Plane carrying 230 passengers crash lands in Warsaw

:confused: The 767 has fuel dump capability.

The majority of them do, however a few 767’s don’t so this one may have been specified to not have it? My Dad was telling me that a few of the BA longhaul 767’s don’t have the capability, as they were originally shorthaul and so it was thought the fuel dump capability wouldn’t be needed but have now been changed to longhaul. Bit worrying if they have an engine failure on take off but can’t dump fuel and they’re fully loaded.

Joe

What kind of emergency gear extension is on the 767? I’ve flown the 727 for 15,000hrs and it’s system seems fool proof. Seems like newer aircraft should be better.

Chris

The 727 has a crank handle to release the gear (as you know well). The flight engineer crawls around on the floor to extend it manually. The crank disengages the locks mechanically. Probably since the 767 has two crew only, so they are bestowed with a simple switch just below the landing gear lever, and the locks are disengaged electrically.

Poland Celebrates Hero Pilot

Article excerpt from the Wall Street Journal

Poland Celebrates Hero Pilot

WARSAW—The captain of a Polish jetliner who managed to safely belly-land his plane after its landing gear failed was lauded as a hero Wednesday, helping redeem the reputation of Polish aviators in the wake of last year’s crash that killed the country’s president and other leaders.

Veteran 54-year-old flier Tadeusz Wrona gently brought his Boeing 767 down, sliding its fuselage along a flame-retardant-coated runway on Tuesday after its hydraulics malfunctioned on a flight from Newark. None of the 231 people on board was injured.

“When the plane stopped, I wasn’t sure if everyone was safe. There was smoke,” Mr. Wrona said at a news conference on Wednesday. “I felt huge relief when the purser reported, a minute and a half after we stopped, that the cabin was empty.”

The pilot—who has logged about 15,000 hours in the air for Poland’s flag carrier, LOT—said he had a hard time falling asleep Tuesday night and kept replaying the landing in his head. He insisted he shouldn’t be viewed as a hero. “Each of us at LOT would have done it the same way,” he said.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577013972602208082.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_World

Further reading:

Unassuming Polish hero just wants to fly again

Polish pilot rejects hero label for Boeing landing

‘Superhero’ pilot: Landing might’ve been better

As far as I can find out, the gear is electrically unlocked allowing it to free-fall.

What kind of emergency gear extension is on the 767? I’ve flown the 727 for 15,000hrs and it’s system seems fool proof. Seems like newer aircraft should be better.

Chris

Well, I would hope so. :rolleyes:

I’m sure those procedures (if they have one for a wheels up landing) will have included all the necessary cb pulling.
The bigger question I would ask is why the gravity drop didn’t work.

They would have followed the emergency procedures checklist.

Maybe, maybe not; it may have made the aircraft tend to float.

The crew have carried out a great feat here. I don’t know what systems they would have had to over-ride by not getting a weight-on-wheels signal. All sorts of systems need such a signal during a normal touchdown.

Being that the 767 is a fairly large aircraft, would I be right in assuming that ‘ground effect’ would have been of great benefit during the last few seconds of that fantastic piece of airmanship?

There should be a designated fuel dump area, even near big cities. Since the plane would be flying around in circles anyway, nothing is lost by proceeding to the dump zone.

I didn’t know that, thanks! 🙂

I meant to say in my first post what a tremendous landing it is. As for skill, I reckon it would be 100% first-class eye, stick, pedal and lever work.
Very well done to the crew.

Probably about 90% skill, 9% luck 1% other (radar altimeter…). Autoland would not be appropriate.

Please excuse my ignorance – I saw that landing and was amazed how gently it touched down, which made me wonder how much of that is down to pilot skill and how much is done automatically.

Would anyone be able to enlighten me?

Cheers!

There should be a designated fuel dump area, even near big cities. Since the plane would be flying around in circles anyway, nothing is lost by proceeding to the dump zone.

Yes, but how safe is dumping fuel over populated areas?

… the aircraft had to circle for ages to burn up fuel

:confused: The 767 has fuel dump capability.

I just noticed, I like the irony that the tail skid is deployed!

Would the pax have been told that the landing gear was not down prior to the landing?

My first guess was that they would have been, so that everyone was able to prepare themselves and adopt the brace position in preparation for an unpredictable landing. Could be wrong though!

It looked like an amazing landing. So weird to see an aircraft so low at that speed and angle and ‘touch down’ relatively smoothly – with no landing gear down!

Some questions I wish to ask though…

Would the pax have been told that the landing gear was not down prior to the landing?

What about the a/c now though…will it be a write-off?

Your first question is fascinating and one I’m not 100% sure of the answer to. That said, I would have thought so, because the aircraft had to circle for ages to burn up fuel and the passengers would have had to be briefed for the landing. How you would do that while keeping people calm, though, is anyone’s guess.
I was on a SAA flight from JHB to LHR once and, just as we were on final approach to the runway, the pilot said that there was a possible problem with the nosewheel and the aircraft was to be met with fire engines and that we were not to be alarmed. Then, an instant later, we touched down and nothing untoward happened, so no-one was alarmed. Mind you, the LOT aircraft had no landing gear, so a much more serious situation.
As for your second question, again, I’m not completely sure, but I would imagine the aircraft is a write-off and will be stripped of saleable parts and scrapped.

LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767-35DER, SP-LPC, MSN/LN 28656/659

LOT Polish Airlines Flight LO016 / LOT016

Flight Origin: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR/KEWR)
Destination: Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (WAW/EPWA)

Crew: 11
Pax: 230
Survivors: 231 (all survived)

Further reading:

LOT Polish Airlines 767 Makes Emergency Landing in Warsaw

Newark flight makes emergency landing in Poland

Boeing 767 with 231 on board lands on belly in Warsaw after gear fails; no one injuredl