Aviation situation - How would you deal with it? - Q1?

Question

You are flying a Boeing 737 on a routine flight from Heathrow (EGLL) to Manchester (EGCC). Whilst climbing through 12,300 feet for 22,000 feet, around 20 minutes into the flight, you're aircraft is on autopilot. But then you're aircraft begins to slowly tilt towards the ground, and starts descending rapidly, whilst still moving forward. The flight has been normal up until this point. You're instruments seem to be working correctly, and displaying information as they should, with an increasing airspeed, and a decreasing altimeter reading. You try applying some backwards pressure on the control column to try and ease the aircraft out of it's ever-steepening dive, however, you get no response and the aircraft continues flying towards the ground.

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(I'm making a series of questions, like this, to see people's different answers. These questions only apply to pilots really, but feel free to answer even if you're not one. Also, if you have any questions about this, please ask.)

Answer 1

I will answer as a General Aviation Student Pilot with practically no hours accumulated.  I assume there is sufficient time to gain the altitude described from point to point, as I am not familiar with Europe. (And I hate trick-questions).

I would order the Co-Pilot to remove the controls from Auto-Pilot, and manually return to altitude with the yoke.  I would then adjust the trim.  After ten minutes of a successful level vector, I would return the controls to Auto-Pilot, and then order a Coca-Cola from a Stewardess.

Answer 2

disengage autopilot and attemt to check controls as the auto pilot wasnt keeping it level anyways so why use it if its broke

check trim for faulty linkage in the horizontal stab

radio a mayday if your trim isnt working and hydrulic pressure is low deploy flaps to raise nose get you co pilot on the mid air emergecy manuals while you fly the plane or try to at least one on the ground after they find what happened if it was the mantanence's fault find who touched what ever malfunctioned/broke last and kick them in the nuts for almost killing you and 140 people

Answer 3

Disengage the autopilot & fly the plane manually.

Answer 4

turn autopilot off, fly manually. If that doesn't work rip the air hostess's Knickers off and give them back to her.

Answer 5

Turn autopilot off, r****d throttles to idle.  If applying backpressure does nothing neutralize elevator and wait til you're below 10,000 feet and try again where the air is denser.  

Dives like this happened occassionally in the early days of the DC-8, though from higher altitudes, resulting in several crashes.  Crashes result of overstressed elevators.  Problem was resolved when one captain held the plane in the dive until he was below 10,000' and then applied gentle backpressure resulting in recovery due to denser air.

Answer 6

put on seat belt sign, turn off auto pilot, inform control tower of  current altitude, gain control of the aircraft and level it off. perform a systems check

I would imagine something like that.

Answer 7

Disengage autopilot. Check trim position.

A lack of response from the control column would make me consider the possibilty of a hydraulic problem or a jammed/damaged control surface and therefore apply appropriate procedures. E.G. follow the QRH

Answer 8

Can't happen. Come up with something realisitic next time. Jeez.

And tyson, he's not describing runaway pitch or servos. Those will respond to back pressure. Nope, the situation he describes is recoverable. It's a lousy question.

Answer 9

The faster you go the less trim up you need to climb but since you are going down at a fast rate

1.disengage autopilot

2. trim up

3.slow down a bit

4. add 20 degrees of flaps until able to lower full

5.use throttles to control pitch and speed since the ailerons are still working turn to nearest airport that can handle a 737

6.Dump fuel when nearing the airport

7.Attempt to land

Answer 10

You never try and override an auto pilot by putting in control pressue inputs. If the aircraft couldnt maintain level flight rightwasy, i wouldnt wait until it is in a dive to  disengage the auto pilot, a nose dive is from a faulty trim jack s***w. If the auto pilot doesnt disengage, pull the circuit..

Hand fly the a/c. A auto pilot is not required equipment and can be deferred, so a emergency does not have to be declared.

Since you said you have normal reading on all instrumenst, then i would assume that their is no hydralic issues.

Second thing, thats a very  short flight for a 737, and So after 20 mins, you'd be on descent anyway for approach for landing, as thats only about 30 min flight, and also 22000' seems a little optimistic for such a short flight--

Answer 11

I would make some fast assumptions that there is some external damage to the aircraft.

I would radio for assistance and depending on the severity of the altitude drop, I would find alternative landing sites which I could feasably make with safety.

I would adjust the flaps to attempt to balance the aircraft so I could control the descent, and remove air brakes. I would try banking sideways, to help gradually go in to a large circular flight path to land hopefully horazontally.

I'm not a pilot but applying some common sense helps in tough situations.

Answer 12

(Disengage the automatic pilot before applying back pressure).  Remind yourself not to trust automatic pilots.

Answer 13

1: disconnect autopilot

2: check annunciator panels for warnings indicating failures

3: disengage autothrottle and set throttles to idle

4: check trim

5: check hydraulic pressures

6: attempt basic movement checks to see if controls feel free of obstruction and response

7: advise controller of situation

8: continue to cross check instrument readout with FMC

9: if elevators and ailerons do not deliver enough response, being to control the aircrafts heading, altitude and speed via asymmetric thrust (performance limiting i know!)

10: breathe and remeber your still alive for now

11: keep in contact with controller with sitreps on aircrafts state.

12: get that d**n co-pilot recycling through those emergency checklists again and again and verify everything step by step with clear, unambiguous communication

13: remember that if you get out of this alive to have a strong word with the Cheif of Engineering of the company you are flying for LOL

Answer 14

Can't happen?  How about run-away trim?  Or a pitch servo malfunction?  There are a handful of possible situations similar to this.

On our aircraft the checklist says depress and hold the wheel master switch (on the yoke) which de-selects all trim motors from the cables.  From here you troubleshoot to pinpoint the problem to either primary or secondary pitch trim.  Depending on the problem, you'll probably be pulling circuit breakers and hand-flying the aircraft.  Not a huge deal really... and not nearly as dramatic as the question makes it sound.

EDIT: John, in the aircraft I fly this is completely viable with a pitch servo problem (elevator) or runaway trim (stabilizer).  Maybe fly-by-wire birds are different

Answer 15

I would be suprised that 20min into a LHR/MAN flight we would not be about ready to start a decent into Manchester anyway.

Knock off autopilot and try to fly manually and advise ATC of the situation.

Answer 16

turn the autopilot off, fly like the rest of us

Answer 17

try and radio for asistance turn auto pilot of tell every one to get into brace postition try to make emergancy landing

Answer 18

change the autopilot fps

Answer 19

Trim failure? Trim reaching it's limit with elevator at neutral?

Runaway trim?

If a runaway trim was to occur it would occur fairly quickly with a rapid descent in altitude,and  would require selecting the cutout switches to disable the autopilot and electric trim.

Speed trim cutting in due to slow speed, hight thrust? Moving opposite to the trim value, trim up or down.

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

I think this is a simple question that requires a simple answer, since your question followed the response of attempting to control the pitch whilst in a climb selected autopilot.?

Check Airspeed, speed break lever in position.

Check that my set altitude hasn't been reached.

Confirm that my vertical speed selector is not in a descent.

Check  trim.

Attempt to level off using autopilot and manual thrust.

Disconnect autopilot and attempt to level off using manual flight and manual thrust applying the correct trim for level flight.

Answer 20

I'm only 17 and not a pilot, but I'll give it a try. First I would disengage the autopilot and get the first officer to check the manual for the procedure, and then call pan pan pan or mayday on the radio and ask what to do. If it kept tilting down, I would guess the horizontal stabilizer is stuck down or losing hydraulic pressure in the tail, and reset the flight systems or whatever, then I would then check the rest of the tail controls. If rudder and everything else worked, then I would assume the stabilizer's stuck, and then cut throttle, open full flaps, spoilers, and reverse thrusters, and try to slow down as much as possible (if it got bad and it was in a dive). Then I would try jerking the control column back and forth and try to free the tail. If someone on the ground or the first officer found what to do, I would try to follow their instructions. If I regained control after I disengaged autopilot or whenever, I would land as soon as possible. Lastly I would go over the intercom: Thankyou for flying with us, you had a choice in your ailine and apparently you chose the wrong one. That's all I could think of, from my knowledge of flight simulator and the show "Mayday."

Answer 21

Daft question really but here goes.

Disconnect that stupid autopilot, check circuit breakers and most importantly check the trim.

As well as ensuring flaps are properly retracted ,if not when and if you get on the ground kick the butt of the ground engineer who was clearly asleep