal of time to discuss in depth. The general feeling is that evacuation is always preferred if there is any doubt. In simulator training, it is routine to evacuate; however simulator training is fairly cut-and-dry with few variables.
3. In the case of an engine failures, a lot depends on the nature of the failure. And an engine can fail in many ways. If it is a failure that doesn't cause any fire or internal damage to the engine, an evacuation wouldn't be necessary. If the engine explodes and is on fire, obviously you evacuate. Between those two extremes, there are hundreds of other possibilities of varying levels of severity. Also, the pilots may be receiving conflicting information from the instruments, flight attendants, and/or ATC. So the actual state of the engine and whether or not an evacuation is necessary can sometimes be difficult to determine.
4. In this case, I'm not entirely clear with the info provided the exact sequence of events regarding communications with the flight attendants and ATC and why the evacuation was initiated, canceled, then re-initiated. I admit, it does sound like there was some confusion. However, that is more likely due to conflicting information that the pilot was receiving rather than drugs. (I'm not sure whether you are being serious or not.)

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Thanks for posting that transcript, KaaBoom. Unfortunately, I couldn't access the link due to not being a member,

JFYI, you can set up an account in a few minutes with a 10 minute email address. It's a pain in the ass, but if you are into aviation stuff and listening to ATC recordings, it's probably worth it.

[wheelsup]

The F/As for some reason activated the passenger oxygen. They should not have. I have to assume all A320 QRHs are the same as it's put out by Airbus, and there is zero mention of the flight crew activating the supplemental oxygen masks for the passengers especially in this sort of circumstance (low level smoke in cabin).

The brace command was also not called for as there was no reason to do so, the F/As acted on their own in this case yet again I've heard from friends on property there. I've been through this exact same situation minus the smoke in the cabin and did not call for any bracing or evacuation, we simply taxi'd to the gate and deplaned. A single engine landing is still a very normal landing.

As for the evacuation, I didn't watch all the videos but if there was still smoke in the cabin upon landing it probably made sense to do so for sure.

[EricOldTime]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

The F/As for some reason activated the passenger oxygen. They should not have. I have to assume all A320 QRHs are the same as it's put out by Airbus, and there is zero mention of the flight crew activating the supplemental oxygen masks for the passengers especially in this sort of circumstance (low level smoke in cabin).

The brace command was also not called for as there was no reason to do so, the F/As acted on their own in this case yet again I've heard from friends on property there. I've been through this exact same situation minus the smoke in the cabin and did not call for any bracing or evacuation, we simply taxi'd to the gate and deplaned. A single engine landing is still a very normal landing.

As for the evacuation, I didn't watch all the videos but if there was still smoke in the cabin upon landing it probably made sense to do so for sure.

I'm still amazed at the perception by many out there that they seem to think pilots just don't know how to handle emergencies and "don't know what they're doing" it's incredible the amount of ignorance and how people that really have no idea what they're talking about can sit their and just pass judgement on a highly skilled, trained professional flight crew as if they are someone with thousands of hours of flight time and expertise or work with the FAA or something.

There's also alot of "official" information and other crap being passed off in the media as "law" and other online outlets quite regularly, sepculations, opinions, perceptions...espedcially when it comes to aviation...it's so unfortunate the mis-information there is out there... no wonder so many people are afraid to fly LOL.

Folks just don't have a clue what professional pilots have to go through in their careers LO:


Ignorance is bliss.....especially when it comes to aviation..