captain breaks rules attempting to save 747

[GON]

Weather reports its likely a ice cold Saturday morning for many on this forum. This video might warm you up of a 747 taking off and the challenges from 43 degrees Celsius outside, aircraft at max capacity, one engine with known mechanical issues, water injection into the engines to gain thrust, better lift than can occur when an aircraft is flying just feet from the ground, on and on. Just a mountain of information in this video.

Disclosure- absolutely fascinating animated video of a 1978 flight from ATH to JFK on a 747 that has number three engine fail during take, and number two engine had allowed mechanical issues prior to takeoff. There is no official report on this flight, so some of the information is connecting the dots, with assumptions or fiction, instead of facts.

1978, 747 taking of from Athens to New York. Fully loaded aircraft, 398 passengers and 20 crew members. Engine failure during takeoff, reported the captain didn’t follow Boeing directives during the failure of the engine in hopes of avoiding crashing into a dense urban populated area.

One directive the captain ignored from Boeing, when the aircraft could lift, captain order retraction of wheels. Boeing directs against this action on this situation, as more drag is temporarily injected by the landing gear doors during retraction.

I am going to give up the ghost. Two of many incredible things identified in this video are (1) there was no investigation as the aircraft didn’t crash, (2) after the captain landed the aircraft with zero casualties, later that same day he boarded another 747 with the same passengers and piloted that aircraft to New York City.

Have time this Saturday morning, a fascinating (video), although some of it maybe be memoirs instead of fact

 

[Astro14]

Just reading your summary, this is a bunch of hogwash.

It’s not about Boeing direction, it has to do with the aircraft, the terrain, and which ground track allows for the airplane to stay clear of terrain with a reduced climb gradient. No amount of piloting is going to increase the climb gradient of an airplane at a certain weight, the atmospherics of given day, with an engine out. The best you can do is to fly it well so that you match the expected performance.

Further, the first step after rotation with an engine failure in every Boeing I’ve ever flown, and that includes the 747, is to raise the gear.

I doubt there’s anything “heroic“ in this entire self congratulatory memoir. I’m not even gonna bother watching.

 

[4wd]

Is Channing Tatum in this ?

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

Already saw it.

Too bad no final report to verify exactly what happened.

If they did have problems with the water glycol on take off, you would think they would reject if they didn’t get all four of those green lights indicating it was working properly.

To me, either the flight engineer forgot to turn them on ( before take off checklist ) , or the pump failed on take off but pilots should have been able to tell ( or FE job to watch for the green lights ) prior to V1 and when thrust set call made.

I can’t see a FE turning it off after rotation , especially if the plane was barely climbing.

We will never know exactly how well the crew performed without the final report.

 

[Inspecktor]

Just reading your summary, this is a bunch of hogwash.

It’s not about Boeing direction, it has to do with the aircraft, the terrain, and which ground track allows for the airplane to stay clear of terrain with a reduced climb gradient. No amount of piloting is going to increase the climb gradient of an airplane at a certain weight, the atmospherics of given day, with an engine out. The best you can do is to fly it well so that you match the expected performance.

Further, the first step after rotation with an engine failure in every Boeing I’ve ever flown, and that includes the 747, is to raise the gear.

I doubt there’s anything “heroic“ in this entire self congratulatory memoir. I’m not even gonna bother watching.

I recently read of an incident where a Pakistani or Indian Airliner departed on a 3+ hour flight. They had issues that limited their altitude to the mid 20's and could not maintain normal cruise speed. Due to increased fuel usage the flight had to divert to a airport short of the destination. Upon setting up for landing, the crew realized the gear had never been retracted. Extended gear created huge drag penalties.

 

[y_p_w]

I recently read of an incident where a Pakistani or Indian Airliner departed on a 3+ hour flight. They had issues that limited their altitude to the mid 20's and could not maintain normal cruise speed. Due to increased fuel usage the flight had to divert to a airport short of the destination. Upon setting up for landing, the crew realized the gear had never been retracted. Extended gear created huge drag penalties.

I've been surprised that the lack of a gear door in 737s doesn't create more drag. But apparently they got very creative.