Posted on 02/25/2019 10:19:36 PM PST by blueplum
Full Title: AIR-RAISING BA passengers ‘say final prayers’ as plane from Heathrow tosses and turns ‘like a rollercoaster’ during extreme winds over Gibraltar
THIS is the terrifying moment a British Airways plane from Heathrow twists and turns during extreme winds over Gibraltar, forcing it to divert to Malaga. The video shows the Airbus A320, which can hold more than 180 people, being thrown around by strong winds as it approaches the airport, with the wings dipping and lifting by nearly 45 degrees...
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
It looks to me like maybe a case of pilot induced oscillations.
They finally got the engines going again.
Anyone with free time should check youtube...lots of videos that give some idea of how unnerving it could be...particularly for first timers.
Not a pilot, but I have flown a bit & understand a little about airplanes & what they are capable of. This fellow is right. If one can get an understanding of what a plane is capable of, it might make a rough flight a little easier to bear. Most planes will handle a lot more stress than you might think possible.
I remember that one!!!! I can’t wait to unpack boxes and move into the new home as my Far Side books have been packed for FIVE years!!!
They are TOOOOO funny!
Years ago as a junior Captain in the Air Force I had a TDY trip to Denver, with the return flight on an Air Force Learjet. The approach into Montgomery was through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever seen, with the plane bucking around back and forth, up and down. What really scared me was that the pilot was younger than me... I hoped he did well in flight school.
He must have. You’re still with us thank God. :)
I’ve seen them. Pretty dang scary approach for 747’s.
For some reason I am remembering that Brazil has a very high number of occurrences of lightning.
Someone correct me if that’s untrue. It IS a very large country.
AF 447
Does this aircraft have a reputation for stability issues? That looks very odd, not just turbulence, like it’s on the verge of uncontrollable yaw. Wouldn’t take much to roll it completely over from the looks of that.
I think AF447 originated there but it went down over the ocean, of course.
They’re in a stall, and one pilot has the joystick pushed forward to try and get airspeed over the wings (correct procedure) while other other guy has his joystick pulled back, canceling the input next to him.
And so, predictably, they pancaked into the ocean as the a/c fell like a rock. I’m shocked that a trained pilot, in this day and age, could make such a mistake. That’s a very rare occurrence, of course. True the pitot tubes were frozen so airspeed was unreliable but the altitude is dropping like a rock so you know you’re in aerodynamic stall.
The realization of the error came just a few seconds before impact. It was too late, the sink rate was too high with insufficient altitude to recover.
Dunno, the 320 is from the same family as the 319 I was riding in on approach to Denver. I don’t remember much roll but I do remember excessive amounts of repeated yaw. Alarming repeated yaw. I never thought we’d be able to line up. We did, obviously.
Maybe it was just the weather that particular day. It wasn’t stormy but the winds were high.
My (old) Denver airport story came on my only DC-10 ride, coming in from California (LAX). Either we were eating somebody up or they needed to scrub altitude because the spoilers (more likely speed brakes?) came out - or so it looked to me (I was next to the left wing - window seat).
I was hanging forward in the seat belt from the deceleration. Hard.
Yeah, we made it. I was traveling with a Chief Master Sergeant who had close to 30 years in. When we boarded and walked to our seats he said "Cap'n, that kid's younger than you. Sure hope he knows what he's doing."
I had a very experienced (older) TWA pilot land us HARD in STL one day. He apologized for it as we walked out. Nice guy, he just goofed the flare, I suppose.
I thought the gear was gonna collapse. It was probably just your run-of-the-mill hard landing and not that bad.
Still....ow.
Lots of rainforest, moisture... storms. It was summer too.. December.
-PJ
Because of the mountains there is always turbulence coming into Denver sometimes it’s better or worse but never entirely calm
I figured the rolling air coming over the mountains played into it. Couldn’t remember the terrain surrounding the new Denver airport but I seem to recall mountains nearby.
It was about 2005 or so. So it’s been awhile.
“We don’t like it anymore than you do.”
I think you would admit it was fun if there were no passengers. At least I used to think so in a light plane.
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