Originally Posted by
HawkeyeFlyer
I was on this flight today and was a bit stressful. Plane lost one of its hydraulic systems. While we were never in any real danger, to my knowledge, the pilot did have to explain it, we did get priority landing, were met by fire trucks and had to be towed to the gate.
Anyone else on this flight today
Anyone know if this was actually not that bad of an issue or if they just covered it up well to keep passengers calm
As others have said, loss of a hydraulic system isn't an immediate threat; you lose redundancy (protection against future losses), which is why you turn back.
I wanted to address the fire trucks specifically; they'll roll out any time there's a hydraulic issue. When a system has lost pressure, that usually means at least some fluid has escaped the system. While the fluid used in airplanes is fire resistant, when it gets on a heat source it can certainly burn. So anytime there's the possibility of, say, hydraulic fluid on the brakes, you'll see the fire vehicles turn out. Just in case.