For most of the trip, the pilot is there to make sure nothing goes wrong. Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not appear on the weather radar, which was designed to detect the moisture in clouds. Er und seine Crew retteten durch seine Entscheidungen und sein Handeln viele Menschen. They climbed and leveled the plane at 12,000 feet, then starting racing towards the nearest airport in Jakarta. In 1982, when his British Airways Boeing 747 flew through a cloud of volcanic ash over Indonesia and all four engines were progressively snuffed out, Captain Eric Moody demonstrated an abundance . An amber light told them that the engines had exceeded their maximum turbine gas temperatures. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. If you're wondering what happens to the pilot in that situation, here's a reconstruction: That's pilot Tim Lancaster being sucked out of the plane -- the only thing keeping him from flying off into the distance and plummeting to his death was a flight attendant, who ran in and grabbed Lancaster by the belt. June 24, 2022 Aviation Airliner, Barry Townley-Freeman, Boeing 747-236B, British Airways, Captain Eric Moody, City of Edinburgh, Eric Henry John Moody, Flame Out, G-BDXG, Inflight Emergency, Inflight Engine Failure, Mount Gallanggung, Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, Roger Greaves, Rolls-Royce RB211-524D4 . As the ash entered the engines, it melted in the combustion chambers and adhered to the inside of the power plant. At 13,500 feet (4,100m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. The crew noticed the front of the engines were glowing as if lit inside when they looked out the side windows of the cockpit. Er und seine Crew retteten durch seine Entscheidungen und sein Handeln viele Menschen. Once the flight cleared the ash cloud, the crew was able to restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage.[12]. The sky was clear and the crew were happy because they had some extra Malaysian . Moody swiftly decided to descend at 1,800 m per minute to an altitude where there was enough pressure in the outside atmosphere to breathe almost normally. McCormick fought to level out the plane, and got the wheels to the pavement, only to see the plane go skidding wildly off the runway. Assistant Professor of Biology. After landing, the flight crew found it impossible to taxi, due to glare from apron floodlights which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque. Shortly after 13:40 UTC (20:40 Jakarta time) above the Indian Ocean, south of Java, the flight crew (consisting of Senior First Officer Roger Greaves and Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman while Captain Eric Moody was in the lavatory) first noted an effect on the windscreen similar to St Elmo's fire. This episode was repeated a number of times when the Eyjafjallajkull volcano caused a large-scale shutdown of European airspace. Ash had clogged the engines, which only restarted when enough of the molten ash solidified and broke off. Pilot Min-Yuan Ho, drawing from his years of experience, determined that commercial airliners don't normally do this and disengaged the autopilot. Description: Dr. Moody graduated from the Brown University Alpert Medical School in 1985. Moody's announcement was actually more than that. [9] G-BDXH's engineless flight entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft. Displaying the stiff-upper-lip spirit that . They weren't going to have the power to get back to an airport. Kids cartoons saved more lives than anyone knew. The crew decided that if the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude by the time they reached 12,000 feet (3,700m) they would turn back out to sea and attempt to ditch into the Indian Ocean. 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Former manager at a Fortune 100 financial services company, now I'm living my dream analyzing and writing about the NFL, NBA, and WNBA for ESPN. Passengers were told to brace themselves for an emergency landing, and to put their yellow oxygen masks on. And even they'll tell you that airliners pretty much fly themselves. Plane going down. Once the flight cleared the ash cloud, the crew was able to restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage.[12]. Passengers who had a view out the aircraft windows noted that the engines were unusually bright, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down. Captain Eric Moody made the following announcement to the passengers: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. At 13,500 feet (4,100m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. Moody swiftly decided to descend at 1,800m per minute to an altitude where there was enough pressure in the outside atmosphere to breathe almost normally. Coastal Expeditions Charter Fishing and Dolphin Cruises Jekyll Island, Georgia . All four engines have stopped. Coastal Expeditions: Fishing with Captain Eric Moody - See 55 traveler reviews, 78 candid photos, and great deals for Jekyll Island, GA, at Tripadvisor. Moody throttled back, but engine number two surged again and was shut down. Graham SKINNER, Cabin Services Officer, British Airways. here's Wikipedia's description of the incident: Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, The crew's intense focus on the problem (without false assurances that they could fix it), Concern for the well-being of the passengers (without being patronizing). Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet (3,500m) was required to cross the coast safely. The incident featured one of the greatest tannoy announcements by a pilot in the history of aviation. In 1989, United Flight 232 took off from Denver for Chicago. All four of the jumbo's engines failed for almost 15 minutes. As the Boeing 747 headed past Java over the south-eastern Indian Ocean at its cruising height, the first sign of trouble came. Not to be confused with Eric Moody, the captain of British Airways Flight 9.Eric Lane Moody (born January 6, 1971) is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher. Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide ratio of approximately 15:1, meaning it can glide forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. 11th June, 1983. However, Jakarta Area Control misunderstood the message, interpreting the call as meaning that only engine number four had shut down. Captain Eric and his TEAM LOBO crew, no matter if you are a novice or expert angler, guarantees you a great time on your Naples FL Fishing excursion. The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well above the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500m). [13], The Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series Mayday featured Flight 009 in a 2007 episode titled "Falling From the Sky" which featured interviews with the flight crew and passengers, and a dramatization of the flight.[14]. Pilots today are trained to do what Capt Moody did if faced with that situation. The wing of the plane hit first and burst into flames. CAPT Eric "STIC" Thompson is from Las Cruces, New Mexico and is a 2000 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. As pressure within the cabin fell, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling an automatic emergency measure to make up for the lack of air. On the flight deck, however, Greaves's mask was broken; the delivery tube had detached from the rest of the mask. As they came in to land, the crew managed to get the landing gear down and announced to the passengers that they should brace for impact. . It was a masterpiece, period. One such passenger was Charles Capewell, who scrawled "Ma. Plane going down. A minute later engine number two also surged and flamed out. A third of the passengers lost their lives (many weren't because of the crash, but from inhaling the smoke that filled the cabin) but the efforts of Haynes, co-pilot William Records and engineer Dudley Dvorak, saved the lives of 200 people. Pilot Bryce McCormick, known for having the most piloty name in history, thought he'd just been in a mid-air collision. 24 June 1982. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, the aeroplane could not be located by Air Traffic Control on their radar screens. Sign up for notifications from Insider! "[1] Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. Part one of an interview with the Captain of BA9 which suffered a four engine failure over Indonesiain June 1982 after flying in to the ash cloud from the er. Speedbird 9 takes off to a clear dark night. She notes: "The 28th December 2006 marks the start of our 14th year of honeymoon, and on the 24th June 2007 many passengers and crew will no doubt gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mid-air adventure. John Eric Henry Moody Obituary. Moody throttled back; however, engine number two surged again and was shut down. Despite the weather radar showing clear skies, the crew switched on engine anti-ice and the passenger seat belt signs as a precaution. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, the aeroplane could not be located by Air Traffic Control on their radar screens. With unbelievable restraint, Captain Eric Moody addressed British Airways flight 009 as his Boeing 747 drifted inexorably down towards the Indian Ocean. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted as well. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out. It was only after learning of injuries on board that the tower declared the spiraling jumbo jet to be an emergency. Evil, THE 6 MOST BADASS AIRLINE PILOTS TO EVER STARE DOWN DEATH, resulted in the deaths of everybody on board, 6 WWI Fighter Pilots Whose Balls Deserve Their Own Monument, 7 Planes Perfectly Designed (To Kill The People Flying Them), The King of the Hill Pitch Trailer Is A Perfect Time Capsule, Wanda Sykes Made an Audience Member Laugh So Hard He Nearly Died, Youd Think the Guy Who Fathered Eric and Don Jr. Would Know How to Handle Jokes: Jimmy Kimmel Comments on Trumps Attempted Censorship, Tom Brady Should Take a Page from the Shaq Roasts of the Early Aughts, 15 Times TV Shows Actually Saved (or Ruined) Lives, The Romanossaince Enters Stage Two With the Trailer for Ray Romanos Directorial Debut Film. With a crash landing possibly only minutes away, the pilot, Captain Eric Moody, made a breathtaking announcement over the PA: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. The reason for the failure was not immediately apparent to the crew or ground control. Host Scott Simon talks to the retired pilot about the current cloud of volcanic ash drifting across Europe, and how . One of the passengers, Betty Tootell, wrote a book about the incident, All Four Engines Have Failed. The British are masters of the art, with the result that their communications often leave the rest of us quite bewildered. [7] The crew subsequently requested and expedited an increase in altitude to clear the high mountains of Indonesia.[8]. Captain Eric Moody. Captain Eric Moody was later praised for a cabin announcement that was described as "a masterpiece of understatement." Moody's announcement was actually more than that. British Airways Flight 9 was flying from London to New Zealand in 1982, and was on one of the last legs of the trip, going from Malaysia to Perth, Australia. The incident featured in an episode of the Mayday documentary TV series Air Crash Investigation titled "Falling From the Sky". It was a masterpiece, period. The crew members of the accident segment had boarded the aircraft in Kuala Lumpur, while many of the passengers had been aboard since the flight began in London.[2]. In 1982, when Mount Galunggung volcano, Indonesia, erupted, several Boeing 747s encountered ash from this eruption. After falling more than 25,000 feet and preparing to ditch in the Indian Ocean, the plane's crew eventually got the engines restarted. And that, in fact, no one had ever survived that situation? He wrestled the big bastard back under control, the plane finally coming to a rest with two of the three landing gear sitting in the grass off the side of the pavement. I trust you are not in too much distress.". After he left the cockpit for a stroll, Capt Moody was summoned back to the flight deck. In front of them was the most intense display of St Elmo's fire that any of them had ever seen. . WITH unbelievable restraint, Captain Eric Moody addressed British Airways flight 009 as his Boeing 747 drifted inexorably down towards the Indian Ocean. Moody described it as "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse. "[10], British Airways continued to operate the Flight 9 route from London Heathrow to Sydney; in March 2012 the route was curtailed to Bangkok. Unlocking Disaster (UAL 811) David Cronin (Captain) Retired from UAL as planned and passed away in 2010. It wasnt until later, when he, his crew and the 247 passengers on board the flight, were safely back on the ground, that Moody discovered the cause of the narrowly averted catastrophe volcanic ash. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. But the plane held together, and everyone survived. The aircraft glided out of the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta. We have a small problem. [4], Around 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), the number-four Rolls-Royce RB211 engine began surging and soon flamed out. One of the engines went down. Shortly after that, engines one and two successfully restarted as well. Then, simultaneously, engines one and three failed as well. I trust you are not in too much distress.' [4] At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves declared an emergency to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. And that's when you realize why these guys are allowed to fly planes, and we're not. Captain Eric Moody. "[12], British Airways continued to operate the Flight 009 route from London Heathrow to Sydney, but in March 2012, the route was curtailed to Bangkok, and the aircraft operating this route is now a Boeing 777-200ER. Two surged again and was shut down ash had clogged the engines which. 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