Have you ever experienced an airplane emergency landing?

kookoo4travel asked:


I have, I was on what was supposed to be a non-stop flight to Cabo San Lucas. The pilot did not give us much detail, but we had to do an emergency landing from Las Vegas into Phoenix. The landing took about a 1/2 hr after the pilot announced the emergency with the “pressure” or something. I was crappin’ my pants! What has been your experience?

Pamela

Share and Enjoy:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

3 Responses to “Have you ever experienced an airplane emergency landing?”

1. Ian M Says:
   March 19th, 2009 at 3:32 am

   A pressure failure failure is not such a big deal. All the pilot has to do is descend to a level where there is enough oxygen . Below 12000 feet above sea level is usually accepted as OK.

   Into an airfield the size of Phoenix it’s a non event.

   Just for fun you could try sending the airline a bill for some new underware, they might even pay it.

   My worst was landing with a 20kt crosswind in a glider with an undercarriage mounted on rubber blocks. The ground loop broke one of the blocks. Cost about $20 to fix. No big deal but I learnt a valuable lesson.

   Ian M

2. heckenhocker Says:
   March 21st, 2009 at 8:47 am

   Yes…plane lost part of the undercarriage on take-off. it was reported by a planespotter to air traffic control. They worked out it was our plane, and we had to do a low level fly-past of the ATC tower with gear down for visual inspection.

   Then fly around to lose fuel….cue one plane load of people pretending to be really calm but panicking inside.

   Pilot and stewardesses saying everything was fine, but sounding incredibly tense. Then landed….with no problems….but accompanied from half way along the run way by 10 fire engines, and a dozen ambulances waiting at the end of the run way!

3. dcgirl Says:
   March 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 am

   In the late-1980’s I was on an Air Mexicana flight from Cancun to Baltimore that was sent back to the airport, dumping fuel the whole way, and I never did figure out what was wrong because the emergency instructions were all given in Spanish, which I did not speak at the time. Something about a fire or smoke but I can’t tell you more than that! We did have to drink a LOT to get back on the next plane, we were all so freaked out.

   More recently, I was flying from DC to DFW in a regional jet that didn’t technically make an emergency landing but we did divert due to a tornado causing extreme turbulence. It was some unreal turbulence; one of the flight attendants actually fell down, and a few minutes later they cleared the cabin (empty cups and the like) like they normally do before landing, except we were nowhere near landing. We kept flying through the brutal turbulence, with the flight attendants reminding us to stay seated and buckled in and to not get up for any reason because the turbulence was expected to be extreme. They also told us to leave all our iPods and magazines and stuff stowed because it was going to bounce around pretty bad and we needed to keep the aisle clear. It was beyond scary. Dallas was shut down; I found out later the tornado went right across the runway. We circled and circled then got sent to Shreveport but couldn’t land; too many other diverted flights and we didn’t have enough fuel to keep circling so they sent us to Memphis. The entire cabin cheered and applauded when we finally touched down and I have never been so happy to land. Mechanically I know we were pretty safe— turbulence alone won’t bring a plane down when it’s at cruising altitude— but I was still petrified.