A320 with gear problem over LA

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:gDzYe.396264$xm3.210571@attbi_s21...


And what was up with deplaning? This thing comes sliding to a halt with
its nose gear smoking, and NO ONE gets off the plane for, what 10 minutes?
I understand that there was no reason to "blow the slides" but they sure
didn't seem to have anyone waiting in the wings with the air-stairs for
those poor folks.

See comment below.

Stranger still, how long did it take those fire trucks to appear in the
screen after the plane slid to a stop? It seemed close to a full minute,
although my memory could be faulty -- maybe it was 30 seconds. Either
way, what happened to the "trucks chasing the plane down the runway?"
Shoot, it looked like they had enough equipment there to place a fire
truck every 200 feet on that 12,000 foot runway.

The fire trucks stay behind the expected touchdown point (as do the stair
truck(s)) and don't stage every 200 feet down the runway for a very good
reason. The nose gear collapses, the pilot becomes a passenger, and the
airplane goes where it will. The passengers on board all survive, but
you've taken out four fire trucks and god knows how many firefighters when
the airplane swerves off the runway and nails them.


Jim

RST Engineering wrote:

The nose gear collapses, the pilot becomes a passenger, and the
airplane goes where it will.

Not completely. He still has some control via differential braking on the mains.
Not enough, of course, to justify putting the fire equipment beside the runway.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:

Stranger still, how long did it take those fire trucks to appear in the
screen after the plane slid to a stop? It seemed close to a full minute,
although my memory could be faulty -- maybe it was 30 seconds. Either
way, what happened to the "trucks chasing the plane down the runway?"
Shoot, it looked like they had enough equipment there to place a fire
truck every 200 feet on that 12,000 foot runway.

Yeah. That was odd. Maybe there's a spped limit for ground vehicles. :-)
As well, has anyone yet explained here why they used so much runway on the
roll out? The news feed I saw had a comment that they stopped with under
1000' to go. Were they just using thrust reversers for most of the rollout
for some reason?

moo

has anyone yet explained here why they used so much runway on the
roll out? The news feed I saw had a comment that they stopped with
under
1000' to go. Were they just using thrust reversers for most of the
rollout
for some reason?

The pilot used up more runway because he wanted to hold the nosewheel
off as long as possible. I doubt the reversers were used at all, as
that would transfer weight forward and bring the nose down faster.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Yeah, we were all talking the same thing. I sure as heck wouldn't have
walked under the nose of that plane -- and I didn't see any jack.

The nose gear didn't collapse. If anything of this non-event is
surprizing, then it's the fact that the nose gear didn't collapse.

Can you imagine being on that plane? I'll bet everyone was standing up
immediately after stopping, clamoring to get off, pronto!

I'm sure you would have done so. However I guess the dumb passengers,
not being spam can rated, thought the captain knew what he was doing and
that it was best to follow his instructions.

Stranger still, how long did it take those fire trucks to appear in the
screen after the plane slid to a stop?

Yeah, I'm sure all those professional fire fighters had no clue. Maybe
Ed Fagan will find a passenger who will agree to sue them. I have no
idea for what, but you could help them to find a reason.

Stefan

Can you imagine being on that plane? I'll bet everyone was standing up
immediately after stopping, clamoring to get off, pronto!

I'm sure you would have done so. However I guess the dumb passengers, not
being spam can rated, thought the captain knew what he was doing and that
it was best to follow his instructions.

Have you flown commercially, of late? Passengers do that (for no apparent
reason) on *every* flight -- let alone one in which they've been required to
circle for 3 hours, whilst burning fuel and contemplating their ultimate
demise.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
And what was up with deplaning? This thing comes sliding to a halt with
its
nose gear smoking, and NO ONE gets off the plane for, what 10 minutes? I
understand that there was no reason to "blow the slides" but they sure
didn't seem to have anyone waiting in the wings with the air-stairs for
those poor folks.

The stairs staged at the arrival end of the runway. The runway is 2 miles
long. Those trucks are huffing to reach 50 mph. The emergency was over by
that time, so there was no hurry anyway.

D.

It is a good thing that the vertical or horizontal tail did not
separate. Holding the nosegear high during the rollout probably
overstressed the tailfin and it will come off during the next flight. I
think the slides were not used because they would not have worked
anyway.

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Can you imagine being on that plane? I'll bet everyone was standing up
immediately after stopping, clamoring to get off, pronto!

Just because you are an idiot, Honeck, don't assume the passengers on
the plane are.

Stranger still, how long did it take those fire trucks to appear in the
screen after the plane slid to a stop? It seemed close to a full minute,
although my memory could be faulty -- maybe it was 30 seconds. Either way,
what happened to the "trucks chasing the plane down the runway?" Shoot, it
looked like they had enough equipment there to place a fire truck every 200
feet on that 12,000 foot runway.

"Place a fire truck every 200 ft on the runway"??? What an idiotic
notion.

From my oh-so-comfy FoxNews vantage point, it seemed like a less than
stellar performance by LAX

And from my vantage point, you are a moron. "Less than stellar
performance by LAX"??? Honeck, you haven't a clue.

- -- IYNH -- -