Posted on 04/04/2007 2:54:34 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
Hollywood star John Travolta was forced to make an emergency landing in Ireland on Monday while piloting his private Boeing 707 from Germany to New York.
The actor, who was flying back to the USA after promoting his new movie Wild Hogs in Germany, landed safely at Shannon Airport after his Boeing 707-138B suffered "technical difficulties", thought to be engine-related. He was said to be unhurt but shaken by the dramatic incident. The 53-year-old, the only private individual to own a Boeing 707, serial number N707JT, hired another aircraft and completed the journey while the 707 was grounded for repairs.
Eight years ago the star suffered a similar mid-air drama when his plane lost an engine and he was forced to make an emergency landing in Boston.
It’s not fun to fly on three.
My dad once lost two on takeoff in Japan; very unnerving.
Because engines from that era weren't particularly reliable.
He wasn't.
Manuel, Manuel & Manuel, an white shoe lawn care firm.
It realized it was carrying a hypocritical nutcase and felt it had to set down for the public good.
How controllable is a 707 if two engines fail on the same side?
Thus Travolta made the right and proper decision as a pilot. Unlike JFK Jr. who went flying in IFR conditions, and I don’t think he was IFR rated. After that crash a friend who is a corporate jet pilot sent out an e-mail illustrating the JFK Jr crash as “improper use of knowledge” (this pilot was also a former Marine EA-6 driver).
John John only had a VFR rating...I am pretty sure Travolta had some midflight problem a while back too...once of these days the luck will run out.
Nope, it’s a KC-135, which I *think* uses the Boeing 720 airframe. The 720 was a 707 derivative, so the Stratotanker is basically a 707 one-and-a-half times removed.
I haven’t heard of any civilian 707s/720s ever converted to take modern high-bypass engines like the ones on that KC-135, but the DC-8 has had that done. UPS flies a bunch of old stretched-fuselage DC-8s that have had their original engines replaced with four CFM-56s, the same engines that power modern 737s. They’re quieter, more efficient, and still useful for hauling cargo cross-country.
Travolta’s 707-138B looks like it’s got the original Pratt and Whitney JT3D engines on it. I expect that thing lays down a smoke trail on takeoff that nothing short of a B-52 is going to match—those older engines were very sooty at full power. One takeoff and trans-Atlantic flight in that beast would probably leave a carbon footprint like Shaquille O’Neal’s size 22 foot!
}:-)4
I was wondering that this picture looks a lot like a 720.
My compliments. That’s really clever. I admire a mind that produces such bon mots.
Semper Fi
After I posted that, I looked it up - 10 feet shorter behind the wing, apparently. In a previous discussion, I had asserted that he owned a 720; and was corrected.
It looks like this plane would be a couple of feet shorter than a 720.
The airplane was probably on auto-pilot while Travolta was spinning on his boyfriends
aperture ... things got out of control, resulting in a premature landing.
You don’t have a helipad in your front yard?
No, those are the original fuel burning engines.
The 707 has been re-engined with much more powerful and quiet fuel efficient engines, the National Guard of AZ has them for their refueling wing.
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