Originally Posted by
GoldCircle
I enjoyed a wingstrike a few years ago on a horribly windy day - just a grumbling sound for a fraction of a second and it was all over. And again, silence on board.
I was certain on an HP flight on a very hot and windy day in LAS that we were going to have a wingstrike - sitting in the exit row and looking at the ground / wing, I still don't know how it was averted. That was a silence moment.
There was the emergency landing ("unscheduled maintenance stop" according to the pilot) in MCI on a TWA (during AA changeover) in 2001 due to a fire in an engine on an MD-80. There was some talk among PAX during this event.
Not my experience and this was a cargo flight, but imagine what you would be thinking as a PAX looking out the window here:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nippo...SCD/0223248/M/
Apparently, the pilots managed to pull this landing off with blown tires and damage to the No 4 engine pod.