No doubt! I don’t think I’ve been on a commercial flight where they haven’t applied power on final. I went for my private too. That theory may work for a Cessna 172, but not very practicle for a 737.
The British Airways 777 that landed short at Heathrow a few weeks ago was trying to do just that. Unfortunately, nothing more came out, and the plane only made it to the runway after first coming down on the grass a few hundred feet earlier.
They haven’t released a report on that one yet, but they’re looking at freezup in the fuel supply.
Try flying into Reagan National sometime. If you’re coming in from the north and the pilot decided to put some more power into it after the final turn, you’d end up somewhere in the Jefferson Memorial, I think. I know they apply power further up near the Chain Bridge, Georgetown, Key Bridge, and Roosevelt Bridge for the turns, but once they get to George Mason Bridge they go idle so they can drop in. Its even more fun for that approach if you’re coming from the south. There’s a bonus 180 degree turn in there, and they roll right up on their side. Its a blast. They warned everyone, but there were still women and children (and some guys) screaming when that MD-80 started flying like it was an aerobatic plane.
Heck, the last 1000 feet or so of the River Visual look like what that Hamburg flight did [angel]
I think last Friday they did. At least it was a prelim one. Their findings where a bunch of trash, actual trash, was left in the fuel tanks during their last inspection and the fuel pumps all got clogged up, which lead to the appearance of fuel exhaustion. I could be way off though, my memory is hazy.
HOLY [censored] That was a hell of a save.
But a train can derail… I dont know which one would be worse a plane crash or going for a barrel roll off the tracks.
Passenger cars don’t have big fuel tanks mounted in their wings and bellies. I’ll take the barrel roll in the train.[:D]
Ya me to!
At least if a train ran out of fuel it is already on the ground. Not being able to land because of cross winds and running out of fuel is noooooooooooot a good idea.
Or this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2-DdwWPbQM&feature=related
I mean, it’s not like the Southwest Chief is going to drop out of the sky and land on innocent spectators, right? [:D]
-Brandon