Emergency Landing

[IcyPuddles]

A post elsewhere got me thinking - has anyone ever been on a plane that needed to make an emergency landing? What happened and why?

I never have but my parents once had to emergency land in France because the plane oven caught fire.

Thank you for sharing all of that @SwordToFlamethrower . Really quite moving!

@YaWeeFurryBastardthank you for this. I’m petrified of flying so you adding this explanation is very helpful!! x

We then got to spend an extra 5 days in Africa in a 5 star hotel paid for by the airline, until they fixed the plane.

Fuck. I would have loved that! Africa is fabulous!----

Once got stuck at a local hotel to my parents house due to snow - it was ankle deep.
On a flght home.

Utterly fabulous place and interesting people to talk to at the bar.

parents house didn't even have oil in the boiler

Last year on a flight to Gran Canaria someone tragically died on the plane & we had to make an emergency landing in Lanzarote, there were ambulances & police cars waiting on the tarmac for us but sadly they weren't needed.

Once had an aborted landing in Tenerife, which was pretty scary as we didn't know what was happening at the time.

When I was around 8 there was a fire in the engine of the plane we were on and we had to make an emergency landing in, I think, Aden, where we stayed in a hotel for three days. They must have done a good job of keeping us children calm as I don't remember being particularly bothered about it and I just assumed everything would be fine, but with hindsight it must have been terrifying for my parents.

Yes Flying Leeds/Bradford to the Isle of Man on a twin engine plane. One of the engines went and apparently flying on just the other was an emergency. We went back to Leeds for an emergency landing. Everyone always asks did you come down the chutes? but the plane wasnt big enough. We just jumped out the door. Two blokes did stay to help others down.

Fire engines were waiting and paramedics there to check everyone was ok once back in the terminal but I went for a wee and missed my check!

@SwordToFlamethroweramazing posts. Was the IVF successful?

About 25 years ago I was on an overnight flight from Manchester to Montreal. About halfway across the Atlantic, the plane's interior lights flickered a couple of times, and then went out. There was some consternation, and sleeping passengers started waking up. The lights came back on after a couple of minutes, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the lights went out again, and stayed out what felt like forever, but was probably only 5 minutes. The lights came back on, and then the captain announced the flight systems were working fine, but there was a minor electrical fault and we would be diverting to Gander, Newfoundland.

I don't think anyone got much sleep the rest of the way. We landed safely.

Thankfully never, and I like others have been on plenty of flights, however has anyone ever been to Sardinia, holy shit i wouldn’t want to go through that again, sweet Jesus, upon hitting the tarmac the cabin crew should have changed the announcement to ‘ please stay in your seat until the seatbelt sign goes off and remember to pick your Arse up from under your seat where it fell out during landing’ 😱😱😱

In 1978 when I was 18 and flying back from Australia there was a bird strike which knocked out one of the engines.

We had just taken off from Bahrain 20 minutes earlier and had to return there where we stayed for 2 days while a new engine was fitted

Yes in New York when they couldn’t be certain the landing gear was locked into place.

The pilot was excellent, very calm. The cabin crew were fucking shit. They hadn’t a clue what to do and shouted ‘brace brace’ about five seconds after we hit the ground.
They were honestly crap at their jobs and evidently shitting themselves.

A lovely Chinese student had an interest in airlines and told me how the plane would land - hard/fast at the edge of the runway etc for fire safety.

Yes twice, travelling from Greece back to UK and there was a fire in the cockpit so ended up circling to dump,fuel in the sea before an emergency landing in Brindisi airport. As we hit the runway we were,chased down the runway by fire engines and ambulances.

Second time, flying from Sardinia to UK and mid way through flight,cabin dropped several thousand feet as cabin partially depressurised. Oxygen masks dropped down, and as we came into land we had to go into brace position. Again fire engines chased us down the runway.

That sounds like a compressor stall. It’s something pilots are highly trained for but I’m sure I’d shit my knicks if it happened to me.

Had an aborted take many, many years ago. Apparently it was due to a warning light coming on in the cockpit which they fixed. Apparently.

Had flaps freeze on one flight and wouldn’t extend. We circled for ages at low altitude while the pilots ran through checklists and decided whether to return to the warmer origin, or make a fast landing without flaps. They opted for the latter. We also had emergency vehicles chasing us down the runway. We’d been travelling for close to 24 hours by this point (previous flight delayed resulting in us missing our connection and having to wait 5 hours until the next one) and the icing on the cake was having to wait forever for our bags because one of the baggage handlers slipped on ice and injured themselves - hopefully not seriously.

Yes, as we were approaching our destination airport on a night flight. There was a large storm, which we clearly got too close to. I remember watching the storm get closer and closer - it was spectacular/ominous/scary. The plane was struck by lightning - I was looking out the window at the time and seeing the huge flash, hearing a very loud bang, all the lights going out and people screaming will stay with me forever!!!! I was terrified (not a great flyer to begin with). Was on a business trip with my boss, and I ended up cuddling up on his shoulder with fear, near on hyperventilating 🙃🤣 the pilot made an announcement a minute or two later stating we had been hit (no shit, Sherlock) and will land as soon as possible (obviously got bumped up on the landing list). When we landed somewhere away from the terminal, there were fire engines and we weren’t allowed off the aircraft for a while. I remember being soooo thankful we were all ok, and being DESPERATE for a wee. The bus ride to the terminal from whichever emergency bay we were in was agony 🤣

And like others, also an aborted landing. The pilot announced “whoops, got that wrong. Let’s try again” a minute or two after making the decision - which was funny (once my stomach settled back down!!).

Been diverted - that was interesting. Car was in a different location, and we weren’t given any info. Just landed at Stansted instead of Gatwick.

Had an aborted landing last December. Pilot shot straight back up with ‘the pilot has terminated the landing’ no shit we realised. Tried another time. Successful landing on third attempt. I hate flying.

Engine failure resulted in a switch off - spent an hour burning up fuel before returning to where we started, with fire engines alongside. Amazingly it cured my fear of flying!

I was on a plane that was trying to avoid going through or over the 2013 tornado that took out most of Moore, Oklahoma on the way from Chicago to Dallas. It was terrifying, but the pilots were magnificent. The sky was purple, it was extraordinary. Took me a while to stop shaking after we’d landed and then I had to drive an hour or so home from DFW airport!

Wow so many amazing stories on this thread. I’ve never had to have an emergency landing thankfully, though in a funny way these stories are making me feel less scared as you all obviously survived 😊

I’ve had the emergency chute landing! There was an engine fire and we had to land at a different airport. The crew were amazing - completely calm and professional. I was first to go down the chute: shoe in each hand, arms crossed over chest, step forward , go. Quite an experience but never really in any danger.

A delayed landing, rather than an emergency one, where we flew around the airport for an extra 45 minutes - this uses up the fuel which would likely ignite during a crash. When we landed we were asked to go into the crash position (head down into laps). Landing was actually OK. We never found out what the problem was and aircrew weren't forthcoming.

Oh yeah, also been struck by lightning. Those with headphones on and not looking out of the window had no idea.
saw and heard it. About one minute later, one of the pilots came on the intercom and said there was a lightning strike “in the vicinity of the aircraft “. Considering we were in the air, I don’t know what else it could have struck close by.
I was in a raised wing aircraft and saw the lightning kind of crawl over the engine disappear off the back. The woman in the seat in front of me just looked at me. We stared at each other in silence 😂

thank you so much @SwordToFlamethrower

A bomb scare, when I was nine, on a flight from Qatar to Heathrow. I was one of loads of unaccompanied minors.

All we were told was that we were landing in Turkey - the only sense of urgency was when we were on the ground and told to leave our belongings and get to the exit, when we jumped down the chute. Then, in the airport terminal, we were told it was a bomb scare.

We were put in a hotel overnight. I shared with another UM of about the same age, who had been sitting next to me on the flight. Then, the next morning, the captain took any UMs who were interested on a quick tour of the nearby area.

BA were very good at letting my relatives know as early as possible. I suppose that is much easier now, 40 years later.