Originally Posted by
Spider777
Thanks cyborg.. Glad y ou were ok on your flight.. yeah i guess the engine takes the majority of the screeching down the runway after landing.. Still amazed that the wing never touches the runway..Aren't the engines made to break off during impacts like that?
No, they're not. They are designed to break away if they encounter extreme stress encounters, like during a seized engine that is blowing itself apart, something along those lines. Sliding down a runway wouldn't introduce those stresses.
Looks like the pilots did a great job overall. It's why hopefully people choose to fly United, not the cheap fares but well trained professional pilots when things do happen to go wrong.
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Originally Posted by
Spider777
Just curious if anyone knows, how did the airbus land with only one half of the rear gear extended.. Wouldn't the weight shift during landing and draw the plane to the side without the fully deployed gear... I'm shocked the side of the plane never touched the runway causing a huge stream of sparks or anything..
Planes are made soo amazingly that it's great pilots are able to land them safely.
Ironic this happened on the day Sully's flight television special is going to air on TLC ..
It seems they had a malfunction that wouldn't let the right side come down, even with manual extension. You're correct in that the plane will drag to the side with the gear up. That's why the pilots will land slightly to the other side of the runway, and use rudder and differential braking of the good extended gear to maintain runway alignment. It's actually an easier situation with wing mounted engines, versus say an MD-80. With fuselage mounted engines, the preferred method then is to suck up the gear and land on the belly, since the most dangerous thing in this is grabbing a wing tip and potential loss of control.
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