Posted on 04/06/2002 8:31:56 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Nation: Escape chute opened inside Delta flight during emergency landing
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (April 6, 2002 9:38 p.m. EST) - An evacuation chute on a Delta Air Lines jet opened inside the plane during an emergency landing last month, hindering the passengers' escape and possibly contributing to injuries, federal investigators said.
The MD-11 jet, carrying passengers from Atlanta, was bound for London but was forced to make an emergency landing March 31 at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport after the pilot reported a possible engine fire.
The passengers evacuated on chutes designed to automatically inflate outside when emergency doors are opened. Fourteen of the 245 passengers and crew members aboard received minor injuries during an eight-minute evacuation.
"Apparently, one of the slides opened inside the aircraft, which may have contributed to a few of the injuries," said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Flew in to Zurich. Stood in the aisle, carryons in hand, waiting to deplane. Waited. Waited. Waited...
Finally started moving out of the plane. Door and chute were jammed, deflated by slash marks, against the walkway. Boeing 767.
I remember because they just got clearance to fly the twin engine across the Atlantic. Sort of.
They supposedly (yeah, right) had to stay within X gazillion miles of land.
Is this the model with the engines next to the passenger compartment, so when a blade is thown, it does
bodily harm to the unfortunate, adjacent passengers?
(And to think most survivors of air crashes sat in the back)
Lots of time to incinerate an entire hull!
Apparently, one of the slides opened inside the aircraft .....
Quota hirin' ain't the best policy when applied to aircrew!
I suppose I brought my aeronautical misadventure upon myself - a misunderstanding in Russia a few years ago made me wish to avoid clearing their customs if at all possible.
Standing in front of Sheremetevo's tamozhnya, I was casting about for some distraction when I noticed a huge woman in dirty jeans and sweatshirt sitting/blocking one of the customs booths. She was sprawled there alongside a pile of papers and a small, expensively dressed five year-old Russian girl. And crying.
Recognizing an opportunity, I rushed over to 'help'. It seems my fellow countryman had just adopted the little girl, and could not locate the currency declaration form which she completed upon arrival in Russia. She'd been through ten days of provincial Russian bureaucracies and the missing document was the last straw. I rapidly scooped her and her papers up, explained everything to tamozhnik, paid the insignificant vzyatki, and helped the lady through to the KLM/Northwest counter. Then I ditched her and went to slam a few warm bottles of duty-free Heinekin.
Things were going great. I settled into the half-empty 747 with a great feeling of relief, and was pleased to discover SIX SEATS unoccupied alongside me - heaven on an eleven-hour Moscow to Chicago run. After take-off, another beer, and I was getting ready for my first sleep in almost a week... when she found me. And came over. With the kid. For nine hours I'm translating the musings of Rosie O'Donnell's doppelganger for a wide-eyed flotsam from the Chelyabinsk state orphanage. "Tell her that I will always love her no matter what" "No no no, mommy doesn't love you when you pick your nose" and on and on and on... until the lady went to sleep and I ended up baby-sitting the kid, who had no idea where she was going. "I can't wait to go see Mickey Mouse and tell my friend Dasha." I didn't have the heart to tell her that the crazy lady she was with was for keeps.
A half-day and ten centuries later we got through US customs, and 'Rosie' met up with two other new mothers and their pets... "This is Arkasha, we're going to name him Dakota" "This is Ryan, I can't pronounce his Russian name" "How much did you end up paying?" "Oh we went through an agency..." Blah blah blah. I slinked away once more... but I could feel Kristina's eyes boring into my back for a hundred yards.
That reminds me of a trip to Singapore a few years back; the two rows behind us were filled with an Indian (dot, not feather) family consisting of 2 younguns, mom/dad and mother in law; kids screamed all the way to Tokyo, and mother in law had a horrible, racking, tuberculoid cough...we thought they'd depart in Tokyo, but no-ooooo; right back on for the next 9 more hours to Singapore.
Ahhh! The glamour of modern air travel!
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