jp12687

Wow.
i just can’t with some people.
this was a medical emergency. They made a heavy/long landing. They are doing typical safety checks before going. The only persons life in danger was the person having a medical emergency.

what if it was the OP?

jgreen1024

I get asked all the time why I don't turn my private flying into a career and become an airline pilot. This thread is one example of why.

zombietooth

It's nice to see that there are professionals out there that are consistently making the correct decisions, without regard to the possible negative publicity or political consequences of their actions.

A Captain who, based on the best information that he had at the time, makes a decision, without regard for the cost to the airline, to preserve life should be applauded here, not criticized.

What a whiny, entitled bunch we Americans have become.

UA_Flyer

^ to the Captain!

halls120

+1 to the above.

And the 764 operating the flight is evidently OK, as it is continuing on to IAH (with a stop at MCO) according to UA.com.

bitterproffit

I understand its a hobby at FT to second guess every decision by the FA when it comes to overhead bin decisions, or whether I really can't have a Bloody Mary PDB when the FAA inspector is here, or whether I really have to (insert FA instruction here). And then its fun to read a bunch of posts arguing the merits of that decision.

But, this 'second guessing' seems pretty heartless. The melodramatic title, the extraneous information (ELDERLY crew member), the implication that the poster was inconvenienced, etc. puts this post in a league of its own.

timezone_trooper

1) Hope the crew member in question is OK

2) This has to be a nominee for worst post of the year - misleading title, unparalleled level of self-importance, general lack of humanity from the OP

757FO

As a captain for United, I would have done the same thing in a heart-beat, for any passenger or crew member, including yourself.

irishguy28

Of course not. The correct phrase would be a hard landing.

jp12687

This belongs in the DYKWIA thread
OP Rather let someone risk medical emergency/death then be inconvenienced

enviroian

There's no way this post is real.

BearX220

What alternative is OP advocating? Fly on as scheduled while person in distress dies of a heart attack?

Perhaps then we'd hear complaints about the curtailed final drink service owing to one of the staff being recently dead.

Often1

Mods. notified.

The post is wrong, callous, clickbait and really deserves an invitation from UA to the passenger to find another carrier which is more to his liking.

eng3

I think there is confusion about the difference between:

a "crash landing"/landing which endangers the life of everyone on board
and
an overweight landing which his the risk of damaging the aircraft but is of relatively low risk of injuries/death.

In the first case, I might agree that the captain should have taken additional measures (ie. burn/dump fuel) before landing. However, from your own description, he only mentions damage to the aircraft which typically is very low risk to the lives on board. If someone is having an MI, he/she may only have an hour or so to get to a cath lab before there is permanent damage or potential death. The most they can do onboard is probably give asprin. In that case, the decision between saving a life and damaging an aircraft is an easy one.

tessy143

The control of the aircraft during any approach and touchdown determines the difference of landing or crashing. A controlled aircraft flown to and through touchdown is a landing. An approach which stalls the aircraft at any time prior to touchdown will result in a crash. A crash is the aircraft falling uncontrolled to the surface, even just a few feet.

If you landed at an airport by choice of the pilot it was not a crash landing. A crash landing would be if you landed in a field due to the pilots inability to control the aircraft (loss of engine etc).

crash landing - an emergency landing under circumstances where a normal landing is impossible (usually damaging the aircraft)
emergency landing, forced landing - an unscheduled airplane landing that is made under circumstances (engine failure or adverse weather) not under the pilot's control

Hard Landing

A hard landing is not specifically an emergency, although it may result from an emergency situation. A hard landing happens when a plane uses steep descent on final approach to touchdown. In some cases, the plane may bounce back into the air before it finally lands on the runway. Aviation Glossary (2009) defines the terms as "an event during landing that results in excessive G-forces being transmitted into the structure of the aircraft". A hard landing may have one or more of several potential outcomes: pilot embaressment, a heavy landing engineering inspection, burst tyres, structual damage or even structual failure of the aircraft resulting in an insurance write-off of the plane