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 this to the malfunction of the pitot-static system.
A pitot-static system is a pressure-sensitive device used to provide the air speed information to the pilots. A pilot must ensure he flies his plane above its stalling speed or else it would fall off the skies.
On 1 June 2009, an Air France Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris encountered severe weather that caused its pitot-static system to be iced up and tripped the auto pilot.
Subsequently the aircraft stalled and plunged into the sea due to mishandling. The pilot flying was not familiar with the ‘jet upset’ recovery procedure. The co-pilot had mistakenly pointed the nose upwards instead of downwards.
Before I left as a flight simulator instructor due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was with a team of other Airbus A330 instructors who were training pilots to undergo UPRT (Upset Prevention Recovery Training).
This training was one of the recommendations following the Air France 447 crash.
UPRT includes training in theoretical aerodynamic knowledge and flying skills to ensure all flight crew are able to prevent and recover an airplane when it unintentionally entered into a jet upset.
By the time I left AirAsia X, I believe all the A330 pilots were fully trained on UPRT.
One passenger in a recent incident on MH2664 shared her unforgettable experience in Facebook. “I was tossed around a few times because I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt. (At the time, we were allowed to unbuckle our seat belts).”
She further added, “The passengers were shouting and crying. It felt as if we were going to die.”
Lesson learnt: Always have your seat belts fastened even if the signs are off to prevent being ‘tossed around’ in any unforeseen event.
The captain was believed to be singing his UPRT mantra, “UNLOAD, ROLL, THRUST, STABILISED”.
UNLOAD – He must push the nose down to reduce the angle of attack of the wings. This may have caused the dive.
ROLL – He must bring the plane to a level flight if it was turning.
THRUST – He must reduce thrust if the plane was going too fast.
STABILISED – He must eventually have the plane stabilized to complete his jet upset drills.
According to Flight Radar 24, he lost only about 2500 feet and not 7000 feet as alleged.
On Air France 447, the pilot did the opposite by pulling the flight control up instead pushing it down. As such, the plane fell off the skies and crashed. 228 lives were lost and according to the BEA Final Report 2012, the correct technique was not used in the recovery process.
However, the captain on MH 2664 had performed well by bringing the plane home safely.
View a video on ‘Air France 447: Final report on what brought airliner down’ here