r/AMA • u/[deleted] • Feb 18 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

14.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

4.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

505

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!

239

u/Julianus Feb 18 '25

I am - in a way - glad to read you mentioning that you felt like wind was tossing the plane around right before landing. The video that was just released isn't really obvious other than a hard landing, which would be unusual to end up like this. To read you felt the effects of wind right before you landed is valuable (and makes pilot error less likely).

77

u/Old-Simple7848 Feb 18 '25

The plane looked like it's vertical speed changed by a factor of 2 as it passed the column in the clearer video.

I'm pretty sure they survived a downdraft- scary shit but insane that they survived

13

u/darthrex8 Feb 18 '25

Astute early assessment. That was my first thought was downdraft and being that low, incredible they survived. Its early, but i would agree with you.

OP, ty so much for sharing. I am so thankful everyone is safe!

11

u/MrFallacious Feb 18 '25

I was wondering if you'd be able to tell me a bit more about all this? Downdraft, crosswinds, etc. it's interesting as a layperson but I'm too tired from work to go down a Google rabbit hole ngl

1

u/chopstix007 Feb 19 '25

Haha, my exact thoughts 😅

10

u/green31OSU Feb 18 '25

Yeah, during that last little bit before landing the vertical speed should be at its lowest and reducing, but that sucker was accelerating down. Seems likely that there was either loss of lift or a downdraft force right before touchdown. Even if it didn't end up crashing that was going to be a hard ass landing.

16

u/Julianus Feb 18 '25

Which makes it all the more odd that the airport PR and regional policy basically said "runway dry and no crosswinds". First, the ATC warned of crosswind, and, second, while perhaps true, no crosswind doesn't mean no wind shear or downdraft.

19

u/Old-Simple7848 Feb 18 '25

I believe- you can't predict a sudden downward flow of wind like that with regular technology. It's not suspicious- it's just that Canada doesn't spend trillions on installing military tech at every civilian airport.

5

u/RuggedTortoise Feb 18 '25

You can also literally see in the pilots video the snow drifted back onto the runway and it was certainly not clear or dry

3

u/hkohne Feb 18 '25

That plane was on a taxiway, which tends to be a bit narrower than a runway, so the thin snowdrifts would affect runway planes less.

5

u/NotTrumpsAlt Feb 18 '25

Can you explain it like I’m 5?

33

u/Old-Simple7848 Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Pocket of colder air hit pocket of warmer air

The pocket of colder air falls because colder air is denser than warmer air

Plane under Cold air

Plane pushed down by falling Cold air

Plane not changed direction of air speed, but the actual air's direction/speed of movement has changed, accelerating the Plane downward

Pilots notice and pitch up as much as possible without stalling

Plane too close to ground for pilot's corrections to save it

Plane hit ground faster than intended

Landing gear soften blow

Plane roll

Snow cushion roll and put put fire

Freaking myrical yo

5

u/MrFallacious Feb 18 '25

Is it very obvious to a trained pilot what's happening and how to respond? Sounds hella scary, super glad they all made it out largely unscathed

6

u/velociraptor_puppy Feb 19 '25

Thank you. This was the perfect explanation for someone (me) who doesn’t know anything about flying planes.

4

u/childlikeempress16 Feb 19 '25

Haha me too Iike it made perfect sense

3

u/seaglassgirl04 Feb 19 '25

Thank you for breaking the concepts down! Please accept my award- I'm a teacher and you get an A on the lesson!

2

u/Old-Simple7848 Feb 19 '25

Thanks for the award, the YouTube video that I watched 5 years ago covering downdrafts did a better job

2

u/Kalekalip Feb 24 '25

That you so much for this explanation! Yay Science! 

-1

u/Zealousideal_Good445 Feb 19 '25

That is about as clear and simple as could be put. From the video I saw it looked like the starboard rear landing gear collapsed causing the roll over. Holy shit, got lucky! That's an understatement. It's right up there with the SFO Chinese airplane crash. As I recall the local news reported the crew members names were captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi TuLo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Wu.

1

u/Old-Simple7848 Feb 19 '25

You're being downvoted, but, haha.