At one time or another most crew members have experienced mechanical difficulties that require emergency equipment to be called out. Most of the time it's just a precaution. Once in a while it's the "real deal"! Not knowing which it was, my experience was, non the less a little disconcerting!
Flying nonstop from Detroit to San Francisco was always fun. The passengers were often tourists, some heading to a cruise. On this particular flight we had a fairly full airplane. The first part of the flight we crew members were busy with service. After there was happy chit chat with the passengers! Everyone seemed in a good mood!
Once we were on approach I got called up to the cockpit. The indicators showed we may have a problem with the landing gear. My memory's vague as to what all that meant. I do know that hydraulics is what's needed for landing gear, etc. to operate, but not sure that was the issue! I asked the cockpit if I needed to brief the passengers on emergency procedures. The Captain said- not yet. But brief the other Flight Attendants. I'll give an announcement in a bit.
We did a "go around"- meaning we didn't land.
So I briefed the cabin crew that there was a problem, but didn't know how severe it was. The cockpit was going to let us know. One of the Flight Attendants got a bit shook. She was fairly new, so this was her first "possible" emergency. She asked how bad it really was. I tried to reassure her that often times it's just a faulty gage, so not to worry.
I re-entered the cockpit. Both pilots were busy. Radio transmission was going on- I felt like that wasn't the time to interrupt! I went back to the cabin and pulled out my manual, calling the cabin crew into the galley once again.
We reviewed the emergency procedures, in the event that the landing ended up going badly. I tried to keep everyone calm, saying this was just a far fetched "just in case" situation. But always better to be prepared!
"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail".
Finally the Captain came on the P.A. to let us know what was happening. He said some of the cockpit "indicators" were not working correctly. We needed to be sure that the landing gear is going to be down properly. We were going to do a "fly by" over the tower. We may do that more than once, so the controllers can see if everything's okay. He reassured everyone that this can happen and was sure it was just some faulty indicators.
I heard the landing gear come down- then go back up, then down again. I wasn't sure if that was true, but sounded that way. We indeed circled the tower a couple of times. Meanwhile the passengers were getting a bit nervous.
Call buttons were getting pulled right and left. I made the announcement that we were getting ready to land, and made the usual seatbelt, etc announcement. As I went through the cabin I kept reassuring everyone that we were going to be okay, that the pilots were the "Best" and that the ground crew had also been advised. In my mind I kept reviewing the emergency call if things went south. "Get down! Stay Down!" I felt we were going to be okay, no matter the outcome. For some reason it was just a peace I had.
I heard the landing gear come down, then retract, then come down again. We circled three times. On our last go around some of the passengers pointed out the window at all the emergency vehicles that were near the runway. Someone asked "Are those for us?!" I said "Yep- our heroes. They are there to make sure nothing happens to us!"
And so we landed, with emergency vehicles racing down the runway next to us. It was quite an exciting sight, with all those lights flashing! A few minutes after touchdown the cabin exploded in cheers and applause! Needless to say, we all were relieved that all was well!
We pulled over to the tarmac and stopped, not going to the gate. We were circled by emergency vehicles! I asked everyone to be patient and remain in their seats until we heard from the pilots.
I peered into the cockpit. The Captain had his window open and was talking to someone on the ground. He then made the announcement that passengers were going to be deplaned and transported to the terminal. For some reason (that I never found out) we were not going to be taxing to the gate. I could only surmise that is was a precaution.
So ended my interesting experience with faulty indicators, landing gear, and emergency vehicles! We went on to have a lovely layover in San Francisco. The next day we were to head back to Detroit. As we were taxing out I saw the aircraft we had brought in- still sitting where we had left it! At least two company trucks were parked beside it. I won't pretend to know exactly what was wrong with the aircraft, nor what needed to be done to make it "air worthy" again. But the first time circling a tower for gear inspection was quite an experience one doesn't forget! That coupled with all those lovely fire trucks greeting us on landing did indeed make a lasting impression!
Until next time, Dear Readers!
Life Is Indeed An Adventure! And At The End Of The Day All Is Well That Ends Well!
4 comments:
In the 707 the landing gear sometimes would not come down because of hydraulic leakage. I have experienced this twice in my career. The first was the initial command check on the aircraft with Captain Mansoor Mughal, the instructor pilot. We had almost completed the check, of course I didn’t know that, when the flight engineer said that we had a hydraulic failure, and it was real. The whole drill of emergency cranking of the undercarriage was carried out and we had the three greens on the indicator. The instructor and check captain cautioned me to be careful on the landing as the gear doors were hanging down and would not be retracted. It went well, we cleared the runway at an easy angle and parked there and waited for the engineers to tow us back. Soon after I flew in command after the necessary route checks, initial and final and in between the under supervision hours.
On the second or third flight as captain, this problem reoccurred. I had gone through this very recently and so took it in the stride, we held in pattern till the gear was cranked down.
On two other occasions, with different captains and different flights, the nose wheel got stuck and despite all that could be done, refused to budge. The aircraft on both occasions landed safely with a minor fire when the nose contacted the foamed runway.
Dear Mohammad- Wow! Thank you! I see where there was a flaw with that aircraft! I experienced this one other time where the nose wheel came down partially. The concern was that it would collapse on landing- so the runway was foamed. The Captain decided to do one more go around and recycle the gear. This time it came all the way down. We landed on the foamed runway- but all was well.
Something similar happened to me in the ‘70s when I was a flight attendant for United. It was nighttime and I was sitting in the rear jump seat of a stretch DC8 from ORD to SFO. Just after takeoff as the wheels are being retracted there was an “explosion”, two very loud bangs. You could have heard a pin drop as the passengers, and cabin crew, sat in silence waiting for something to happen. Within a few minutes we were briefed by the Captain to prepare for an emergency landing because the hydraulics that operated the landing gear had exploded and it was unknown if the wheels were up, down, locked or missing. We circled for a while burning off fuel, and made a couple of passes past the tower for a visual check. As we neared the runway for landing everyone braced for the unknown, and, thank God, we landed without a problem. The landing gear had dropped into a down and locked position, we taxied to the gate, deplaned, boarded a different plane, flew to SFO but with only half of the passengers we started with. The experience turned out to be a bit too much for them to continue! I have to admit that for the next few weeks I suffered the “yips”, or nerves in just about everything I did. As the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well”! Just another day in the life of a flight attendant.
Dear Anonymous- Thank you- that is quite a story!! Thank you! Yep- All's well that ends well!
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