..well, THAT was a bundle of laughs! ...(not...)

[dsli_jon]

http://www.examiner.com/airlines-air...rgency-landing (..least ad-ridden story-link.. )

Yeah, so I'm sitting in seat 2C, just dozing-off (...after having been up thru yet another all-nighter..) when, thru closed-eyelids, I 'see' glints of light / flashes in the windowsill - kind of like when, as you are ascending, often the wing-lights will generate 'flashes' off the clouds, and they enter your window...except, even thru my lids, I perceived these flashes were orange, not the familiar-white...

So, I open my eyes, and turn to find the source - and look directly into the left nacelle to see that it has basically turned itself into a blast-furnace - the thing was fully-involved, inside!... but my first-reaction wasn't feeling scared - I was irritated / incredulous - "..I can't even freakin' believe this!!!.." But, in spite of the alarming-sight of the engine, spewing 50' of flame behind it, juxtaposed against ~5000' of airspace between it and the city lights below...after a few moments, when the engine did not 'fall-off' and / or we did not plunge-down or spiral.. I relaxed a bit, and realized that I could now-stop trying to figure out 'how best-to roll myself into as tight a ball as-possible', and started just 'talking the pilot thru it'... "...that's it, nice and easy, keep that bank nice and slow, keep it steady..." (of course, the only 'pilot' that could hear me was me and the freaked-out lady next to me...

And as we were expertly turned around, and gradually came in - smoother than even many 'routine' landings - and landed with an abrupt, almost screeching-halt, it was only-then I began to feel a bit, uh, 'worried' - you know, as the foam-trucks were still getting in position...yet, here we all are, 'sitting ducks', with this engine - still on fire, inside - with, ya know, 1/2 of the 48,000 lbs of Jet-A sitting above it... it was, yeah, a little 'heartbeat-elevating' at that moment...

But, once the guys had the foam-pumping steadily, and I saw no more orange-glow, when they blew the doors / slides, 'EMT-mode' kicked in, and I stayed in front to help 'usher' the panicked people to 'WALK' and LEAVE YOUR BAGS!! (!!!) and come to the front-door, where the Attendants were yelling for people to come (I guess they felt it was best for them to exit furthest-away from the center of the plane / nearer the wings...made sense...)

So, I ended-up being the 4th last person out (two flight attendants and the Captain were last) and cause I had told one Attendant earlier, was immediately wisked to help some older lady with 'chest-pains'.. (was just a panic-attack...) and talked to her / helped her calm-down till the EMTs got there...But it felt good to do 'something', ya know? Much better than just standing there, broiling in thought about how 'things could-be very-different right now...' Especially, after then-seeing a good-portion of the rear-cowl blown-open / off (??) - that was, again, a 'bit unsettling'... sheesh...

I mean, when you go thru something like this, yeah, it shakes you a bit, but you have to 'put it in perspective' - we face death every single day - driving on the road (..all that really 'separates' you from injury / death is, basically, two painted-yellow lines, right?...) or walking under an overhang or eating grapes or working on HV power supplies for CuBr's etc... So, you know - you just 'move on'...

But I will say, I spent an extrordinary amount of time hugging my Wife and Daughter yesterday... and that felt really good...

NOW BACK TO WORK, JON - THIS... IS... SPARTA...!!!

Sorry, just had to vent a little... Thanks for 'holding the bucket'... Any other crazy PL-family plane-scares?
peas..

j

[danielbriggs]

Whoaaaaa! Dude!
I'm glad you're ok Jon; quite a "ride" it seems...

[Jem]

Hi Jon

At least you're here to tell us about it, and for that we're extremely thankful, obviously someone's looking after you.

I've had three 'air scares', not quite of the same magnitude as yours but they got us a bit worried at the time.

First was trying to land in a seriously heavy storm and severe cross winds at Leeds/Bradford airport here in the UK. Pilot had made two attempts and had to abort them both at the last minute. The third attempt was a final chance as there was no more fuel left, we all took up brace position. He managed to get it down, but how on earth he did it I don't know. Second was coming in to Sao Paulo in Brasil, the undercarriage hadn't come down but the Pilot's instrumentation was apparently showing everything as o.k. It was onl when the control tower saw the plane coming in to land visually that they alerted the pilot and he aborted, he was about 100' above the runway at the time. Finally, flying back from Miami we were 300 miles over the atlantic when smoke was filling up the back of the plane. We turned around, dumped the fuel and eventually made an emergency landing at Wilmington NC, they'd never had a jumbo land there before and weren't entirely sure the runway would be long enough . Turns out it was a Saniflo unit in the toilet that overheated...

Thankfully all of these were near misses, perhaps I should give up flying

Jem

[Lazerjock]

Wow! Glad to hear everyone is ok.

Chris

[norty303]

"...that's IT, nice and easy, keep that bank nice and slow, keep it STEADY..."


Corrected for 'Jonisms'


Nice work, didn't find time to take any pics then??

[allthatwhichis]

Good show! Just another day in paradise, no?

[dsli_jon]

...Corrected for 'Jonisms'

Hah! That's funny - you know, when I was spending time in NY after graduating HS a million-years ago, my SoCal buds would send postcards / letters to the:
"NYS Dept. of Jonism", no joke! ...I guess I need to join the PSA (...Punctuation-Sluts Anonymous...

...didn't find time to take any pics then??

Yeah, I did - in-particular, I was trying to get shots of the damaged cowl, but all I had one me was my iPhoney, and that doesn't do too-well with mid-range 'gamma', in the dark, so all I have are shots of the plane on the tarmac, with a billion emergency-lights around it, slides sticking out like it's tounges' - nothing that you can't see online, so I didn't post-up... *shrugs*

@ Jem - Wow! You're quite the 'close-call warrior', m8! Glad you're still here to tell, too...

@ Aaron - Yep, all in a days werk for a Laserist...ya have to be McGuyver at breakfast, Dexter (Dexter's Lab, not the killer , at lunch, and Bond by dinner-time... at least, this time, it was only '...shaken, not seared'...

In the immortal words of Dave Grohl, '...done, done, on to the next one!...done, I'm done, and I'm on to the next!'
peas
j

[mixedgas]

Jon, I'm glad your safe.


"Dont worry folks, that bump a minutes ago, as well as the weird burning smell in the cabin are pretty normal. We just ingested a small flock of sparrows in the port engine. The engine bleed air drives the air conditioning, so you'll smell it for just a few minutes more. We are going to continue on to our destination"

That was on CLIMB OUT on a commercial airliner.

Steve

[JohnYayas]

Glad all went well. I haven't had any air incidents but have been in the middle of the ocean on a ship that was on fire so I know how you felt. Thumbs up for helping out.

[gottaluvlasers]

holy crap amigo! glad youre ok!!

and youre full of crap, you didnt help a lil ole lady. yo uknow damn well you pushed all the kids and women aside and got your ass off of that plane first! lol.

-Marc