Unfortunately, as with any form of transportation, accidents do happen in aviation. However, over the last few decades, there have been some remarkable feats of piloting that have saved the lives of hundreds of passengers when an emergency and potentially fatal disaster has been on the horizon.
Here we take a look at the most infamous, and heroic emergency landings.
US Airways lands on the Hudson River
NEW YORK – JANUARY 18: Emergency personnel inspect the U.S. Airways Airbus A320 after it was lifted … [+]
Perhaps the most well-documented and infamous emergency landings ever came from the heroics of Captain Chesley Sullenberger. After taking off from LaGuardia on January 15, 2009, the US Airways A320 flew into a large flock of Canada geese, losing all engine power.
The quick thinking of the pilots meant that they ditched the aircraft in the Hudson River off midtown Manhattan saving all 155 lives onboard.
DHL A300 Lands Safely After Missile Strike
In November 2003 a heavy DHL A300 was climbing out of Baghdad airport when it was struck by a ground-to-air missile at 8,000 feet. Within one minute of the strike, the aircraft had lost all three of its hydraulic systems which meant the flaps, spoilers, ailerons and rudder were all inoperable.
With the left-wing on fire, the pilots skilfully used “thrust vector” to successfully manoeuvre the aircraft using alternating engine power. In an incredible feat of impromptu learning and controlling the aircraft through this means, after one failed attempt at landing the crew were able to land, to only then find that the runway in Baghdad was surrounded by an uncleared minefield.
The aircraft had just eight minutes left of flying until the fire would have burnt through the wing entirely it is estimated.
Air Canada Flight 143 Runs Out Of Fuel
Now known as the “Gimli Glider”, the new and state-of-the-art 767-200 was operating a flight from … [+]
Now known as the “Gimli Glider”, the new and state-of-the-art 767-200 was operating a flight from Montreal to Edmonton on July 23, 1983, when competed inconceivably an alert prompted the pilots with a warning that they had run out of fuel.
The reason for this was that the refuelling of the aircraft was mistakenly done in metric units that the crew had mistaken for gallons, along with a faulty fuel-quantity indication system.
Amazingly, Captain Robert Pearson was a sailplane pilot and quickly put the giant 767-200 into optimal glide mode to maximize flight distance to glide the aircraft to Winnipeg within range. Even more fortunate was that First Officer Maurice Quintal has been stationed at Gimli Air Force base prior and knew this landing strip was even closer.
With only ram-air turbine power (RAT) to control the aircraft speed on landing, a miraculous emergency landing occurred where the collapse of the front landing gear meant that the aircraft ground to a halt and prevented any casualties.
LOT Polish Airlines 767 lands without landing gear
A LOT Polish airlines Boeing 767 crash lands at Warsaw’s airport on November 1, 2011 after having … [+]
On November 1, 2011, a LOT Polish Airlines 767 made an emergency landing without landing gear after a flight from Newark, U.S. to Warsaw, Poland. A hydraulic leak meant that the main landing gear could not be deployed. Despite the crew receiving a warning 30 minutes into the flight, they continued the flight as normal to burn up the heavy fuel load. It was only on the landing approach when the landing gear didn’t deploy that the realisation was that the aircraft would be landing without wheels.
Attempts to lower the landing gear by alternative means failed and the aircraft circled for an hour to burn off excess fuel. The crew made a successful wheels-up landing that saved the lives of all 231 people on board.
