Shortly after lifting off from San Francisco International Airport, a United Airlines Boeing 747 lost one of it's engines. The jumbo jet almost crashed into San Bruno Mountain as it recovered from the engine failure. Air traffic control radars briefly stopped detecting the aircraft because they were so close to San Bruno Mountain.
After being sprayed with fuel over the Pacific Ocean, the aircraft returned to San Francisco with too much fuel. United changed its pilot training requirements after Flight .
There were almost 300 passengers and 19 crew members on the United flight that was flying from San Francisco International Airport to the Australian capital. The F/O had 9,500 flight hours in his log book, but the captain had more than 23,000 flight hours. Two pilots were in the cockpit. The pilot who was the first officer was out of practice and only had one takeoff and landing in a jumbo jet.
On a foggy night, the flight lined up with the runway. Despite a foggy night, the F/O pulled back on the yoke and took off for a long-haul flight to Australia. The pilots experienced loud thumping noises and small vibrations from the aircraft after takeoff. The exhaust temperature on the number three engine started rising after the pilots took off, even though they thought a tire might explode. The number three engine's exhaust gas temperature rose to 750 C, exceeding the takeoff limit of 650 C, and the crew were having a compressor stall on the engine.
The captain retarded the number three engine throttle to shut down after the surge in the vibrations. Due to the unbalanced thrust, the jumbo jet moved to the right. The aircraft entered a skidding right turn that took them to San Bruno Mountain. The F/O used the aileron to compensate. A rudder would have been the correct response to compensate for the asymmetrical thrust condition.
The captain said that the plane had lost an engine and would be going back to the airport.
The relief pilots shouted airspeed to the F/O to alert them to the potential stall danger as the aircraft was dangerously slow after the engine problems. The captain took over the control of the aircraft after the stick shaker system indicated that the plane was very close to a stall. The pilots were not flying.
The aircraft was close to colliding with San Bruno Mountain due to the unbalanced thrust. The captain had to increase the airspeed and avoid a stall to do so. The terrain warning was received by the plane as it headed towards the mountain. The use of ailerons increased the jet's net drag and lowered its net lift. The best way to avoid a stall is to drop the nose so that the plane can get some airspeed, but that will cause it to go into the mountain.
The controllers could not see the plane on the radar because it was so slow. The plane returned to their scope after 15 seconds.
The controller said that he didn't want to give them another airplane if they had a problem.
controller 2: "Are you going to keep him or give him to me?"
The controller said that he was supposed to be on you.
The controller said he hadn't heard from him.
controller1: "Alright, I will try him again."
With cockpit warnings signalling an imminent crash, the captain put the jumbo jet into climb and cleared the mountain in as little as 100 feet.
The flight climbed to 5,000 feet and the controllers dumped the fuel over the Pacific. 84 tons of fuel was dumped after the jumbo jet returned to San Francisco because it was too heavy.
Equipment should stand by just as a precautionary measure. There are souls on board.
There were no injuries to the people on the plane when it landed on the runway. Residents in houses along the flight path called the airport to complain about the noise and worried that the jet was going to crash.
The plane was able to clear the mountain by the smallest of margins as there were television and radio towers on the summit. It would have crashed into the mountain if it wasn't able to climb a few feet.
pilots are trained to counter the yawing motion caused by thrust asymmetry by using the rudder instead of ailerons The F/O was out of practice as he only made one takeoff and landing in a real aircraft in the last year. The F/O was doing it for the first time in almost a year when he piloted the flight that day. In long-haul flights, the takeoffs and landings are split between a pool of pilots meaning that each pilot gets less time to practice their skills in a real plane.
United revised its training protocols after the incident in order to get co-pilots more hands on flying time. The flight was reconstructed in a simulation and shown to all the pilots. From once a year to twice a year, they increased the number of training sessions for the crews. One of the pilots had to be in an actual aircraft in order to make at least three takeoffs and landings in 90 days.
According to multiple aviation consultants, incidents like these are because younger pilots don't learn to fly tail draggers at a young age. Light planes can help pilots with their stick and rudder skills. What do you think about this?
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