Heathrow Crash Pilot?

Question

The plane crashed, everyone survived, the pilot's a hero for averting near disaster. I heard, that nobody yelled "Brace". Is the true? What's the implications for the pilot's hero status?

Answer 1

As I understand it,the plane was almost on the ground when the engine problems happened. Given that the pilot was trying to save every man, woman and child on the plane, it is understandable and acceptable that he did not have time to tell the passengers to brace.

Ja.

Answer 2

Captbullshot.......I have never heard such utter nonsense in my life. What an absurd "answer". The crew was fully engaged in saving the passengers and did not have time to try and alert them as all had been normal on the approach just prior to touchdown. They did what they are trained to do in an emergency. Nobody that flies for a living has the attitude "nothing can go wrong".

Answer 3

I don't think the pilots are the heroes, any pilot in the same condition who has gone through proper training would have done the same. The real heroes should be the cabin crew who opened the door immediately on impact and got all 136 people out alive.

Answer 4

I believe it's a question of over-sophistication in modern aerospace technology.Pilots and other crew are told "that nothing can go wrong", hence the stupor of all concerned when there IS an anomoly---It's called "the Titanic Syndrome".

Answer 5

Oh please. He was on final approach, he was near the runway. He was probably about 100 feet over the runway when he noticed (if he was able to notice) that something was wrong. No time to react, just hit the ground. Doesn't really matter anyway, he did what he was supposed to...he saved the passengers..

Answer 6

I think he is a hero because it was all happening too quickly and if he'd have alerted the passengers they would have probably gone crazy, running around the plane and probably would of died from injuries...he played it cool and knew he could land without the need to panic the people on the plane.

Answer 7

Okay, if you had the choice between warning the passengers to brace, which doesn't do much good anyway, and landing the plane in a controlled fashion, which would you choose?  Sometimes you have to make decisions and do what is best.  As the old saying goes, Aviate, Navigate and then Communicate.  Why do you think communicate would be last?  If all else fails, fly the plane.  Do you think you could have done better?

Answer 8

Actually it was the First Officer who landed the aircraft not the Captain. This indicates that the landing was going to be performed by the First Officer (misnamed co-pilot) anyway which is standard operating procedure in around half the landings and takeoffs (it's normal to take turns).

There was no time to warn the passengers, the whole event only took a few seconds by all accounts.

This isn't the first time there's been problems with fly by wire commercial airliners, the worst incident was in 1992 when Lauder Air a valve failed on the electronic control system of one of the engines (fly by wire system) causing the aircraft to stall and the loss of 232 lives. This crash would never have occurred if the aircraft had been of the older mechanical linkage control design.

Answer 9

The pilot did not get a chance to warn the passengers!

The cabin crew made sure that the passangers were safe and the co-pilot landed the plane

This is why after being branded a hero the pilot held a press conference and praised both the co-pilot and the cabin crew