Deadstick landing
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A deadstick landing, also called a dead-stick landing, is a type of
precautionary landing
.
All
Boeing 747-200
can glide for 150 kilometres (93 mi; 81 nmi) from a cruising altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 ft). After a loss of power, the pilot’s goal is to maintain a safe airspeed and fly the descending aircraft to the most suitable landing spot within gliding distance, then land with the least amount of damage possible. The area open for potential landing sites depends on the original altitude, local terrain, the engine-out gliding capabilities of the aircraft, original airspeed and winds at various altitudes. Part of learning to fly a fixed-wing aircraft is demonstrating the ability to fly safely without an engine until prepared to make (or actually making) a landing. Gliders, unless they have an auxiliary motor, do all their flying without power, and trained pilots can touch down on virtually any spot they pick from the air.
The success of the deadstick landing largely depends on the availability of suitable landing areas. A competent
pilot
gliding a relatively light, slow plane to a flat field or runway should result in an otherwise normal landing, since the maneuver is not especially difficult, requiring only strict attention and good judgement concerning speed and height. A heavier, faster aircraft or a plane gliding into mountains or trees could result in substantial damage.
With
autorotation
, since the helicopter glides by allowing its rotor to spin freely during the descent thus generating lift.
Single engine failure
When a single engine aircraft suffers an
engine failure
, it must do a dead-stick landing. A danger comes from the pilot subsequently allowing a critical loss of airspeed, which will result in excessively fast loss of altitude and, when poorly handled, loss of control. The instinct to "stretch the glide" by pulling the nose up beyond its optimum point will simply make the aircraft sink faster.
Should the engine power be lost shortly after takeoff, the pilot(s) must evaluate their options: attempting a low-altitude turn back to the airport might be dangerous. This "impossible turn" has killed many pilots because it very likely will result in a crash whereas a landing straight ahead (or within a few degrees of the initial flight path) would be survivable.[2]
Deadstick landings of passenger aircraft
There have been several well-known instances of large jet airliners successfully executing a deadstick landing.
- Neva River.
- The "Gimli Glider", 23 July 1983: An Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel en route from Montreal to Edmonton. The plane had insufficient glide range to complete a diversion to Winnipeg, but the crew managed to make a successful dead-stick landing at a former airfield at Gimli (now the Interlake Dragway),[3] where a drag racing event was underway on what had been the runway.
- Michoudarea of eastern New Orleans.
- McDonnell Douglas MD-81were destroyed by ice on the wings which was sucked into the engines. It crash-landed tail-first on a frozen field with trees; everyone on board survived.
- Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378, 12 July 2000: An Airbus A310 en route from Crete to Hanover experienced a landing gear problem and subsequent fuel depletion, resulting in a deadstick landing in Vienna.
- Air Transat Flight 236, 24 August 2001: An Air Transat Airbus A330 ran out of fuel while flying across the North Atlantic, from Toronto to Lisbon. The crew glided the aircraft over 121 kilometres (75 mi) and made a deadstick landing at a military air base in the Azores.
- Hudson River adjacent to Manhattanwith no loss of human life.
- Ural Airlines Flight 178, 15 August 2019, an Airbus A321 en route from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol suffered a bird strike shortly after takeoff and landed in a cornfield 5 kilometres from the airport.
- Airbus A320-214 en route from Sochi to Omsk suffered a hydraulic failure affecting the brakes. The aircraft diverted to Novosibirskwhich had a longer runway. The aircraft ran out of fuel and landed in a corn field. It was initially expected that the aircraft would take off from the field, however it was later decided to dismantle the aircraft.
See also
- Emergency landing
- Hard landing
- Space Shuttle
- Gliding (flight)
- List of airline flights that required gliding
References
- ^ LeCompte, Tom (January 1, 2010). "Deadstick Landings". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on March 28, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
- ^ Engine Failure on Climbout Leads to Impossible Turn LAX07LA022
- ^ "InterlakeDragway.org".