Page 8 - Flight Instruments News Today

And mechanical issues can all test a pilots skill. >> general aviation pilots, they are nonprofessional pilots. they are flying for recreational purposes. they dont necessarily have the same level of operational discipline as an airline pilot so theres a lot of room for error. >> the vast majority of light aircraft flights land safely without incident. but when things do go wrong, a split second decision can mean the difference between life and death. july 16th, 1999, its a mild quiet evening in...

Joiner, makes to 911 sets in motion a massive rescue operation. six national guard and air force helicopters are on their way, but theyre hours away. of the six people still alive in the crevasse, three are badly hurt and need medical attention. and then all of a sudden, the sound of chopper blades through the thin mountain air. >> when you hear a helicopter, you hang so much hope that your friend is going to get off the mountain and get to a trauma center and be okay. >> but when they realize w...

Airplane significantly degraded the aerodynamic performance that wasnt going to allow that airplane to fly. >> the snow and ice are causing another grave problem for the plane. there are sensors on the front and back of the engines that measure epr, engine pressure ratio. thats the number used to set proper takeoff power. but those sensors are iced over and the pilots dont know it. this causes a false high reading on the epr gauges in the cockpit. 2.04 which would be enough to take off. based on...

A d.c 9 is heading from dallas to toronto when the cockpit is filled with smoke. the electrical systems shut down making it near lily impossible control the plane. >> the captain was faced with a difficult task. >> the pilot tries to get the plane back on the ground, but passengers are already sure coming to smoke inhalation. june 2nd, 1983, air canada flight 797 has a normal take off and climb to cruising altitude. but about 2.5 hours into the journey, the plane experiences an electrical malfun...

Enormous amount of energy and could ignite a fire. investigators do, in fact, find evidence of arching on the left and right laboratory feeder wires, which come up through holes in the floorboards. the arc start as fire. the fire then spreads consuming vital electrical systems. making it almost impossible for captain cameron to control the aircraft. >> but came suddenly very hard to fly. it was nose heavy because the stabilizer trim failed. >> his arms would have been very, very tired by the tim...

Distraction. >> with zero visibility and icing conditions in the fog the pilots are having trouble keeping track of the air bus horizontal position. the plane ends up almost a mile left of where they should be on approach to runway 5. at 7:19, landing gear is down and locked. but the air bus is descending too fast. passengers are completely unaware of the serious problems in the cockpit. >> i didnt notice something strange. it was a quiet, normal flight. >> just as passengers are asked to make s...

Landing gear are extended normally. the force causes the plane to vibrate and yaw or pull to the right. a light in the cockpit to indicate the landing gear is down and locked does not illuminate. >> when the landing gear extends under normal system operation, its hydraulic. so it extends at a given rate. it extends smoothly. in the case of united 173, what occurred is it fell out and it fell at a very rapid rate. one of the other components of the landing gear also broke free and in so doing dam...

And reliability of service. still, there are differences within the industry on how much flying time is required to pilot a commercial airplane. >> you can be done with those ratings in as little as 350 hours of experience. and what happens is when people get out of flight school, and they have their required government ratings, they then move on to the regionals because thats who hires them. >> while major airlines usually pay better, they usually demand that new hires have 1500 flight hours or...

As the plane descends, the hijackers fight the pilot for control of the plane. >> i said, "guys, this is finished now. we are all dead people now. let me do it my way." and decide -- i dont know how they did it. disengaged the autopilot. >> disengaged it? >> he did. >> from this -- >> from that control. >> right. >> and then, i disconnected the autopilot and then i had to start flying it myself. >> in the cabin, passengers start to panic. >> when the pilot first made the announcement that the pl...

>> that captain was under a different kind of stress than weve seen in these others. >> absolutely. not only had the issues of having to put the airplane in the water, he had people on board that were trying to kill the airplane and everybody on board with it, including themselves. >> its november 23rd, 1996. ethiopian airlines flight 961 from ethiopias capital to nairobi, kenya, should be a routine two-hour flight. it turns out to be anything but. the pilot, captain leul abate, sat with documen...