On Sep 15, 2:46*pm, jason219
wrote:
Hello everyone. *I'm preparing a mock press conference for one of my
college classes. In my particular scenario, I am the public relations
head of a top international airliner.

Three hours into the flight, one of our planes was involved in a mid-air
collision (whether it was with another aircraft or another object, I am
not sure). The plane is still airborne but is only able to fly higher
and to the right. All attempts to make a left turn or decrease altitude
have failed.

I need some expert knowledge on what would happen in this situation.
Judging by the damage, is it possible to land the plane safely? *Is an
emergency landing feasible? If so, what would the steps necessary be to
execute it and how long (roughly) would that take?

Thank you for your help!

--
jason219

An aircraft failure causing a set of conditions that would induce a
climbing attitude and right turns only is probably more likely now
than it ever had been: other posters have been assuming a mechanical
failure and have overlooked the possibility of an electronic or
computer malfunction induced by the midair. Think of a fly by wire
computer failure, think of HAL in the movie 2001.

Then the question becomes, what happens when the airplane reaches its
maximum altitude: Airplanes way up there are touchy beasts, my guess
is at fuel exhaustion some perturbation to induce an out of
aerodynamic control airplane. It's going to come down, if there's
control authority it will mush down with a nose high attitude, more
likely it will be falling out of the sky.

You, the PR guy, will have an interesting task because although HAL
can control the airplane, it cannot control the use of the cell phones
aboard it. The passengers will be telling their families what is
happening to them, and for sure at least CNN will be broadcasting at
least one of the telephone conversations and the images being
transmitted over the phone network. I can hear some reporter now,
asking someone aboard the airplane "How do you feel?"