Kevin Groat

We used to have a Short's 330 - the smaller one, on charter for couple of years. Low point for this aircraft was when it was blown over one night on a stopover. Fecking awful planes - only plus point was the big windows and the fact it never flew that high meant you got a decent view of the scenery. Now they use 146's - much more fun

Dyney

For those who don't know

mart360

when we flew to luxor, we had an upgrade to business class ,, shortly after take off, one off the flight crew came out of the cockpit, pulled out a prayer mat and started praying in the empty first class section....


unfortunatly i had ommitted to tell the wife until about a couple of hours before we flew, that it was an egypt air flight that did the 2 minute dive into the ocean the previous year.... but as you say dont judge a book by the cover.. fantastic flight.. (777) boy do those wings flex...

mart360

we all have had an incedant where somthing on the flight has made you think.... uh oh..

if any of you fly to Valencia on iberia planes you may have come accross this ..

coming back one thursday afternnon, it was mid march, and as we were getting up to altitude, i looked out of the window down the length of the wing.....

and then i saw it...... the old hairs on the back of the neck went and i was in uh oh mode....

out of the evaporating ice on the wing word were beginning to appear...



it started...


"If you can read this message"... then the sun went behind a cloud, and the writing dissapeared


we leveled out..."I am a "..... bugger cloud again


"***ud who is following" the plane..


**** now i am beginning to wonder what the **** is going on....

for the next 1/2 hour i am trying urgently to work out the message without getting panicky, is it a hoax has something happened to the plane...

in the end i got the most of it..
"i am a cloud who is following your plane,,, it went on but i cant recall it all..

in the end i stopped the steward and asked him about it..

apparantly it was a message put on by the ground crew to cheer up passangers, but over time the letters had peeled off, but the adhesive had left an etch in the wings , under normat conditions invisible, but visible in certain light conditions...

aparantly they used to get so many questions, they asked for it to be removed..


M

Brit_in_Japan

Wow, they were so lucky to survive that. Firstly the fuel in the wing tanks burned instead of exploding. Secondly the fire significantly weakened the port wing, it's amazing it didn't break up more. Lastly the aircrew did an amazing job to get it down using only differential power settings.

The video show on Arab TV of the downing of the C-130 may not be entirely genuine, but if the terrorists have SAM-14 missiles then it's clearly a dangerous place to be flying, even with tactical approaches.

David_Dickson

Just got sent this in an e-mail...


bummer.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Its all good stuff but has nobody had the Demons chewing at the wings ?

FlightMan

Nothing unusual there. Its and idea of one of the new budget airlines. They've removed the cowlings and if there's are problem with an engine, a flight attnedent snaps away with a camera and emails the images to the arriving airport. An engineer diagnoses the fault, and is waiting with spares once the aircraft arrives on stand. 15 minutes later, its back in the air again.

All prefectly safe and above board.

Allegedly! :-)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

No, it was the demons that pulled the engine cowl off, it is proven in this film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086491/

CrisPDuk

Fuel tanks exploding is a myth created by Hollywood and numerous TV action producers. Liquid fuel cannot explode, it cannot even burn. It needs a source of heat sufficient to boil it, the fuel vapour thus created burns when an ignition source and oxygen are introduced. Thus it could only have been the fuel pouring out of the back of the wing that could have burned, as that still contained had no oxygen source.

That said, I am in awe of the bravery and staggering skill of the crew that managed to get that thing back on the ground in one piece



One other point which grates, the article mentioned the 'continuing danger from terrorists in Iraq'? Continuing from what? I don't recall any civilian aircraft being shot down over Baghdad BEFORE Bush went in

SiPie

Queenstown to Auckland 3 weeks ago.

No real drama, but easily the worst take off I've ever experienced, due to the mountaineous surroundings. Apparently it's pretty notorious but it sure shook us both up quite a bit

Drunken Bungle Whore

Remeber those storms in Glasgow a couple of weeks back? I flew in there! All flights to Edinburgh were cancelled - flight was fine except for the last 10 mins. Glad I'd not eaten.......

There was no manouvering around below the clouds - got into line way up high, then straight in and down.

Wierd how when the plane is tossed around in turbulence we grip the back of the seat in front......

Nick100

Just remembered, not on a flight, but I'd spent a week in the US at various places and I was due to fly home out of Chicago. Plans changed and I ended up spending an extra day near New York and so flew back from JFK on September 11, 2003. Sitting in the departure lounge watching CNN news replaying what had happened 2 years earlier was not too comforting. Mind you the security checks were good and thorough