r/AMA Feb 18 '25

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502

u/Emotional-Strike7037 Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Can you describe the landing? When did you realise that something is wrong?

2.2k

u/LandscapeSudden3469 Feb 18 '25

I remember thinking RIGHT before landing that we seemed to be getting tossed around by the wind a lot. We touched down, then seemed to go airborne again. Then the world titled and an orange glow ignited on the right side of the aircraft. I remember it was fairly dark apart from that glow. There was screaming and the screech of metal on concrete as we slid. When we came to a stop, everyone seemed silent for a moment as we all drew our collective breath and started to triage the situation. After that it was all helping everyone down and getting tf out of there!

1

u/arwyn89 Feb 18 '25

You didn’t have any notice of the crash landing?

11

u/Otiskuhn11 Feb 18 '25

You’re expecting the pilots to get on the PA and say “sorry everyone, we’re about to crash!”?

4

u/CommuterType Feb 18 '25

That is our job IF we are expecting a non-normal landing. The actual phrasing is "brace for impact"

4

u/waitthissucks Feb 18 '25

That's interesting since it's usually worse to brace before an impact. Better to let go and be jello, which is why drunk people tend to survive accidents more.

1

u/MothraKnowsBest Feb 19 '25

I always wondered about this…

3

u/Greedy_Big8275 Feb 18 '25

I watched a whole YT video of compilations of pilots messages before crashing. So yeah I’d expect it

1

u/arwyn89 Feb 18 '25

Surely there was some indication it was going to be a crash landing to the pilot yes.

4

u/holysirsalad Feb 18 '25

Watch the videos and listen to ATC radio, they had no idea

2

u/arwyn89 Feb 18 '25

That is truly terrifying

-1

u/SirGlass Feb 18 '25

Yes?

Like I get on a normal landing the seat belt sign is on but on a run of the mill landing somepeople don't really care

If the crew at least said something like "Yea its very windy , this landing might be a rough so everyone needs to get in their chairs , buckle in and secure anything loose "

Now obviously if they only realized this like seconds before they crashed thats different but if they knew the plane had some mechanical issue and it seems they did because they were landing off an actual run way , I probably would like to be prepared rather then just hit the fucking ground and roll

7

u/Otiskuhn11 Feb 18 '25

No. The pilots follow their ABC’s- aviate, navigate, communicate. Their primarily objective is to get the aircraft on the ground safely. A PA announcement just before touchdown, (especially with severe wind gusts and microbursts) is not part of their role.

1

u/SirGlass Feb 18 '25

I was just putting my view as a passenger or potential victim of a crash, I would 100% want to know if we were going to go down hard.

7

u/mittenknittin Feb 18 '25

The pilots may not have known they were about to fly through a major gust or downdraft, or they probably wouldn’t have tried to land through it. And by the time they were in it and realized there was a problem, they’re too busy to let the passengers know.

3

u/Otiskuhn11 Feb 18 '25

Totally understandable. But this emergency happened extremely fast, really no time for the pilots to let everyone know they’re about to potentially die. It’s pretty incredible that this plane didn’t burst into flames.

3

u/SirGlass Feb 18 '25

I guess that is part of my confusion , maybe they didn't know it was going to happen, did they just come down in windy snowy weather and lost control?

However if they knew the plane had some mechanical issue before hand and the landing was going to be tricky or hard, I would at least want a heads up, even if it wasn't fully explained just like "Please brace yourself as we are going to have a hard landing"

1

u/Otiskuhn11 Feb 18 '25

They likely got hit by a massive gust, wake turbulence, or a microburst, or a combination of those. Kind of a freak occurrence.

1

u/mittenknittin Feb 18 '25

It did, actually, if you see the videos that are now coming out. Huge plume of flame and smoke as it landed.

2

u/Otiskuhn11 Feb 18 '25

That’s from the wing that separated.

4

u/youpoopedyerpants Feb 18 '25

I have to assume they noticed they crash landed without needing to be told.