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To: nickcarraway
I wonder what kind of an aircraft it was.
With the right mix of passengers (assuming no foul "muslim" intent) a rough landing by unpracticed civilians is always possible (beats the alternative).
50 posted on 08/14/2005 4:37:28 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Liberal level playing field: If the Islamics win we are their slaves..if we win they are our equals.)
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To: Publius6961

It was a 737-300, and it had a depressurization incident on it last year.


55 posted on 08/14/2005 4:57:47 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Never pet a dog that is on fire)
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To: Publius6961
With the right mix of passengers (assuming no foul "muslim" intent) a rough landing by unpracticed civilians is always possible (beats the alternative).

Anybody who has a recent copy of Flight Simulator knows that it would certainly be trivial for ground control personnel to verbally walk a non-pilot through a bit of autopilot programming and have the plane fly itself to the best airport.

They almost wouldn't even have to sit in the pilot's seat to do it, although it would be much more comfortable than leaning over the throttles.

Having said that, I'm certain that the problem was at a much higher level with limited breathable air/oxygen having taken down the pilots in the first place.

But contrary to all of the Hollyweird "pilots are dead, passenger/stew has to land the plane" movies, the new aircraft can literally be programmed to do about everything except taxi to the correct gate after touchdown. And I'm not denigrating the skills or needs of the pilots, just that the avionics and control has become so sophisticated that the planes can literally "fly themselves"- with the proper info input.

Maybe some of the real pilot FReepers can lend their input here.

I was told by a commercial pilot many years ago that, all things being equal, you could tell when the computer landed the plane and when the pilot did... the computer flew the plane onto the ground resulting in a rougher landing; the pilot would flare out and make a soft touchdown, softer than the computer's. YMMV, of course, depending upon many variables.

61 posted on 08/14/2005 6:07:14 PM PDT by hadit2here ("Most men would rather die than think. Many do." - Bertrand Russell)
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