An extremely spooky story of China Airlines 747 en route Los Angeles. Experienced pilots, a few clouds. The airplane is on auto pilot, when one engine refuses to use full power. The pilot, Captain Ho, switches to manual control and all hell breaks loose.
All four engines lose power, the airplane is a a steep right bank, and it stalls. A stall in an airplane is an interesting experience. The airplane flies so slow that the wings can't generate enough lift to keep it airborne. At that point it cease to be an airplane and becomes an oddly shaped piece of heavy junk that falls from the sky. In a light airplane, the sensation is that of stepping into an elevator, pushing the button for a lower floor, and having the elevator floor drop out from under you.
In a larger airplane, weighing several tons, the G forces are much greater. In this case they probably exceeded twelve Gs. That means that if you weighed 200 points, your body know weight 1,200 pounds. It's impossible to move except when the G forces change and fling you around. Flight attendants were pinned to the roof until the airplane was inverted, and then their bodies fell quickly onto the passengers.
The 747 spun down through clouds towards the ocean at high speed, losing rivets and bits of metal. The attitude indicator was useless because it simply rotated in circles. The pilots were unable to tell which was was up.
They popped out of the clouds at 11,000 feet and by 9,500 had brought the airplane back under control. (Expert airmanship.) It was half wrecked because of the stresses. There are injuries on board and some of the control surfaces don't seem to be working. The landing gear were down and locked. The pilots declared an emergency and were rerouted to San Francisco.
The elevators weren't working. Without them, there is no way of controlling the rate of descent towards the field except by manipulating the power of the engines, which results in a "controlled fall." Captain Ho made a perfect landing.
Why did things go so terribly wrong? Crew errors. In trying to reignite the first failed engine, the engineer forgot to turn a single switch. At that altitude (41,000) it may not have made much difference because the air is so thin that there is little oxygen. The manual calls for a descent to about 12,000 ft. but Captain Ho neglected to descend. He should have switched to manual and used the rudder to correct the bank but didn't. The crew became focused on some primary instruments to the exclusion of others. When the attitude indicator showed a steep bank to the right, in the clouds and in the absence of a visual horizon, the crew assumed the instrument had failed when, in fact, it hadn't. The crew reported a failure of all engines but they were mistaken. In an attempt to slow the uncontrolled spin the flight engineer had reduced the settings to "idle." So how could an experienced crew make so many fundamental errors? Their circadian rhythms were out of whack. In six flights over the previous six days, Captain Ho had covered a total of 18 time zones. It used to be called jet lag or pilot fatigue. But for all their mistakes, they did one important thing right -- they brought the airplane in and saved it passenger.
The production is up to its usual high standards: excellent CGIs, decent reenactors, expert heads, and some newsreel footage.
All four engines lose power, the airplane is a a steep right bank, and it stalls. A stall in an airplane is an interesting experience. The airplane flies so slow that the wings can't generate enough lift to keep it airborne. At that point it cease to be an airplane and becomes an oddly shaped piece of heavy junk that falls from the sky. In a light airplane, the sensation is that of stepping into an elevator, pushing the button for a lower floor, and having the elevator floor drop out from under you.
In a larger airplane, weighing several tons, the G forces are much greater. In this case they probably exceeded twelve Gs. That means that if you weighed 200 points, your body know weight 1,200 pounds. It's impossible to move except when the G forces change and fling you around. Flight attendants were pinned to the roof until the airplane was inverted, and then their bodies fell quickly onto the passengers.
The 747 spun down through clouds towards the ocean at high speed, losing rivets and bits of metal. The attitude indicator was useless because it simply rotated in circles. The pilots were unable to tell which was was up.
They popped out of the clouds at 11,000 feet and by 9,500 had brought the airplane back under control. (Expert airmanship.) It was half wrecked because of the stresses. There are injuries on board and some of the control surfaces don't seem to be working. The landing gear were down and locked. The pilots declared an emergency and were rerouted to San Francisco.
The elevators weren't working. Without them, there is no way of controlling the rate of descent towards the field except by manipulating the power of the engines, which results in a "controlled fall." Captain Ho made a perfect landing.
Why did things go so terribly wrong? Crew errors. In trying to reignite the first failed engine, the engineer forgot to turn a single switch. At that altitude (41,000) it may not have made much difference because the air is so thin that there is little oxygen. The manual calls for a descent to about 12,000 ft. but Captain Ho neglected to descend. He should have switched to manual and used the rudder to correct the bank but didn't. The crew became focused on some primary instruments to the exclusion of others. When the attitude indicator showed a steep bank to the right, in the clouds and in the absence of a visual horizon, the crew assumed the instrument had failed when, in fact, it hadn't. The crew reported a failure of all engines but they were mistaken. In an attempt to slow the uncontrolled spin the flight engineer had reduced the settings to "idle." So how could an experienced crew make so many fundamental errors? Their circadian rhythms were out of whack. In six flights over the previous six days, Captain Ho had covered a total of 18 time zones. It used to be called jet lag or pilot fatigue. But for all their mistakes, they did one important thing right -- they brought the airplane in and saved it passenger.
The production is up to its usual high standards: excellent CGIs, decent reenactors, expert heads, and some newsreel footage.
