"Jay Honeck" wrote in
newsLunb.50518$HS4.232034@attbi_s01:

OK, this is going to sound really silly, but I'm not a pilot,
If planes glide so well, then how come they crash?
It would seem reasonable, that if they glide, and they have an engine
failure etc. that they'd glide them in, not leave smoking craters
like the news tends to show.
Am I missing something here?

A few disparate points to help you understand the situation better:

- Little planes tend to glide a lot better than big planes.

Sorry Jay! - you need to clarify this. Most little planes do NOT glide
better than big planes. Modern airliners have much better glide ratios
than our factory riveted aluminum craft.

However, those big planes gliding better also *land* at MUCH higher
speeds, and need more runway. Try that on a golf course!

There are a number of cases where jet airliners lost all power and glided
to a perfectly save landing:
- Gimli glider (Air Canada 767)
- A 737 in the south landed on a grass levee when both engines flamed out
after ingesting hail
- A 767 being hijacked glided fine to a water ditching, until the
hijackers attacked the pilots and one of the engines made contact with
the water

- Where you lose your engine is important. A little plane losing its
engine over Iowa might make the local newspaper, but everyone will
walk away. The same engine failure over downtown Chicago is going to
make national news.

- Smoking holes are created when planes glide into something -- hard.
No matter how well you can glide, sooner or later Mother Earth
reaches up to smite you. If there is a big building or mountain in
the way when you run out of glide, well...

- Smoking holes happen when a pilot allows the plane to slow to a
speed at which the wing no longer creates lift. This is the "stall"
speed. A wing/plane that is stalled takes on the flight
characteristics of a load of sand, and comes down in a hurry, creating
a smoking crater.

Hope this helps.