flying...worst case scenario

[russ 1]

So........................................what's the worst thing you can possibly think of that would happen on a transcontinental flight?

Running out of gas.

[pedroh 21]

a bunch of people farting, kids crying, and no A/C working, that would piss me off

[rakkaus 0]

So........................................what's the worst thing you can possibly think of that would happen on a transcontinental flight?

Running out of gas.

The one I saw wasn't an emergency, but I did see a pretty lousy scenario coming back from Finland. I was trying to skip 5 hours of layover by going standby on the last leg of my flight home, after this big ol' Germany-Dulles flight. Looked pretty hopeless, with the gate agent offering people free round trips just to get OUT of line for the flight... but then...

Gate agent: Boarding all passengers, all rows

Gate agent, 2 minutes later: Last call, etc, etc

Gate agent, 5 minutes later: This is the LAST CALL for this flight!! If you are supposed to be on this flight, you need to be on the plane NOW! If you don't get on the plane, we will give someone else your seat!! (basically being much more emphatic than usual)

Finally the gate agent gives up and lets 3 of us go standby -- after paying people to get off the flight! But this is where it gets bad: just as the agent is giving me my new ticket, these two people come running up to the gate. "Our flight from Japan was delayed..." Ugh, those poor guys went 8000 miles and missed their connection by 2 minutes.

I tried to give back my ticket so they could fly, but no dice -- not that one ticket would have helped two people flying together, anyway. The take-home message is this: by far, the most likely "worst case scenario" involves subsisting on airport food for awhile and inventing ways of passing the time. So... bring a book.

[DeadPoolX 9]

So........................................what's the worst thing you can possibly think of that would happen on a transcontinental flight?

Running out of gas.

That actually happened to Air Canada Flight 143 (July 23, 1983) which ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet about halfway through it's journey from Montreal to Edmonton. Apparently, when deciding how much fuel to load the aircraft up with, there was an error in the conversion process and not enough was stored aboard. This incident occurred when Canada was converting the measurements in the airlines to the metric system.

Fortunately, the pilots were able to "glide" the aircraft down safely to Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba. However, the entire experience had to be frightening for both crew and passengers alike.

[Sinergy 3]

The pilot forgetting where hes supossed to fly to

Or livng your own version of LOST

Edited September 11, 2007 by Ionescu

[almaty 19]

a guy who likes to talk non-stop about total useless sh!t the whole trip

[Sinergy 3]

a guy who likes to talk non-stop about total useless sh!t the whole trip

That happened to me on a cross country AMTRAK train. the guy next to me offered me a mango every 2 mins, and felt the need to give me the history on fruit the whole 4 days. i managed to escape at times but not too much

[almaty 19]

a guy who likes to talk non-stop about total useless sh!t the whole trip

That happened to me on a cross country AMTRAK train. the guy next to me offered me a mango every 2 mins, and felt the need to give me the history on fruit the whole 4 days. i managed to escape at times but not too much

..whoa, sister tara, that was a terrible experience.. i bet you wanted to shove the mango somewhere

[Sinergy 3]

a guy who likes to talk non-stop about total useless sh!t the whole trip

That happened to me on a cross country AMTRAK train. the guy next to me offered me a mango every 2 mins, and felt the need to give me the history on fruit the whole 4 days. i managed to escape at times but not too much

..whoa, sister tara, that was a terrible experience.. i bet you wanted to shove the mango somewhere

indeed i did

[russ 1]

The pilot forgetting where hes supossed to fly to

This actually happens fairly often - pilots landing at the wrong airport, or on the wrong runway. It isn't intuitive to many pilots at first that a phrase like "Left base for 36" means that they are flying East. Getting confused for even a few seconds can lead to catastrophe.

Oddly enough, it happens more often in good weather. In these cases, a flight may be cleared for a visual approach. Most often, the mistake will be landing on a parallel runway. (DFW for instance has 5 parallel runways, 36L and 36R, and 35L, 35C, and 35R). Even streetlights can be confused with runways at night.

In bad weather, approach will always have them on an ILS, with the localizer giving lateral guidance to the correct runway. This means that parallel runways can't always be used, which is on reason you get delays in bad weather (fewer landings can happen per hour in such configurations).

Running out of gas usually happens with unexpectedly strong wind. In most cases, pilots will catch this and land at a closer airport. Altitude also has an impact on fuel burn - flying lower will generally use more gas. 3 things a pilot should always know - fuel on board, fuel burn, and take off & landing roll distances.

It also happens in small planes when pilots don't compute fuel burn for the flight, or verify fuel quanity in the tanks visually.

[TracyTN 237]

a bunch of people farting, kids crying, and no A/C working, that would piss me off

I'm sorry but that made me laugh aloud.

[gabby4ever 1]

can you stop posting in this thread for a while?? im begging you !!!! im flying to romania next week on monday and i'm terrified !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[john_and_marlene 162]

I would think losing a wing or 2 would be worse than running out of gas

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

I would think losing a wing or 2 would be worse than running out of gas

or an engine or two

[DeadPoolX 9]

I would think losing a wing or 2 would be worse than running out of gas

or an engine or two

I suppose it depends how many engines the plane has, doesn't it? If it has four, then losing one, I imagine, would be okay. The pilot could probably find the nearest airport and request an emergency landing. If the aircraft lost any more engines than that (or if it had only two engines to start with), then there'd be trouble.