Originally Posted by
Allegra1986
i want to start this post by pointing out that despite flying 4 or 5 times a year, I it absolutely terrifies me every single time but I feel like I just had a particularly terrifying experience (It really made me not want to get back on a plane for a as long as possible!) and wanted to know just how irrational I am being...I chickened out on talking to the pilot when I saw him by baggage reclaim because I figure he'd want to go home but hopefully someone here may be able to help!
Before we started taxiing the captain introduced himself, then the first officer and then said that the first officer would be flying the plane, now, I know you need practice to move from first officer to captain so it's a bit unfair of me but I really prefer that the most experienced person is in charge but I just wish they hadn't told me! As we were taxiing he really didn't seem to get a hang of accelerating and we kept slowing and speeding up quite abruptly which made me question they amount he had flown before...again...I know everyone needs to practice but I would prefer I wasn't there for it! Anyway, we took off quite smoothly which was nice but about 2 minutes in, a really loud, grating noise came from the engine and lasted about 5 minutes...almost like a chainsaw. I've never heard that before and a lot of the other passengers were looking around, freaked out too! Would anyone know what that sound could've been?
We then proceeded to fly through an incredibly unpleasant jet stream, so everyone had to stay seated through the whole thing. So that isn't the pilots fault of course but he did keep extending the amount of time we'd be in it which as a nervous flyer didn't help me so much because every time his time limit ended and he got back on the loudspeaker I had a small heart attack (I tend to assume they're about to yell brace when they come on the loudspeaker (outside of just after take off and just before landing...) I would've much rather he'd just overestimated it and then we could've all been pleasantly surprised!
The landing was equally awful and what made it worse was that the first officer preceded it by saying it wasn't windy so I thought the landing would be easy. We looped a couple of times at a very bumpy level and then cabin lights got dimmer, cabin crew 10 minutes to landing, cabin crew seats for landing but we weren't getting any closer to landing! We kept slowing, accelerating, turning left, turning right, going up, going down for about 15 minutes and then finally when I really thought we were gone for we emerged through the clouds and I could at least see the ground but he continued with the speeding up, slowing down and the whole plane was banking strongly to each side over and over right up until we landed.
i'm here to tell the tale and i'm sure he's a great pilot and the problems were all physical things like wind, so i'm just wondering what was going on really...what was the noise during take off, why were we speeding and slowing so much, swerving etc. and why when he said cabin crew seats for landing it was at least another 10 minutes before we actually landed (and 25 mins after he said 10 mins to landing) as I would've thought by the point of that announcement we've got a landing slot we have to make.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions you might have and sorry for the mammoth post!
Wow, you got it bad my friend when it comes to flying.
I would trust any BA crew with my life at any time. I have no doubt that what you went through was upsetting for you, but I would never expect any BA flight deck team to put any aircraft into a situation where it is not safe. BA crew just do NOT do that.
As for your comments about the first officer, don't automatically assume that just because a person is a first officer they are less experienced. I do not know this for a fact, but I assume that there will be FO's out there with many hours flying under their belts, who are sitting next to a captain who has less hours on that type of aircaft, or indeed less years actual flying. I also know that all flight deck crew are trained these days on something called cockpit resource management, where any flight deck member, no matter how "junior" they may be are trained to cross check what their companion is doing and are encouraged to highlight anything they think is not correct.
Finally don't also assume that something was wrong because you did not land in ten minutes after the announcement was made. It is almost certain that the reason that did not happen was because ATC changed the clearance given to your aircraft after the announcement was made, there was a sudden weather change, or another aircraft needed or was given priority over yours.