The Words You Never Want to Hear…….

oldman

oldman

Well-known Member
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…….are “Brace for impact.” That normally means the plane is about to make a crash landing on the ground as compared to “ditching,” which means the pilot is going to attempt a water landing. Between the two, if I had a choice, I would prefer bracing for impact.

Landing on a river compared to landing on an ocean is like comparing day to night. Rivers do not have waves. When a commercial jet lands on water and because the wingspan is so long, it is likely at least one of the wings will contact the water or a wave, which may (probably) cause the plane to flip. If that should happen, it’s highly likely that not everyone will survive.

I got on this topic after my meeting with 39 other retired United pilots met last Saturday for sort of an east coast reunion set up by another former United pilot. We got into the topic of MH-370 and compared it to Sullenberger’s landing on the Hudson. We came to the agreement that MH-370 was voluntarily flown until ran out of fuel and then ditched into the ocean. Because the transponder or tracking device had been turned off, the conclusion we made was fairly easy.
 

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I watch the show on the Smithsonian channel now and then. A week or so ago there was an episode of a plane landing with landing gear issues and the flight attendant yelled”brace for impact.” The plane landed safely, but the investigation showed that the nose gear on the Airbus dropped down, but didn’t lock.
 
There was some documentary about MH-370 on and I could not keep watching it because it was so plodding and slow. I forget which one it was.

My question: can the transponder be turned off by remote control? Is it possible? I still remember when Crypto salespeople said, "Oh Crypto can't be hacked - not possible." Well, it has been hacked and people take all the money and disappear. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/tech/crypto-exchange-hacks-explainer/index.html

If its technology, can't the transponder be hacked?

SpaceX flies some of its rockets by remote control. They are unmanned. This is why I ask the question.

The film "Sully" was on somewhere and I re-watched it just because it was nice to be reminded of a real hero. He took a risk (but he also had many years of experience flying GLIDERS in his free time) and made his choice. Opportunity met preparation in Sully.

You know, I think I read a lot because I'm always trying to get prepared for the NEXT thing - the next thing to go wrong. Life has taught me that.
 

VintageBetter said:
There was some documentary about MH-370 on and I could not keep watching it because it was so plodding and slow. I forget which one it was.

My question: can the transponder be turned off by remote control? Is it possible? I still remember when Crypto salespeople said, "Oh Crypto can't be hacked - not possible." Well, it has been hacked and people take all the money and disappear. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/12/tech/crypto-exchange-hacks-explainer/index.html

If its technology, can't the transponder be hacked?

SpaceX flies some of its rockets by remote control. They are unmanned. This is why I ask the question.

The film "Sully" was on somewhere and I re-watched it just because it was nice to be reminded of a real hero. He took a risk (but he also had many years experience flying GLIDERS in his free time) and made his choice. Opportunity met preparation in Sully.

You know, I think I read a lot because I'm always trying to get prepared for the NEXT thing - the next thing to go wrong. Life has taught me that.
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The transponder is located in the lower section of the fuselage, or what most people know as the dash in a car where the radio is located. It works using radio waves. Can it be hacked? I will never doubt technology and it’s abilities. My answer is, I would think not since the code has to be used using a pin pad, but seeing how it uses radio waves, I would guess that if someone is very techie, it may somehow be possible.

The issue that no squawk code was sent letting the ATC know that they are declaring an emergency, or have some type of mechanical issue mystifies me. Even though the transponder may have been voluntarily shut off, the plane should still show up as a blip on the radar screen, but no ID with it and that may have confused the air traffic controller.

Normally, the ATC would see a blip on the screen and an identifying marking stating “UA 2122.” Meaning United Airlines flight 2122. Without that identifier, the blip may become a mystery.

I have on occasions used my transponder to send different squawk codes. The transponder sends the plane’s whereabouts, so the ATC can be thinking ahead if he is going to have lot of planes wanting to land at or about the same time. When that happens, the ATC will start lining us up. I wanted to land at Kennedy in New York, but I was racing 4 other planes to get there first. I tried to speed up the plane, but the ATC requested that I slow down and that I will be number 2 for landing.

ATC’s have a very important, but nerve racking job. They are always on edge at the busiest airports. I really appreciated them and complied with most of their requests.
 
@oldman It could have been the pilot doing a mass murder-suicide. People go nuts every day, unfortunately.

But I have no doubt in the hacking abilities of the bad forces out there. That's why I will never want a Smart washer, Smart refrigerator, and I don't even like Smart thermostats. I'll stick with the dumb appliances.
 
Pilot mass murders have been done. The last one I know of is on a YouTube video. A nutjob of a pilot who wasn’t approved to fly, flew a Germanwings plane into the side of the Alps killing all aboard. Check it out.

Procedures have now been put in place so his style of killing won’t be repeated. He locked the pilot out of the cockpit when he used the lavatory. The doors had been replaced with the new impenetrable doors. The Captain even used the fire axe and couldn’t get in.

Before this was even a policy, I would have the Purser come into the cockpit and sit in my seat until I returned and the same for the F/O. If he or she left the cockpit, the Purser would sit in that seat. We had to have at least two people in the cockpit from takeoff to touchdown.
 
oldman said:
Pilot mass murders have been done. The last one I know of is on a YouTube video. A nutjob of a pilot who wasn’t approved to fly, flew a Germanwings plane into the side of the Alps killing all aboard. Check it out.

Procedures have now been put in place so his style of killing won’t be repeated. He locked the pilot out of the cockpit when he used the lavatory. The doors had been replaced with the new impenetrable doors. The Captain even used the fire axe and couldn’t get in.

Before this was even a policy, I would have the Purser come into the cockpit and sit in my seat until I returned and the same for the F/O. If he or she left the cockpit, the Purser would sit in that seat. We had to have at least two people in the cockpit from takeoff to touchdown.
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I remember that story. So shocking and sad.
 
There was also a pilot that was fired, I “think” it was FedEx. He still had his old badge that you see hanging around people who are on the flight crews and used that to gain access to the aircraft he chose to do his dirty work. People that let him through had not been informed that he was not allowed to board any planes and the Security never checked the expiration date on his badge.

He boarded a plane and sat on the floor in the cabin among the freight. He was able to board before anyone else because he arrived earlier than the other members of the assigned flight crew, which consisted of two pilots and one dead head pilot that sat in the jump seat, which is the seat that sits behind the Captain, so that allowed him time to hide.

When the plane was airborne, he used an axe to attack the pilots. I think the ending was that although he did strike the three pilots, they did overcome the ex-pilot and were able to land safely and received medical help. The reason for his attack was to act as a retaliation for firing him. Because of this event, aircrews now have a colored stamp on their ID badge, so Security now only has to look at the badge to make sure it has the correct color stamp on the badge that correlates with the present month.

This is an old story, so the facts may be skewed a bit, but you get the idea.
 
There was another story that went something like this and I do believe this one is also available on YouTube. It was a Japan Air flight. Both pilots were Japanese. The Captain was having financial problems at home. When he was reading about the stock markets selling in 80’s, he knew he was busted.

To avoid shame, he flew the plane into the ocean. No survivors.

Egypt Air had a similar occurrence when the F/O knew he was making his last trip to the U.S. and that he faced firing because of repeated harassment to female hotel staffs. He was only along the flight as a reserve pilot, but he talked the Captain to leave the cockpit to use the lavatory after they ate. He also flew the plane into the ocean.

There was kind of a big to do about this so-called accident when the NTSB ruled it accident by pilot suicide. The Egyptians denied it saying it was due to mechanical problems, but according to the FDR and the CVR both showed no signs of problems.
 
It’s bad enough when a plane goes down because of mechanical problems or pilot errors. I think aviation here in the U.S. has most of the kinks worked out. There is now a system for every move the pilot makes. Each system on all aircraft built after 2005 are now equipped with a secondary no-fault system. Don’t be fooled by the wording “no-fault.”

A pilot can’t even take off if the plane has not been configured properly, meaning that the flaps, slats and ailerons haven’t been extended properly. The pilot will get an aural warning (the warning is verbal) and if the aural warning is not working, the pilot will get a second warning by a weird sound that draws his attention to look at the screen for what the issue is.

I liked starting out with a 5 degree setting for my flaps, but if I feel the plane not climbing very well, I will go to a 15 degree setting. On final approach, the flaps are usually put out to about 40 degrees or if the plane is flying light, maybe reduce it to 25 degrees. If the flaps are not properly extended, there are also warnings for that.

Pilots have warnings and checklists for every move they make, even starting the engines. A lot of our technical warnings and alerts are from NASA. They developed some of our most complicated warnings such as TCAS. The inside of the planes all have flame retardant materials used to allow that if a fire should occur, passengers will have extra time to deplane. The FAA has set a time limit of 45 seconds to deplane passengers, even when full. It can be and is done, but sometimes it runs closer to a minute. This is not mandatory by the FAA, just suggested. Flight Attendants are trained in deplaning passengers very quickly.
 
You are right oldman, those are the words I never want to hear. Those words and “Aww, you missed dinner.”
 

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