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Pilot "sucked out of A319" after depressurization event

Started by Phil Bunch, Tue, 15 May 2018 21:25

Phil Bunch

These incidents of passengers and now a pilot being sucked out of an airliner due to depressurization are disturbing!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/airline-pilot-sucked-halfway-out-when-cockpit-windshield-broke?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Excerpt:

The co-pilot of a Sichuan Airlines flight that was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday was "sucked halfway out" of the plane when a cockpit windshield blew out, local media reported citing the aircraft's captain.

Captain Liu Chuanjian – hailed as a hero on social media after having to land the Airbus A319 manually – told the Chengdu Economic Daily his aircraft had just reached a cruising altitude of 32,000ft when a deafening sound tore through the cockpit.

There was a sudden loss of pressure and drop in temperature. When he looked over, the right windshield was gone.

"There was no warning sign. Suddenly the windshield just cracked and made a loud bang. The next thing I know my co-pilot had been sucked halfway out of the window," he was quoted as saying.

"Everything in the cockpit was floating in the air. Most of the equipment malfunctioned ... and I couldn't hear the radio. The plane was shaking so hard I could not read the gauges."

The co-pilot, who was wearing a seatbelt, was pulled back in. He sustained scratches and a sprained wrist, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said, adding that one other cabin crew member was injured in the descent. None of the plane's 119 passengers were hurt. An investigation is under way.
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Maybe it's time to require seat harnesses for all passengers or at least for the pilots!!
Best wishes,

Phil Bunch

John H Watson

QuoteCaptain Liu Chuanjian – .... having to land the Airbus A319 manually

Horrors.

Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers

Quote from: Phil Bunch on Tue, 15 May 2018 21:25
Maybe it's time to require seat harnesses [...] at least for the pilots!!
Last time I checked...


Will

Quote... hailed as a hero on social media after having to land the Airbus A319 manually ...

John, you beat me to it.

But this is the way it's done over there. (And in lots of other places in the world.) There's no such thing as an entry-level aviation job like here in the US, where a pilot can get 2000 or 3000 hours of hand flying under their belt before going to an aircraft with advanced automatic flight features.

An entry level job in China is the right seat of an A319. Often after just 200 hours hand flying in training.
Will /Chicago /USA

Roddez

This has happened before - BA as I recall some years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390

When manually landing a Boeing at least it doesn't tell the Retard to Retard...
Rodney Redwin
YSSY
www.simulatorsolutions.com.au

Hardy Heinlin

Quote from: Will on Wed, 16 May 2018 03:53
Quote... hailed as a hero on social media after having to land the Airbus A319 manually ...

John, you beat me to it.

But in this case it was a manual landing under non-normal conditions.


(Aside from the manual landing; I wonder how it's like to sit there on the deck at FL320 at freezing -40°C. This cannot be trained in the sim. Having just a light shirt on, the body must be vibrating like a stick shaker. How can you smoothly add manual forces to the stick without shaking the stick?)


|-|ardy

Phil Bunch

Quote from: Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers on Wed, 16 May 2018 00:38
Quote from: Phil Bunch on Tue, 15 May 2018 21:25
Maybe it's time to require seat harnesses [...] at least for the pilots!!
Last time I checked...

I now realize that I have never paid any attention to what the "seat belts" are like in a cockpit.

More specifically, I'm thinking of the type of maxed-out harnesses that are used in automobile racing and in fighter aircraft.  They are designed to hold the driver or pilot in place very rigidly.  Thus, fighter pilots can withstand more than about 10 G acceleration (I think), assisted by pressurized suits designed to forcibly keep adequate blood in the brain.

On the other hand, inflicting this kind of system on pilots, very very few of whom would benefit from such a system may simply be paying too  much attention to *extremely* rare events.  Fortunately, airliners usually doesn't try to pull 10 Gs

<Hopefully, it's clear that I'm mostly being humorous here, although I do wonder if improvements are needed since the A319 copilot was said to be partially sucked out through the missing front windscreen.>  Maybe it would be better to improve windscreen design and maintenance?!?!
Best wishes,

Phil Bunch

Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers

Typically a 5-point harness. Big central buckle in your crotch, belt left and right over your hips, belt over either shoulder, and the buckle itself clips down on your seat, too.
I had the nice fortune to spend a lot of time in airline cockpits inflight when it wasn't universally prohibited yet, and on several occasions I was happy to wear the harness as the pilots hit the brakes firmly after touchdown and if you're in the center jump seat you have very little to hold on to.

The trick is that in cruise, these harnesses may not be worn at all or only the hip belts. This depends on the company policy. I believe that the pilot flying must always be strapped in, but maybe not as tightly as during critical phases of flight?

Hoppie

Hardy Heinlin

#9
Sichuan Airlines broken window - Mentour explains: https://youtu.be/WgJ2XPikZXc

Quote: "... great airmanship, great skill on behalf of the captain ..."


Quote from: www.theguardian.com- hailed as a hero on social media after having to land the Airbus A319 manually -

I think the author of that line should rephrase it to something like this:

"- hailed as a hero on social media after having to fly the Airbus on a severely damaged flight deck -"

Phil Bunch



Being sucked out of an airplane, especially while trying to fly the thing, seems stressful!!!
Best wishes,

Phil Bunch

Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers

Obviously not a recent photo! That would have looked like: