A plane losing altitude?

Question

"could someone point me at an incident involving an airliner losing rapidly its altitude in a matter of seconds despite being already flying at cruise altitude?"

(something that actually happened)

Answer 1

China Airlines flight 006 on Feb 19, 1985 plunged 30,000 feet in 2.5 minutes.

It is a famous 'loss of control' incident often discussed in airline pilot training and in safety seminars.

Answer 2

CAT, clear air turbulence.  Eastern DC-8 left an engine in Lake Ponchitrain because of it.  Don't remember when, obviously some time ago.

Answer 3

I'm assuming that you mean a loss of altitude NOT resulting in hitting the ground, in which case we can forget about the bomb/collision scenarios.

Pretty much the only reason an airliner will suffer a huge loss of altitude is turbulance associated with a major thunderstorm - which is why ALL pilots are taught to stay away from them, or CAT (Clear Air Turbulance) which cannot be seen! Another possibility could be a deliberate emergency descent performed by the crew in the case of a decompression, to get down to an altitude where oxygen would not be required. This is the one you see in movies but they want you to believe the hole caused the airplane to go out of control because it's more exciting!! Both of these have happened although I can't quote any examples off the top of my head - sorry!

Answer 4

There have been some mid air collisions.  The last one that comes to mind was in brazil.  737 and a embraer legacy crashed.  There have been bombs that have taken planes down.  Lockerbie comes to mind.  most of the time when something goes wrong the plane doesnt just fall out of the sky.  Take United 232 that crashed in sioux city iowa.  they had a total hydraulic failure and still managed to land the plane...kinda.  what type of incident are you looking for?

edit..... really? what was the thumbs down for. I gave three examples of actually events. whatever.  Alaska 261 came to mind after my answer. they were at 31k feet. an unlubricated jackscrew caused the plane to role over.  great call on china 006.... forgot about that one!

Answer 5

well i could tell you something about your theory,.....there's alot of aspect's,.....probably the tailwind was too powerful and blew the      plane out of course then the pilot got startled and lost control or icing problems freezing fuel lines together with computer problems,.......