What pilots tell passengers when disaster strikes… and what they DON’T say
Experts point out when less is more – or why flight captains may not warn passengers of danger
A BANG is the last thing you want to hear at 39,000ft – especially if it is followed up by the acrid smell of smoke.
But that is exactly what happened on US Flight 1549 from New York to North Carolina, nearly eight years ago.
On that occasion, captain Chesley Sullenberger brought the jet down safely into the Hudson River. It became the inspiration for the forthcoming movie, Sully: Miracle On The Hudson, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as the hero pilot.
But it doesn’t always turn out that way. And if an online forum is to be believed, there may be NO textbook approach to an emergency in the air.
Answer forum
The responses, from a mix of professional pilots, frequent fliers, and lucky survivors are surprising.
Almost all agree the most you are likely to hear – even in the most dire circumstances – is ‘brace for impact’.
Not even the BRACE, BRACE! that flight attendants refer to in the safety briefing.
Whether there is too little time – or if the pilot doesn’t want extra panic on board – depends on the situation.
In the PSA 182 crash over San Diego in 1978, the pilot had just seconds to give the brace command when his B-727 collided mid-air with a Cessna light aircraft; plunging into the neighbourhood of North Park. At the time it was the worst air disaster in American history: all 135 on board and seven people on the ground were killed.
On the same forum, Robert Petrin – who survived a helicopter crash in Afghanistan – said passengers were not informed beforehand.
“We took off with 21 passengers, a lot of cargo, and fuel for three hours, in Russian MI-8, on a hot day.”
Waking from a deep sleep, Petrin noticed they weren’t flying straight and felt like they were losing altitude.
“At one point, we were flying very low. Suddenly, the helicopter turned left sharply, over a ridge, and we almost hit the ground. Then I saw land coming towards us, very quickly. We hit the small field at very good forward speed, but with a slight starboard facing position. The port main gear sheared off.
“The whole thing took place without a word. Not one OMG. Not one ‘we’re gonna die!’”
Alan Clement –‘licenced pilot and frequent flyer’ – said it all came down to time.
“If the workload in the cockpit is too high, or there is too little time, [the brace command] might go unsaid, as it did with British Airways Flight 38, where the pilots only had moments between discovering a problem and the impact with the ground.”
On that occasion in 2008, when a BA B-777 skidded off the runway at Heathrow on a flight from Beijing, all 152 on board survived – due to the pilot keeping a cool head.
Forum user Tom Farrier, who describes himself as a former Director of Safety at the Air Transport Association, recalls a classic piece of understatement from BA captain Eric Moody, during a 1982 encounter with a plume of volcanic ash:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
They did restart – temporarily – and Moody proceeded to glide down safely to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta
It was “a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s a***,” he said afterwards.
Makes you proud to be British.