Queen Elizabeth II Way between Edmonton and Calgary AB in 2013. A snowsquall caused a whiteout, leading to the carnage above.
Posted on 12/10/2018 5:47:28 AM PST by Gamecock
Somehow I wasn’t familiar with the story of Aeroflot flight 6502 from Yekaterinburg to Kuibyshev to Grozny. On October 20, 1986 the pilot of the Tupolev Tu-134A bet his co-pilot that he could land the plane blind. He would draw the curtains on the cockpit windows and make an instrument-only approach.
One of the many bizarre things about this incident is, why would the co-pilot accept a bet in which if he wins he likely dies? There’s only the narrowest window in which he might win the bet and actually collect.
On approach to Grozny the pilot ignored the ground proximity warning. He ignored an instruction to execute a go-around. He touched down at about 172 miles per hour. The plane flipped and ultimately stopped upside down, killing 70 of the 94 souls on board.
On the ground the co-pilot tried to save the lives of passengers on the scene, but died of cardiac arrest himself while being transported to the hospital. The pilot received a 15 year sentence, though reportedly had that reduced to 6 years.
Eight years later, in 1994, the pilot of Aeroflot flight SU593 from Moscow to Hong Kong allowed his 16 year old son sit at the controls. He accidentally disengaged autopilot control of the Airbus A310’s ailerons. That sent the plane into a near vertical dive. While the pilot managed to level off the plane, he stalled the aircraft while pulling up and crashed into mountains in South Siberia.
There is a reason that they call it “Air Flop”
Queen Elizabeth II Way between Edmonton and Calgary AB in 2013. A snowsquall caused a whiteout, leading to the carnage above.
Not quite, depending upon what you mean by "blind". We are trained to land in Instrument Flight Regulations (IFR) and Precision Approach Radar (PAR) minimums. Further, depending upon the certifications the pilot is holding, they can be trained to 0/0 minimums which is a Special Instrument Rating meaning that they can takeoff and land in 0 miles visibility and 0' ceiling weather conditions.
Out of curiosity, I did a little research on him, and found out he was the captain of National Airlines Flight 193, which did a 'controlled flight into terrain', killing three people. Flew a 727 right into the Gulf of Mexico.
They were doing a night instrument approach, and apparently didn't have the altimeter set properly, and thought they were 1000 feet higher than they actually were. Pretty sure that was the end of his flying career.
One winter in Michigan, I came over the top of a hill on a little suburban road, and Newton was in the driver’s seat. It was the shady side of the hill, and there was a thin layer of ice. None of my control inputs mattered.
I slid down the hill for a while, and hit a curb. Wound up bending the front control arm on my car. Did not realize it at the time. It was only about a month later, after driving the car every day, when I finally hit dry pavement, that it became clear that the two front wheels were pointed in different directions.
The funny thing is, the car drove much better in the snow after my impromptu “modifications”. Unfortunately, it tried to tear itself to pieces on dry pavement!
"...quite bright above the clouds..."
“32 Years Ago an Aeroflot Pilot Bet He Could Land an Airplane Blind.”
Blind drunk.
"...so they can sleep, silly..."
I have a t-short that says
“I flew on Aeroflot
and Survived
Spent a summer working in the rural parts of the old Soviet in 1995.
I will never go back. Interesting people - yes. Interesting country - No.
Lasers
Was flying around Russia quite a bit in those years. Lotsa Aeroflot time.
Seriously? Are you going to let that latter statement go unchallenged?
(”Again, the mistake wasn’t letting them take the controls, the mistake was made by the pilot who should have had his hands lightly touching the controls to ensure nothing unusual happened.”)
That was a commercial flight.
All astute observations of the Russian character. Russia is a hard country to live in. It’s got a varied and rather extreme climate and the Russian people , one’s that I’ve known just seem to be a rather brutish, cold and largely reckless bunch. Life isn’t cheap in Russia. It’s worthless. Children however are a different matter. Russians dote on kids in a way Americans would find strange.
You wouln't say that if you had experienced their orphanages.
yes, that was what I was referring too. But the pilot with them would be able to see the entire time which is what was so messed up about the situation. The co-pilot shouldn’t have been blinded as well, which was patently unsafe and illegal.
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This is why I always fly Aeroflot...
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>> “Unsure why an airplane would ever need the windows to be completely obscured.” <<
So the crew can catch up on their sleep of course!
Win stupid prizes ping...
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