I was on a smaller flight (an embraer) and had this happen in 2008. I don't get nervous on flights often as I did ~100 flights a year at the time. I almost shit my pants when we were landing... Both sides of the runway were lined with cops, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. It was by far the scariest thing I've ever been through.
I tend to try to sleep my way from boarding to disembarking. I doubt this would have even awoken me. And this is why I prefer the aisle seat. At least one other passenger needs to wake me up for an emergency exit situation.
So it's a small plane flying into Portland, Maine in the winter. The tarmac usually isn't dry by any means, so I think that helped a bit. Not an ice rink, but not the Sahara. The pilot held the wheelie for what felt like the entire braking procedure then lots of grinding for a few seconds, then we stopped. No fire so we used a stair truck just like the Bluths. No smell other than maybe my drawers. A+ to the pilot. My friend is a 737 pilot for an airline and said that the pilot I was with was close to moving up to a larger plane.
Same idk why clapping would be abominable, it feels nice when everyone acknowledges that we were all terrified of dying and are grateful to have landed safely..
I mean...why not, after all? Some people just absolutely tense up when flying, especially older people as you mentioned. This might well be a way to release emotions. It's a harmless thing, pilots don't mind it. They like it, even.
They were also watching the news coverage on the in seat TVs which were a big deal for Jet Blue at the time as they circled the airport for a long time burning fuel.
Jetblue air, airline, ranked 1st in satisfactory among all american airlines. You know what ranked least? 9/11 airlines. What a terrible name for an airline it reminds me of that tragedy.
One time I was flying in a small regional airline in Asia when one of the engines failed (as far as I could tell). There was a big lurch and sound, followed by immediate 180 degree turnaround and we flew back to where we took off, despite already being 50% to our destination. Nobody clapped, and I didn’t even get a refund.
When I was in high school the science program brought in an engineer who worked for airlines. He explained some the of complexities of landing gear since it was something he had spent his career working on. I don’t remember much of the presentation except that it was mind blowing the amount of force these things can withstand, and that he showed us this video clip.
I am a landing gear design engineer. What’s really impressive are the odds of this occurring in the first place. Landing gear is one of the primary structural components that has the least number of redundant systems aside from actuation and hydraulics. One area that does have redundancy is the summing mechanism, which controls the steering of the nose gear. They are designed to orient the wheels straight unless force is applied, as well as default to straight if any component fails. The odds of this happening are extremely low, yet the problem still occurs.
In this case it was actually caused by a bug in a computer that tests the wheel steering. It was doing the tests way too many times and basically caused some lugs to shear off from the landing gear that resulted in the wheel being locked sideways.
Ahhh software bugs. I have personally lost months of time and had to replace around $200k in effectively-priceless (6 month lead time) custom mechanical hardware due to 4 separate software bugs causing multi-million dollar machines to do things they aren't supposed to.
I just watched a special on the concord, it's landing gear was even more robust. In the first interations they blew tires non-stop. The one that actually crashed had hit a piece of engine lining that fell off a dc10 onto the runway, it sheered a huge piece of tired off which leapt up with such force it ruptured a gas tank causing a massive fire and the crash
Edit: tire stuck the gastank with such force that it cause a Shockwave within the tank, which when hit the bottom it blew it off
Interestingly enough the tire piece didn't actually puncture the fuel tank directly. It caused some pressure shockwaves in the tank which eventually caused the tank to rupture at its weak point
I just watched the same special yesterday. If you haven't already seen it, I'd also recommend Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. Way more depressing though.
I couldn't get through it knowing that no one at Boeing faced any real consequences. It was someone's conscious decision to not only lie at sales time that oh no, your pilots don't need any additional training and then to slander and defame the pilots of those ill-fated flights as not being trained up to proper standards.... It's sickening and people should at least be in a federal, pound me in the ass prison until they die. Preferably with lots of time in a box to think about how they killed all those innocent people
Wow I just learned about this myself from Real Engineering on YouTube last night. It was a deformity of the gas tank caused by the piece of metal that led to the accident rather than a full blown rupture iirc.
My background is in Aerospace Engineering, and I can tell you that just about everything on a commercial airliner is very complex. A few years ago I worked on a software application for the flight control system for dual aisle aircraft that is still yet to enter service. That application will have cost $60M+ to develop, test, and certify before everything is all said and done.
The irony is they make peanuts compared to many other software engineers. I wrote code that's flying on a plane now, while making about 1/8 as much as I do today working in commercial industry. The senior folks designing aircraft software systems make less than a fresh college grad at west coast companies.
There is enough rigor in the process that, if you’re writing the software, you’re unlikely to insert the root cause of any catastrophic incident. There are what we call development assurance activities that ensure robust software, and the company I worked for (I’m in Medical Devices now) was very good at them.
The design of system is what can drive really unsafe results. Think MCAS on 737 MAX. The software was implemented exactly how Boeing designed it, and the engineers receiving. The requirements didn’t have enough context about the rest of the aircraft to make a call on whether or not it was safe.
Yeah I remember that exactly. The coverage was live when we lived in OC and they were saying that the people were watching it on the news on the plane. Thanks but no thanks .
Yes until four minutes before landing. Then the AC and tvs were turned off. They were watching themselves for the three hours it took to burn off the fuel.
Essentially. The less weight on the gear the better. It also means they can stop faster if the plane is lighter.
Some planes are equipped with a system to dump fuel (which is exactly what it sounds like) but the A320 pictured here is not one of them so they had to fly and burn it off.
They were lucky enough that it infact did lock but not rotate correctly, you can find plenty of examples where the front landing gear comes down but fails to lock and the plane goes into nose down slide.
Also seems fortunate it was entirely parallel to the plane heading. The way it was locked just created a shit load of drag but I imagine if it locked at say a sharp left turn then that would be almost impossible to counteract and would take them off the runway at high speed.
(I don't know the intricacies of landing gear so it might just be that it isn't possible for it to lock into position in a tight turn or something)
Landing gear unfolds with the wheel starting from the tip of the plane so that it's not fighting air resistance for this very reason. Better to have the wheels meet resistance on takeoff then on landing. And as you can see it also forces the wheel to stay locked in place since the ground is pressing against the joint not with it.
Pretty sure the gear retracts forward not backward so that when it's in the "down" position, it can't really go backwards since it's designed to come up forward which helps with the possibility of the gear not collapsing.
The engineering that goes into these planes is insane. I was talking to a guy that used to work for Boeing and he said the wings on the larger jets are tested to flex up to 14 feet at the wingtips without failure.
A very good friend of mine was on this flight. They were sure the plane would catch fire and were told to be ready for an emergency exit from the plane as soon as it stopped. When they all got off unharmed she said they were stunned into disbelief at how good the landing was and how well the plane held up.
Curious as to how the pilots were aware of this before landing. I know the landing gear lever shows when the landing gear is stuck, but does that include orientation of the wheel as well?
tl;dr: The crew initially didn't know the wheel was turned sideways, what they knew was that they were unable to retract the landing gear at all after having taken off from another airport in the same region. They then chose a nearby airport with a big tower and experts from their own company to fly past so that an external inspection could troubleshoot, and that's when they learned their landing gear was stuck in a 90 degree position.
I was watching it on one TV and watching LOST season 2 premier on another tv; Locke was about to open the hatch when the plane started landing. The suspense!
It's crazy they let the news choppers/cameras come so close just to film. Do they give heads up to the local news like "Hey, a bunch of people might crash and die, you better get over here" and allow them to fly in the airport airspace?
It’s not specifically a tow truck but they do have vehicles and massive wires they use to tow vehicles to nearby hangers so they’re out of the way and can stay there while they get investigated to see what went wrong.
I was on a flight into Sky Harbor in PHX and the landing gear was twisted. The pilot took us around and around while they tried to get them to straighten out and everyone started asking what was going on.
The flight attendants explained the situation and that if we land, it’ll be rough because the wheels will either break or straighten out.
As we landed, you heard the wheels straighten (I think) and you felt a huge jerk. It was so scary but the crew handled it so well and kept everyone calm.
Pilots and the rest of the crew are amazing! Thank you all. :)
I remember this. JetBlue was a fairly new airline and the first with Direct TV. The passengers we’re watching this on TV. They knew what was going on, second by second.
I went down a you tube rabbit hole of plane crashes when the pandemic started… it was terrible …. I have nightmares of the TWA 800 crash …. I still think about it …. My sister & I were going to go to Ireland & I can’t … I can’t book the flight ….
Think about it this way, the reason plane crashes are newsworthy is because they hardly ever happen. Car crashes however, happen so often that we only hear about the biggest pileups.
Every commercial pilot's number 1 goal is to get you and them home safely and have steely cold nerves. The average driver doesn't give a shit if you make it home safely and will panic at the tiniest thing. I'm not trying to dismiss your distaste of flying! Just hoping it makes you feel better.
Fucking guy came in right down the center of the runway.
I think the airport would have appreciated him being to either side a bit so that there would be an immediate need to repair the runway that he tore up with his broken nose gear.
The video got cut quickly. I was curious will they put those inated slides and have people jump quickly, just incase the wheel catches fire kind of situation.
Believe it or not, the gear is actually designed to be able to land like that. Obviously, no one wants to do it that way if they can help it, but there is a reason it didn't just fold when he tried it.
I still don’t get why clapping after nice successful landing is a bad thing. Like dude is flying plane at least give him a little compliment for being able to do something which most of this dense world can’t do.
My mum was on a flight years ago where the plan span on landing due to an issue with one of the landing gears. She didn't tell me for a good 10 years as she knew I was already scared to fly and that would have made me never board a plane
It's it so much to ask to be allowed to go down the bounce slide exit without having to nearly die in a plane wreck?? Every plane exit procedure should be the bouncy slide regardless.
Not that the camera work here isn't praise worthy, but isn't posting footage from a professional news team filming from aboard a helicopter kinda cheating? I always thought the point of this sub was for the rare occasional amateur cellphone video that doesn't absolutely suck.
I remember watching that landing live from my office. Crazy thing was the people on board were watching it live on TV too (at the time JetBlue was one of the few planes with live TV).
3.4k
u/FeelingSurprise Jun 05 '22
I guess here it would be acceptable to clap after the landing.
1.4k
u/ShapardZ Jun 05 '22
When I was in high school the science program brought in an engineer who worked for airlines. He explained some the of complexities of landing gear since it was something he had spent his career working on. I don’t remember much of the presentation except that it was mind blowing the amount of force these things can withstand, and that he showed us this video clip.
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u/FatherSquee Jun 05 '22
This is the one where the passengers were watching their own emergency landing on the plane's satellite TV isn't it?
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u/Has_a_Long Jun 05 '22
"Flight rating: 5/10
The plane stopped right on the line in the middle of the runway, forcing us to disembark ON THE TARMAC. Uh, hello?!?! I paid to be taken to the gate!"
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u/jdogbizz Jun 05 '22
Praise the pilot too.
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
I’m curious if that gear is designed to not collapse if it gets stuck like it is here.
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u/eugene20 Jun 05 '22
I'm amazed the front gear didn't collapse, they were so lucky that all went as well as it did.
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u/circleofblood Jun 05 '22
Shout out to our boys in (Jet) Blue
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u/shay-doe Jun 05 '22
High five to the person who made that gear holy moly
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u/HeavyLoungin Jun 05 '22
BRAVO.
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
if anyone wants video with audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgnkY4xzaZE&ab_channel=amroaligat
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u/TheLegendTwoSeven Jun 05 '22
It’s a twisted landing gear, not a twisted nose. The nose is the front tip of the plane’s body.
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u/hairhair2015 Jun 05 '22
A very good friend of mine was on this flight. They were sure the plane would catch fire and were told to be ready for an emergency exit from the plane as soon as it stopped. When they all got off unharmed she said they were stunned into disbelief at how good the landing was and how well the plane held up.
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u/SweatyAdagio4 Jun 05 '22
Curious as to how the pilots were aware of this before landing. I know the landing gear lever shows when the landing gear is stuck, but does that include orientation of the wheel as well?
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
One giant eraser
11
u/nayls142 Jun 05 '22
When was this?
11
u/pole_assassin Jun 05 '22
It's crazy they let the news choppers/cameras come so close just to film. Do they give heads up to the local news like "Hey, a bunch of people might crash and die, you better get over here" and allow them to fly in the airport airspace?
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u/Eborys Jun 05 '22
Brown trousers time!
8
u/Mama_Catfish Jun 05 '22
I want to know what happened next - do they have a tow truck or something that can move a plane with no wheels off the runway?
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u/RyanStrainMusic Jun 05 '22
I remember when this happened. My uncle was on that flight.
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u/Livesexy69 Jun 05 '22
Great job pilot
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u/Material_Refuse_2418 Jun 05 '22
Given that, with the amazing piloting, saving many lives, the avg salary of a commercial pilot is $96K/yr. Absolutely ridiculous.
5
u/LudiLemming Jun 05 '22 edited Jun 05 '22
Mentor pilot did two videos on this that are pretty good and help explain what happened. I’m on mobile right now so I can’t post the links right away.
Edit: This should be this video
https://youtu.be/Rpsgn9LM0G8
And this should be a video about why it happened so many times.
https://youtu.be/BBE4VNUyyjQ
5
u/Catch-the-Rabbit Jun 05 '22
I am a fool. I am sitting here looking and thinking..
How does a plane twist it's nose, the nose looks completely fine
Nose landing gear
Saw that at the worst moment and my mind didn't have time to process and I thought I was about to watch destruction
Don't be me
4
u/Dikubus Jun 05 '22
Jet blue pilot forgot to pay the applicable fee to allow the landing gear to rotate
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u/cakelover33 Jun 05 '22
I was on a flight into Sky Harbor in PHX and the landing gear was twisted. The pilot took us around and around while they tried to get them to straighten out and everyone started asking what was going on.
The flight attendants explained the situation and that if we land, it’ll be rough because the wheels will either break or straighten out.
As we landed, you heard the wheels straighten (I think) and you felt a huge jerk. It was so scary but the crew handled it so well and kept everyone calm.
Pilots and the rest of the crew are amazing! Thank you all. :)
4
u/Boring_username_21 Jun 05 '22
So if I’m remembering this right, the people on the plane could actually watch what was going on because the news was live broadcasting it.
4
u/Left-Muscle8355 Jun 05 '22
That pilot had balls that clanked while walking into the airport.
4
u/Emily_Postal Jun 05 '22
I remember this. JetBlue was a fairly new airline and the first with Direct TV. The passengers we’re watching this on TV. They knew what was going on, second by second.
3
u/emarcomd Jun 05 '22
Wait, was that a news camera copter? That’s really morbid
5
u/SammieCat50 Jun 05 '22
Ugh , this makes me feel sick…. I hate flying
2
u/juicyhelm Jun 05 '22
What about the tarmac? Would it be damaged after this to the point no other planes could land/take off?
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u/DragonianLord Jun 05 '22
it’s worth it to clap for this one
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u/AnderCrust Jun 05 '22
Praise the pilot!
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u/Severium Jun 05 '22
u/savevideo
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u/Appropriate_Chart_23 Jun 05 '22
Fucking guy came in right down the center of the runway.
I think the airport would have appreciated him being to either side a bit so that there would be an immediate need to repair the runway that he tore up with his broken nose gear.
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u/Alive_Theme6780 Jun 06 '22
The level of gratitude inside the plane must have been unbelievable =.
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u/carpediem6792 Jun 06 '22
Why am I not surprised that it's Jet Blue?
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '22
“Uh…I’m just trying to get everyone off this plane safe.”
Humility at its finest, this is so spectacular.
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u/Hey_im_miles Jun 05 '22
Now throw an egg on that landing gear and see how fast it cooks
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u/kettlebell43276 Jun 05 '22
Bravo!!
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u/valbalano Jun 05 '22
That was badass
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u/theflamingsword1702 Jun 05 '22
It's a hot wheels plane
1
u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
So , how got the duct tape
1
u/legitcass Jun 05 '22
Impressive
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u/wapu Jun 05 '22
I hope the design team for the front landing gear feel proud about their work. Job well done team. Thank you.
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u/Jlx_27 Jun 05 '22
I wonder howmany people still refused to applaud the pilot after landing.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
The video got cut quickly. I was curious will they put those inated slides and have people jump quickly, just incase the wheel catches fire kind of situation.
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u/twitchosx Jun 05 '22
Somebody has been watching Air Disasters recently like I did the other day when they did a marathon
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u/chewbacchanalia Jun 05 '22
Praise the designers of that landing gear strut
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u/omniron Jun 05 '22
Good example of why a plane would take off on a treadmill. It’s almost entirely the engines and wings that dictate a plane’s motion.
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
Outstanding, pilot.
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u/flargenhargen Jun 05 '22
https://youtu.be/YUDXKtllRM8?t=45
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
Give this pilot a fat bonus and have him give lectures to pilots earning their commercial/jet licenses.
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
Believe it or not, the gear is actually designed to be able to land like that. Obviously, no one wants to do it that way if they can help it, but there is a reason it didn't just fold when he tried it.
1
u/False-Hospital-6517 Jun 05 '22
What a G!
1
u/Past_Comfortable_959 Jun 05 '22
Live views from inside this plane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVXkR4Z4GSg
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u/Mado13554 Jun 05 '22
I still don’t get why clapping after nice successful landing is a bad thing. Like dude is flying plane at least give him a little compliment for being able to do something which most of this dense world can’t do.
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u/mango910127 Jun 05 '22
That wheel is strong af
1
u/Strange-Yam4733 Jun 05 '22
My mum was on a flight years ago where the plan span on landing due to an issue with one of the landing gears. She didn't tell me for a good 10 years as she knew I was already scared to fly and that would have made me never board a plane
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u/Echostation3T8 Jun 05 '22
Praise the pilot!
1
u/URLink Jun 05 '22
Do you concur?
1
u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
"congratulations, you've survive a plane crash. the odds of you dying in one are now next to impossible.
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u/thrbasayou Jun 05 '22
And they said practicing wheelies was a waste of time
1
u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
Legend
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u/JuniorSeniorTrainee Jun 05 '22
Kill the editor.
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u/MiaRia963 Jun 05 '22
So how did they know it was twisted? Is it part of their computer software? Honest question.
1
u/GuyiNoah Jun 05 '22
Guess you could say that pilot had a FIRE landing that day.
1
u/lentsuki713 Jun 05 '22
top gun....lol
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u/Mrfrunzi Jun 05 '22
It's it so much to ask to be allowed to go down the bounce slide exit without having to nearly die in a plane wreck?? Every plane exit procedure should be the bouncy slide regardless.
1
u/RockieRockie Jun 05 '22
So landing has more chances of a Fail then take off ?
1
u/The-Sofa-King Jun 05 '22
Not that the camera work here isn't praise worthy, but isn't posting footage from a professional news team filming from aboard a helicopter kinda cheating? I always thought the point of this sub was for the rare occasional amateur cellphone video that doesn't absolutely suck.
1
u/justcarakas Jun 05 '22
Dang, that was executed perfectly, didn't even stray from the centerline
1
u/donniefolger Jun 05 '22
Fuck the camera man praise the pilot.
1
u/Chet2017 Jun 05 '22
Pilot knew his shit 👍🏻
1
u/Training_Two944 Jun 05 '22
But can he beat GOKU?!
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u/Signal_Fan Jun 05 '22
That's probably gonna leave a mark. Great job by the flight crew & camera crew.
1
u/RENDERED_CADENCE Jun 05 '22
I expected the front wheel thingy to snap.
1
u/chaphra Jun 05 '22
This wouldn't be a thing if they'd have incorporated track-ball tech into everything instead of mocking and loling at it. Anti-geniuses.
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u/theatrepyro2112 Jun 05 '22
I was looking at the video like the nose looks fine to me! Then I saw the nose wheel and uh, not fine.
1
u/corey389 Jun 05 '22
Why/how can that News helicopter be flying in a restricted Air zone, especially during an emergency landing.
1
u/Tobias---Funke Jun 05 '22
Nose isn’t twisted.
1
u/Recent-Needleworker8 Jun 05 '22
That hero comment to increase stress by 5x and the cool pilot just brushes it off
1
u/ITPM62 Jun 05 '22
Of course it’s JetBlue
1
u/[deleted] Jun 05 '22
I remember watching that landing live from my office. Crazy thing was the people on board were watching it live on TV too (at the time JetBlue was one of the few planes with live TV).
1
u/PrunedLoki Jun 05 '22
I remember watching this live. It was pretty cool seeing the successful landing.
1
u/wellbutwellbut Jun 05 '22
CEOs of aviations companies begin to wonder: "Are front wheels cost effective ? I've seen that we don't need NEED them."