TRANS Dash-8 Belly lands at Newark

Terrified passengers escape alive as US Airways flight makes belly landing at Newark airport after landing gear failed
By Katie Davies


A US Airways flight with 34 people aboard was forced to make a dramatic belly landing at Newark International Airport last night.
Terrified passengers managed to escape the plane unharmed after the plane's pilot - named by witnesses as Edward Powers - performed a heroic emergency landing.

Video footage of the turboprop twin-engine plane coming down on the runway showed a dramatic shower of sparks flying from its underbelly as it scraped across the tarmac - however, miraculously no fire was started.

Emergency workers on the ground doused the plane in foam as a precaution but it became clear that the actions of the quick-thinking pilot had saved US Airways Express Flight 4560.

Problems emerged as the Dash 8-100 plane operated by Piedmont Airlines, which was carrying 31 passengers and three crew members, came in to Newark around 1am having left Philadelphia two hours earlier.
Mr Powers was unable to fully lower the plane's landing gear.

Circling in the air several times the pilot repeatedly tried to lower the gear but to no avail.
He then realized it would be necessary to raise the gear completely and make a belly landing which would give the plane a good chance to come down safely and lower its chances of veering off the runway.

He then continued to circle - using up fuel to lower the risk of a fire.
On their safe arrival the passengers were evacuated to the terminal by bus.
The relieved pilot and his two crew members posed for a picture alongside the foam covered aircraft.

A spokesman for US Airways said they are cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board which is investigating the incident.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326538/Terrified-passengers-escape-alive-US-Airways-flight-makes-belly-landing-Newark-airport-landing-gear-failed.html



I guess they didn't want to try the other emergency gear deployment method.

Millwright said:

the plane's pilot - named by witnesses as Edward Powers - performed a heroic emergency landing

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Nothing heroic about it. That's what they get paid for.

bw said:

Nothing heroic about it. That's what they get paid for.

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A 'hero' is one who is not currently in danger and who risks him/herself in the process of saving someone else. If you jump into the water to save a drowning victim your a hero. When it comes to in flight emergencies the captain's chestnuts are in the fire the same as everyone else, if he fails then he dies as well.

Generally speaking gear up landings are usually an anti-climax. Jack the plane up, drop the gear and tow it into the hanger for some work. You just don't want to dig a wingtip in when you settle down to the runway. That would have an unfortunate result.

Having a smooth runway REALLY helps..........wheels or not.

bw said:

Nothing heroic about it. That's what they get paid for.

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Are you a pilot or one of those so called aviation experts?

dash8200 said:

Are you a pilot or one of those so called aviation experts?

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Neither. If you're a pilot, you may have read a letter I wrote to a newspaper regarding crews and heroism following the Sioux City crash. I'm told it was posted on crew-area bulletin boards around the world.

BW and Hfcomms,

So then in your opinions, should Shane Osborn give back his DFC then for the Hainan Island incident?

I'm not asking this as a "flame", just to fully understand your positions.

Housecarl

Housecarl said:

should Shane Osborn give back his DFC then for the Hainan Island incident?

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No.

Housecarl said:

BW and Hfcomms,

So then in your opinions, should Shane Osborn give back his DFC then for the Hainan Island incident?

I'm not asking this as a "flame", just to fully understand your positions.

Housecarl

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Of course not. But was his neck on the line like everyone else in the plane? A captain at the top of his game who saves his crew and passengers is saving his own neck at the time as well. Nothing heroic about it. Do the job or die trying. Someone who is safe and runs into a burning house to save someone else is a hero. He was safe and didn't have to risk his life, but he did. That is a hero. A captain who saves his plane and crew did his job. That doesn't diminish his skill and courage under extreme duress. Captain Sullenberger who ditched his plane into the Hudson with no loss of life didn't consider himself a hero for these very reasons. That doesn't take away from a performance of a lifetime.

Hfcomms said:

Of course not. But was his neck on the line like everyone else in the plane? A captain at the top of his game who saves his crew and passengers is saving his own neck at the time as well. Nothing heroic about it. Do the job or die trying. Someone who is safe and runs into a burning house to save someone else is a hero. He was safe and didn't have to risk his life, but he did. That is a hero. A captain who saves his plane and crew did his job. That doesn't diminish his skill and courage under extreme duress. Captain Sullenberger who ditched his plane into the Hudson with no loss of life didn't consider himself a hero for these very reasons. That doesn't take away from a performance of a lifetime.

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OK.


I can buy this line of thought.
Been a couple places where all I did was what I signed on for and trained for and had to disabuse a number of folks REALLY EARLY that the "H" word never qualified....(and I might hurt the next misuser of the term.....stopped it before it got out of the immediate area...)

Though I AM prone to mis-using it on other people

Thanks guys for the replies.

Hfcomms said:

A captain at the top of his game who saves his crew and passengers is saving his own neck at the time as well. Nothing heroic about it. Do the job or die trying. Someone who is safe and runs into a burning house to save someone else is a hero. He was safe and didn't have to risk his life, but he did. That is a hero. A captain who saves his plane and crew did his job. That doesn't diminish his skill and courage under extreme duress. Captain Sullenberger who ditched his plane into the Hudson with no loss of life didn't consider himself a hero for these very reasons. That doesn't take away from a performance of a lifetime.

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Well stated.

The Dash-8 is a very rugged aircraft. Once, while enroute from BWI to PHF, we lost an engine during climbout. We went from an estimated 1,500 fpm climb rate to a gentler 500 fpm climb rate. We circled off of the inner harbor (dumping fuel?) until we were cleared back into BWI on a side runway. Not many people even noticed, but I did get some attention when I asked the flight attendant why they decided to feather number one while still on climbout and about 15 degrees of flaps. Number one went dead after a loud pop and some light smoke wafted through the cabin. The flight attendant explained that they ferry the Dash-8's on one engine frequently and it was no big deal. Our flight was lightly loaded - about half full. They detoured a Dash-7 that was scheduled for a DCO-ORF flight into BWI to pick us up. The passengers were not very excited about the delay, and even less so when they discovered that they would have to land at PHF to drop us off before taking off across the river to ORF!
This was on US Air Express, back about 1991.

bw said:

Neither. If you're a pilot, you may have read a letter I wrote to a newspaper regarding crews and heroism following the Sioux City crash. I'm told it was posted on crew-area bulletin boards around the world.

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Yes i am a pilot. I am Captain with a major airline. I have over 20,000 hrs total time, I have over 16,000 hrs Pilot in Command time, 5 type ratings and four check airman letters. So let me ask you. Are/were you a United employee or employee of another airline as to reference United 232? Were you a gate agent, flight attendant, mechanic, dispatcher, supervisor?
Let's see when the time comes that you can draw on your vast experience to guide an aircraft, 150 to 500 guests or 150,000lb to a 900,000lb machine in three dimensional space or possibly a bus or train full of people or your car with your family in it to a safe conclusion, then try and tell me it's not heroic. We do train for issues, we do not want or hope for these issues none of us do. But we all deal with issues as they arise, some better than others.

dash8200 said:

Yes i am a pilot. I am Captain with a major airline. I have over 20,000 hrs total time, I have over 16,000 hrs Pilot in Command time, 5 type ratings and four check airman letters. So let me ask you. Are/were you a United employee or employee of another airline as to reference United 232? Were you a gate agent, flight attendant, mechanic, dispatcher, supervisor?
Let's see when the time comes that you can draw on your vast experience to guide an aircraft, 150 to 500 guests or 150,000lb to a 900,000lb machine in three dimensional space or possibly a bus or train full of people or your car with your family in it to a safe conclusion, then try and tell me it's not heroic. We do train for issues, we do not want or hope for these issues none of us do. But we all deal with issues as they arise, some better than others.

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I would posit that doing anything that's part of your job description, however rare, precludes the title of "Hero". Performing such actions might be described as "heroic", yet still not warrant the label. The alternative would be to suggest that the training somehow automatically *makes* you a hero, since the training implies the ability to perform the action at any time and therefore it is the ability that confers the label. That to me smacks of incredible arrogance. Top-flight surgeons literally hold peoples' lives in their hands on a daily basis, because that's what they're trained to do. No one, not even themselves, goes around calling them heroes, yet every surgery is different, involving all kinds of unexpected variables that mean that each one is a first-time event. A gear-up landing is a legitimate possibility for an aircraft, and not even all that exotic a situation. Successfully performing one just means you did what you were trained to do, whether your cargo is 500 passengers, or 500 crates of rubber dogshit being flown out of Hong Kong.

dash8200 said:

Yes i am a pilot. I am Captain with a major airline. I have over 20,000 hrs total time, I have over 16,000 hrs Pilot in Command time, 5 type ratings and four check airman letters. So let me ask you. Are/were you a United employee or employee of another airline as to reference United 232? Were you a gate agent, flight attendant, mechanic, dispatcher, supervisor?

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None of the above.

Let's see when the time comes that you can draw on your vast experience to guide an aircraft, 150 to 500 guests or 150,000lb to a 900,000lb machine in three dimensional space or possibly a bus or train full of people or your car with your family in it to a safe conclusion, then try and tell me it's not heroic.

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Those I consider heroic never label themselves that way, as you have done.

I AGREE...He is not a hero. But he is a damned good pilot!! And I applaud him.

plural he·roes
Definition of HERO
1a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b : an illustrious warrior c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d : one who shows great courage

2a : the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work b : the central figure in an event, period, or movement

3plural usually he·ros : submarine 2

4: an object of extreme admiration and devotion : idol

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It seems to me that being a "hero" is more a function of the observer.

ETA: So many clueless dolts place musicians, reality TV stars and politicians in the category of "hero".

I am OK with someone like this pilot being called a hero in a news story, his actions are more noble than many others that are put on a pedestal by the public.



Should someone try designate themselves a hero......that would show they are a zero.