Question About Mid-Air Collisions

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?"

On Sep 15, 9:59*pm, wrote:
Mark wrote:
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

Although the airfoil surfaces are stuck in a
position to induce lift, the plane would be induced to decrease
elevation by throttle reduction or fuel mixture. *If you can only
turn left you won't make it.

Airliners don't have mixture controls.

--
Jim Pennino

Thank you. I stand corrected.

You're still a pinhead.

---
Mark

On Sep 16, 12:49*am, Jim Logajan wrote:

No - as you said, all attempts to decrease altitude have failed. They're
stuck up there forever.

Aerial refueling!

Zipline sandwiches.

No problem.

---
Mark

On Sep 16, 12:49*am, Jim Logajan wrote:

When a mock reporter asks what is being done, answer with this:

"We're routing him into Lake Michigan, at least we'll avoid killing
innocent people!"

All Lake Michigan boaters aren't guilty. Only most
of them.

---
Mark

"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .
jason219 wrote:

Hello everyone.

Hello! Welcome to this happy place.

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.

snipped

Well Done Jim....

Terry N6401F

On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:27:48 -0700 (PDT), Mark wrote:

On Sep 15, 9:59*pm, wrote:
Mark wrote:
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

Although the airfoil surfaces are stuck in a
position to induce lift, the plane would be induced to decrease
elevation by throttle reduction or fuel mixture. *If you can only
turn left you won't make it.

Airliners don't have mixture controls.

--
Jim Pennino

Thank you. I stand corrected.

You're still a pinhead. I am still a gay bipolar ****nutzoid.

---
Mark

The beginning of recovery is admission.

Look to the Sioux City crash of 1989. Circumstances were very similar.
Pilot could only control altitude and direction by playing with the
throttles. It was a miracle he could bring it to the runway at all,
and nobody's ever been able to repeat it in a simulator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

While the poster did not say so directly, the implication of "nobody's
ever been able to repeat it in a simulator" is that the pilot of the
plane was a superman and nobody else is as good. I believe that it
simply means the simulator is not programmed to properly simulate such
an extreme event.

--
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not
fish they are after.
--Henry David Thoreau

Bug Dout writes:

While the poster did not say so directly, the implication of "nobody's
ever been able to repeat it in a simulator" is that the pilot of the
plane was a superman and nobody else is as good. I believe that it
simply means the simulator is not programmed to properly simulate such
an extreme event.

In terms of behavior and maneuvering, the event was not particularly extreme,
so simulating it should not be a problem, although it wouldn't necessarily be
a perfect simulation.

It's likely that the real flight was simply very lucky in a number of ways. At
the same time, it wasn't as lucky as it could have been, since the landing
would have been much smoother had it not been for some last-minute phugoid
oscillation at just the wrong moment, aided slightly by the wind if I
remember.