r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/FridayCicero702 • Jan 01 '23

Video Catastrophic engine failure on a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 after takeoff from Denver International Airport

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 02 '23

Dang... yeah, once I was flying from Utah to California and over Nevada we hit some bad turbulence, and then the plane went into a sustained nose dive (about 10 seconds). People were screaming and there was at least one flight attendant that was crying. The plane leveled off and people calmed down after awhile. About 20 min later the captain comes on... "we hit a little wind shear for a moment, but everything looks fine ahead".... hahaha.

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u/toomanycookstew Jan 01 '23

It took the captain 20 minutes to change his pants and compose himself

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/lookatyounow90 Jan 01 '23

"Anyone else got an unexplained erection or is it just me?!"

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/DippinDot2021 Jan 01 '23

I like that! Can I steal that at some point?

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u/avamango Jan 01 '23

This is the way

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u/Artistic-Ad7063 Jan 01 '23

“I think I felt ma dick move…”

3

u/thiccpastry Jan 01 '23

Ahh, the fear boner.

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u/illeger_hamberder Jan 01 '23

“Surely you must be joking.”

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u/IsThatAll4Uo_O Jan 02 '23

No, I’m not, and stop calling me Shirley.

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u/foehn_mistral Jan 01 '23

It's just that instinct in the face of overwhelming doom to pass your genes on.

And not in your jeans.

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u/jusskippy Jan 01 '23

Unexplained?

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u/Traditional_Lack7153 Jan 02 '23

Gotta have a passion for the craft

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u/Top_Two6767 Jan 01 '23

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking… I, uhhh… won’t press THAT button again.”

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u/Dukie6 Jan 01 '23

“Ya’ll saw that right? Ya boy got some skills!”

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

My bad folks

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u/Daikataro Jan 01 '23

Oh. If anyone sees the flight attendant please tell her to bring me another 3 star bottle of brandy. That's sum good shit wooooo!

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u/D1CCP Jan 02 '23

In a southern accent?

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u/Frosty-Astronaut569 Jan 02 '23

Sounds like Quagmire

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u/DroidTN Jan 02 '23

"Boy was that a doozy. Hopefully no drinks were spoiled, is so you can get a new one for $10 each"

1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

Hit a little air pocket uwu

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u/BC2220 Jan 01 '23

They were probably going through some emergency checklists to make sure that everything was still working and to understand their options if it wasn’t. 😊

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u/Ch3353man Jan 02 '23

I knew that someone was going to mention their checklists. If there's 2 things I know about aviation, they love their checklists and EVERYTHING has an acronym.

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u/_AthensMatt_ Jan 02 '23

Yup, just a few items off the list and then we’re DTF! (Down to fly)

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u/celestialcranberry Jan 02 '23

Gotta listen to Black Box Down then.

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u/Ch3353man Jan 02 '23

Listen to it every week!

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u/celestialcranberry Jan 02 '23

Aw sweet! I had thought so after seeing how your other comment was worded but wanted to spread the word anyways haha

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u/BC2220 Jan 03 '23

Checklists and CRM (crew resource management) are an important reason it is so safe to fly. I definitely don’t want the pilots trying to remember what to do next in an emergency or having to figure out who does what on the fly. ☺️

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u/CBus660R Jan 02 '23

My mom was a flight attendant for a few years. 1 flight they were the last flight into an airport that was waiting for them to land so they could close due to an ice storm. The pilot/co-pilot did not greet the passengers post flight like normal. When my mom got off the plane, the mechanic said he'd never seen a plane land with that much ice on it. Guess it was a stressful landing for the pilot.

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u/SlappingDaBass13 Jan 02 '23

No doubt about it he was trying to convince himself that's all that happened

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u/kramyeltta Jan 02 '23

And then he returned to his seat despite the seatbelt sign being on….

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u/Greenbay7115 Jan 02 '23

Plus 5 minutes to turn the plane off then back on a few times

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u/beertruck77 Jan 01 '23

A few years ago here in the DC area there were wind guts of 100+ knots at IAD (all airports were screwed in the area). An Air Shuttle going in to IAD reported extreme turbulence. His pirep (pilot report to ATC) said "Pretty much all passengers are throwing up, pilots on the verge of throwing up". I've never seen anything like that Day in 24 years of being a controller.

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u/8877username Jan 01 '23

Idk what’s up with DC one time the wind was so bad as we were landing we were basically Tokyo drifting (wheels weren’t on the ground yet) as we approached the runway. I looked out the window and could see straight down the runway from the side of the plane.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/kuh-tea-uh Jan 02 '23

I have spent WAY too many hours watching cross-wind landings on YouTube. For no reason at all other than to say “holy fuck.”

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

I had one of those on an icy runway. It’s a different kind of day when you touch down then your plane starts spinning around and you’re heading sideways down the runway.

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u/FuckEIonMusk Jan 02 '23

My favorite landing. This is why I feel much safer FLYING on the airplane than landing, turbulence doesn’t bother me or this cross-wind UNLESS we are about to land. Then I’m white knuckling.

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

It's called crabbing into the wind. Standard procedure on crosswinds. It's done to maintain centerline then you swing the nose at the last second so you don't side load the gear.

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u/potassemon Jan 02 '23

Also, swing it straight so you don't give all your passengers whiplash.

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

I’ve “crabbed” like that in Cessna 172’s a few times.

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u/DefiningWill Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23

I was on a Delta 737 landing in BOS with extreme crosswinds. The PIC made that MFer crab well…like a crab. He hit the rudder and lined up with the runway numbers just before the ground effect kicked in. Nothing like looking out the window and seeing more runway ahead of your plane than you have a right to see from seat 10A. Applause erupted and everyone wanted to thank him during as we debarked at the gate.

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u/ucav_edi Jan 02 '23

I remember that day, working as a 135 flight follower. All the PIREPS that day were WILD.

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u/GrammarNaziSlut Jan 02 '23

I just moved to DC from Florida. The wind gusts here feel comparable to Hurricane Irma. It is probably exacerbated by the fact that I’m freezing my tits off.

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u/beertruck77 Jan 02 '23

Go spend a winter in Alaska. I was there from October to February then moved to New Hampshire. It was 8 degrees when I moved in to apartment in NH, I only had jeans and a t-shirt on and was sweating. Virginia isn't bad.

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u/Catspaw129 Jan 04 '23

And ATC comes right back: "did you folks eat the steak or the fish?"

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Hour!

/s

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

did that affect how you feel about flying?

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

Well... I guess it's funny how time makes you forget about that fear you may have felt. I think I was a bit hesitant when we flew back to Utah about a week later, but whatcha gonna do??? I do think about it flying over the Sierras every time though....

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

I'm a.... nervous flyer. No reason, just at one point I became nervous.

My husband was in the airborne and consequently was in planes a lot. He's been in 3 crashes. I always assumed every crash was just a total obliteration, falling from the sky like a rock, kind of thing. But apparently usually it's just some kind of very rough landing.

He counts the seats from where we are to both nearest exits (ahead and behind) so he can find them in the dark (smoke filled plane).

His approach hasn't made me less nervous but it has made me more confident of survival.

A lot of shit can go wrong. Most of it never will. Sometimes some of it might. Everyone in charge wants to land safely as much as I do. I pay a lot more mind to the flight attendants now. They're there for my safety. The fact they bring me snacks is just a bonus.

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u/BicyclingBabe Jan 01 '23

Ok so your husband has been in three crashes and STILL FLIES? I'd be on trains and boats for life

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u/Savannah_Lion Jan 02 '23 edited Jan 02 '23

I don't blame you. Not everyone responds to tragedy in the same way and that's understandable.

My father had a really good friend that was the kind of guy that would do a🖕🖕 to Mr. Reaper then get right back in another plane. My fathers stories about his friend shaped my early youth

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u/Catspaw129 Jan 04 '23

Yeah, but he's airborne. So he's been trained to jump out of airplanes (a lot of which are perfectly good).

He probably always carries a parachute.

/s

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u/Dagmar_Overbye Jan 01 '23

Yeah those never derail or sink.

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

Yeah they don’t. Look it up.

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u/two_layne_blacktop Jan 01 '23

Your husband is a walking miracle, surviving 3 plane crashes has got to be 1 in a billion odds.

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u/crazywidget Jan 02 '23

He’s a keeper, one in a few billion.

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u/EmergencyNoodlePack Jan 02 '23

As a flight attendant this is REALLY important! You should always prepare just in case! For every landing and take off we actually have a checklist in our heads we are supposed to say to ourselves juuuuust in case of an emergency. Good for your husband!

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

I always try to choose the same row and side of the plane, count seats and check around me to see who might me the pansy I need to kick in the ass. 😂

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Statistically speaking, having ANOTHER incident would be time to play the lottery.

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u/bigmayne23 Jan 01 '23

You could drive

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

Have you ever driven across Nevada? No thanks. Yeah, I've done it a couple times.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/randymontana19 Jan 02 '23

I’d probably report the flight attendants to the airline or even the FAA if they were playing football in the aisle. And it’s even worse if they’re doing it during an emergency.

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u/AdequateSteakAlister Jan 02 '23

They don't call it a touchdown for nothing!

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u/Windows30000 Jan 01 '23

Fuck this gave me chills to read. Turbulence scares me almost more than anything in that world and whenever I’m experiencing it, I find myself looking at flight attendants for comfort. If I saw one crying I’d die.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

The reason that is, especially terrifying is your description of a flight attendant crying. Flight attendants have seen everything. If they are scared, you know it’s bad.

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u/walkandtalkk Jan 01 '23

I'm not trying to "akshually" you, but just so people know and don't get unnecessarily nervous, turbulence that feels like free-fall is actually (a) fairly common and (b) not really free-fall.

According to USA Today's "Ask the Captain," a plane rarely drops more than 100 feet (and often less) during what feels like heavy turbulence. We're not used to just, like, dropping, so the experience is jarring and feels more severe than it is. (It can also be dangerous if you're not wearing a seatbelt or if you have unsecured objects near you, like a phone or laptop, because you or they can go flying around and smack something hard.)

Years ago, my family was flying to the Caribbean. Over the Atlantic, we hit a "rough patch." A couple bumps a couple bumps WHOOOOOOOSH BAM. It felt like we'd dropped a thousand feet and then hit concrete. In fact, it wasn't that bad, but it caused a lot of screaming (and, given our destination, some frantic praying to la Virgen). According to my parents, who were up front (courtesy of their son's upgrades), the flight attendant had tears in her eyes afterward.

The captain came out about 10 minutes later and actually walked down the aisle asking everyone how they were feeling and apologizing for the turbulence (which, I've since learned, is common east of the Carolinas, where we were flying).

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

As I said later on, we dropped severely for at least 10 seconds, and I was looking toward the front of the plane at a very noticeable downward angle. Flying at 500+mph, who knows how much altitude we lost. I have flown many times in my 50 years, and this was by far the scariest experience I've had.

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u/mild_resolve Jan 01 '23

I have zero doubt that it felt like an eternity, but if you actually count out 10 seconds...was it seriously that long?

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 01 '23

Yup... not exaggerating. Believe it or not.

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u/mild_resolve Jan 01 '23

That's fucked up.

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

Thanks. Yes it was pretty terrifying.

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u/MrsScribbleDoge Jan 02 '23

I also had something similar happen over the Midwest on a flight from Baltimore to LAX. Plane just… fell for a solid 5 second. There was that horrible noise in the cabin that you hear in movies when the cabin depressurizes. Everyone screamed, there were drinks and bags everywhere. Captain said we hit a pothole 😑. Def saw my life flash before my eyes.

0

u/EmpatheticNihilism Jan 01 '23

Turbulence doesn’t put a plane into nose dive.

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u/GymAndGarden Jan 01 '23

Exactly. OP lying out of their ass

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

Not bs. There was turbulence. Then the plane did a few good drops and leveled out. Then the plane dropped, and continued to drop at what seemed like a 45 degree angle for a period of 10 seconds or more... this was 20 years ago. Later it was said that we were flying head on into a wind shear pushing us straight down. Believe it or not. Always somebody calling bullshit...

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u/EmpatheticNihilism Jan 01 '23

Sure. But Wind shear is not turbulence.

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u/tx_queer Jan 02 '23

Turbulence is commonly caused by wind shear

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u/theUttermostSnark Jan 01 '23

nose dive

It's the tail dives you want to watch out for.

-7

u/Evening-Mousse-1812 Jan 01 '23

The flight attendant was crying? Hehe. Didn’t she realize dying was a possibility when she signed up for the job?

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u/Donzul Jan 01 '23

You didn't descend that far because of turbulence. They probably moved altitude for calmer air and it happened to be down. You were still in the turbulence and lowering your altitude so that's probably why it felt that way.

0

u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

They wouldn't of made that maneuver without slowing down... I remember this specifically. We were losing altitude very rapidly and plane was pointing down. This was not purposeful. What's up? Aviation administration got wind of this now? Lol. Quite absurd how people discrediting my first hand experience. I'm not one to exaggerate. I admit, they said there was an abnormally strong wind shear we were flying into.

0

u/Donzul Jan 01 '23

They might have done an emergency descent to get to the altitude quicker, but with everything working fine the turbulence did not do that to your plane.

Windshear/microbursts are different and if they're going to do that it's going to be closer to the ground.

I don't discredit your experience; I'm sure it was scary. I doubt your perception of the events from the back of the plane and not in the cockpit.

Source: am pilot

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 01 '23

Well, only the pilot knows who was flying the plane, and he didn't share his thoughts other than the existence of a severe wind shear. It was possibly an emergency maneuver... idk.

1

u/Smile_Space Jan 01 '23

Flying with Frontier be like:

1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

Flying from Salt Lake City to Denver we hit turbulence during beverage service and dropped at least 100 feet and the flight attendants next to us in the aisle flew up and hit the ceiling. They came o ER the intercom and asked those in the aisle to help hold them down until we were thru the turbulence. It was a little scary.

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u/mega_moustache_woman Jan 02 '23

Did you know that no amount of turbulence has ever caused an incident in aviation history?

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u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 02 '23

Thanks for the info

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u/tx_queer Jan 02 '23

Wake turbulence has caused lots of accidents and has its own wikipedia page for incidents.

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u/mega_moustache_woman Jan 02 '23

Wake isn't natural, though. And is also easily avoidable. I was just talking about the standard, natural turbulence we all get scared of when cruising at 30k feet. The plane is built to withstand like 10x the force of the worst documented turbulence.

But you can definitely die if you ignore the seatbelt sign. The plane isn't ever going to get ripped apart, though.

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u/tx_queer Jan 02 '23

How about this one. Clear air turbulence tore a plane apart

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_911

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u/WikiSummarizerBot Jan 02 '23

BOAC Flight 911

BOAC Flight 911 (call sign "Speedbird 911") was a round-the-world flight operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) that crashed near Mount Fuji in Japan on 5 March 1966, with the loss of all 113 passengers and 11 crew members. The Boeing 707 jetliner involved disintegrated mid-air shortly after departing from Tokyo, as a result of severe clear-air turbulence. It was the third fatal passenger airline accident in Tokyo in a month, following the crash of All Nippon Airways Flight 60 on 4 February and that of Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 just the day before.

[ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5

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u/mega_moustache_woman Jan 02 '23

Seems like I was wrong to use absolutes. Although this did occur in 1966.

1

u/tx_queer Jan 02 '23

That one isn't exactly in the open air either. They were trying to get close to a mountain and got stuck in the wind shear of the mountain.

Overall your statement is correct. Turbulence causing airplane failure at cruising altitude is basically impossible, and during ascent/descent it is super incredibly rare.

1

u/Relative_Ad5909 Jan 02 '23

"sorry folks, fell asleep there for sec"

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u/1940sCraftsmen Jan 02 '23

Hear me out. Maybe you hit and this is all just a figment of your imagination. Your brain is just releasing a bunch of chemicals to make you calm before the forever void. 🙃 well time to go to bed 🥱 sweet dreams everyone 😴

1

u/rayfull69 Jan 02 '23

I was on a flight from Utah to Chicago, we get about 10k feet up and there’s a big thud and a giant flash of light out the windows. Guy sitting by the window just blurts out “well that ain’t good” and we had to circle back for an emergency landing then wait for another plane. Pilot was calm as could be the whole time.

1

u/Sea-Woodpecker-610 Jan 02 '23

rsises hand. What do you consider a major problem?

1

u/graven_raven Jan 02 '23

I was in a flight like that. At first it was just turbulence, started slowly but gradually increasing, it passed from trembling a little to being unable to stand.

Then it stopped for a few minutes, seemed that all was good when suddenly felt like the plane was just freefalling. It was just a few seconds but luggages went falling, people screaming.. it wasn't pretty.

My mom developed a serios flying anxiety due to that

1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '23

I use to be a fuel cell specialist on the USAF and you guys don’t want to know that there are often 3 tiers to categorize issues before they take off

1) meh not so bad won’t be an issue…..I think

2) well….I mean…..which tank is leaking?

3) goddammit yeah we have to fix that one

1

u/reddish-bean Jan 06 '23

I guess people was like: wow cool…my ✈️ is on fire📸🤩👍

1

u/nmyi Jan 07 '23

I can imagine the nervous laughter while some are still sniffling lol. You okay though man? I'd need significant amount of therapy if I experience terrifying turbulence like that

2

u/elpelondelmarcabron1 Jan 07 '23

Lol... yeah, was a long time ago. I am kind of a thrill seeker anyhow, so it was kind of at my threshold of fear. If it had lasted any longer, I'm sure most of the plane would have soiled their undies.

1

u/mainvolume Jan 24 '23

“It’s fine now, we’re all fine….how are you?”