Plane came within seconds of disaster when a pilot mistake sent it plunging towards the ocean. Photo: 123RF On 10 January 2023, a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 flight from Doha to Copenhagen nosedived and narrowly avoided striking the Arabian Gulf shortly after take-off from the Hamad International Airport. According to Flightradar24, a Swedish internet-based service …
Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 Source: TMLN 123 What is the cause of an airplane stall during landing and how can it be prevented? A stall in a plane is unlike a car – the engine does not stop. It is a condition when the airspeed becomes too low and the plane just drops off the …
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Photo: 123RF An Airbus A350 Can an airplane complete a full flight on auto pilot? There is some confusion on what constitutes a full flight. If we define it as from the departure gate, say from Kuala Lumpur to the London Heathrow arrival gate, then we cannot say that the auto pilot is capable of …
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Image Credit: Mentour Pilot Lining up on a Runway under Construction Get-there-itis – a potential pilot killer Pilots often face tremendous pressures. As such, safety at times takes a backseat to getting there on time. Get-there-itis or get-home-itis means the determination of a pilot to reach a destination even when the conditions for flying are …
Photo: 123RF A Boeing 737 Cockpit Is it possible for someone who has never flown before to successfully land an airliner? For that someone who has never flown, the chances of successfully bringing the plane down safely are almost nil. But, if that passenger is a general aviation enthusiast, a computer geek on the Microsoft …
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Photo: 123RF A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 What happens if a pilot falls asleep on a long flight? On 15 August 2022, two Ethiopian Airlines pilots flying a Boeing 737 missed landing after reportedly falling asleep. They could not be contacted by the air traffic controller but were awakened by an on-board alarm. They were …
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Image: Wikipedia A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 Do planes ever really crash into each other in the air? On 12 November 1996, a Saudia Boeing 747 from Delhi to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and a Kazakhstan Airline Ilyushin Il-76 from Shymkent, Kazakhstan to Delhi collided over Charkhi Dadri around 100 km west of Delhi. It was the world’s deadliest mid-air collision which killed all 349 …
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Photo: 123RF A pilot can opt to go around anytime during a landing What do pilots do if they get scared while landing? Pilots are trained to handle all sorts of difficult situations but that doesn’t mean they don’t get scared sometimes. Landing is not something a professional pilot is fearful of unless there is …
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Photo: Travel3Sixty Fear of Flying Help me! I am scared of flying! Careen Loo wrote to me by forwarding this Instagram video with screaming passengers https://tinyurl.com/27y52tcs She asked me 3 questions: 1: Whether the turbulence was considered moderate or severe. Well, I would classify this as severe turbulence. Turbulence is categorized into: Light – just …
Ditching – An Emergency Water Landing Is it safer to crash a plane on land or water? What are the chances of surviving a water landing? These 2 questions come from Praveen Upadhyay. Whether it would be safer to crash on land or water would depend on the choices available. If the misfortune happens near …
Photo: 123RF Flying without Fear Why is flying on an airplane so nerve-racking? For more than 2 years after restrictions and lockdowns due to Covid-19, people are rushing back to fly again. As the urge to fly to places where international borders are opening up, air ticket bookings are reported to be fast picking up. …
Photo: 123RF A Super Jumbo Airbus A380 Why do airplanes not just fall out of the sky due to gravity? Gebo Pol wants to know how an iron bird, such as the Airbus A380 weighing about 560 tonnes, is able to stay in the air and not fall out of the sky due to gravity. …
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Photo: 123RF Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 Why you shouldn’t be scared about flying I have just received a query from an air traveler in my Messenger. She asked whether she should be concerned about flying on her upcoming flight on the Boeing 777 with Singapore Airlines. This concern probably arose after the crashes on the …
Do planes fly in a straight line or follow the curvature of the Earth? Do planes fly in straight lines or follow the curvature of the Earth below? When I began to learn how to fly, during my first lesson, my instructor told me to maintain a ‘straight and level’ flight at 3000 feet. …
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A Malaysia Airline Boeing 737-800 It felt as if we were going to die! Recently, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800, similar to the China Eastern Airlines plane which crashed on 21 March 2022 in Wuzhou, China, encountered an unusual event that caused the aircraft to dive. The CAAM (Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia) press release attributed …
Photo: BobMil42 Airbus A340 Fuel Dumping in progress Why pilot dump fuel during an emergency? Prior to hanging up my uniform as a captain on the Boeing 777 in 2006, I encountered an emergency which potentially could have led to a depressurization if not properly handled. We could have ended up like the Helios Airways …
Image: 123RF An upside-down plane? Can an airliner fly upside down? This is an interesting question from Lisa Anderson. Perhaps she may have seen the movie Flight where Academy Award winner Denzel Washington ‘skillfully’ maneuvered his plane during an uncontrolled dive. Miraculously he put it upside down before rolling the wings to right-side up for …
Boeing 787’s wings are incredibly strong Why a plane’s wings don’t break? When sitting by the window seat, one may notice the wing tips shaking up and down during turbulence. In aviation jargon, this is known as flexing of the wings. This may lead some nervous flyers to imagine that the bending motion may …
Image: 123RF An Air Transat Airbus A330 What are the chances of landing safely on some islands if both engines fail while flying over the ocean? To have two engines fail on a plane is extremely rare. Amongst others, there were 2 such incidents – one was caused by a flock of wild geese at …
Loss of Braking memory action involves 8 steps What is the first thing to do in case of an emergency on a plane? I shall answer this Quora question from a pilot’s perspective. Pilots will follow this mantra, ‘AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNUICATE’ when encountering an emergency. They are taught to aviate, a pilot’s jargon to mean …
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