gold23

Flying on UA 1886, on final approach we revved the engines, climbed, and did what we all assumed was a standard go around with some light wind shear in the area. After about five minutes as I realized we weren't in the standard EWR pattern to re-engage in final approach, captain comes on and lets us know that he "received a warning for hydraulic failure" and that they were contacting Chicago to see what steps were next. Hydraulic failure without any more information is a bit worrisome, though he seemed calm enough.

We are then told we're heading for JFK, as they have a longer runway. Five mins later, back on the horn- with an annoyed tone- saying that "JFK refuses to accept us" and that we're awaiting EWR clearance since we're going to be shutting runways down for a bit.

I'm texting with my family in the group chat, and my son heads over to ATC tower. Says they're talking about us, trying to move planes out as quickly as possible because there's a "disabled plane that has declared and emergency" on the way in and that they'll need to close at least one runway for a period of time to deal with us. At this point, they captain lets us know it's landing gear related. Some people around us are flipping out, but several of us said that his tone and the fact that there is a manual option to lower the gear is actually a good thing. When I was talking to my seat mate and letting him know what ATC was saying, FA is looking at me and lightly cocking her head as if "really?". My grandfather always taught me that as long as you don't see fear in FA eyes, you're good. She was more annoyed by me providing information to people who didn't know how to process it than worried for the plane itself.

We came in pretty hot, probably a harder landing than normal with an immediate ram of the nose gear into the ground upon touch down, and an unremarkable finish. For the first time, I actually joined in the applause. I thought I'd have been a bit more nervous than I was, but the calm nature of the captain and the relative basic knowledge I had of the type of emergency we had declared made it more of an experience than anything else. I know a bunch of passengers did not share that thought.

Couple were talking as we deboarded that "UA should give us major extra miles for this!" I laughed and said this was an instance where they should be thanking UA for having a truly competent crew. Other funny comment was my seat mate asking if we were on a Boeing. I told him no, an Airbus. He said "damn, I was going to text my buddy to short them if they had another issue!"

kirkwoodj

Glad you had a safe smackdown, er landing

WheelsUpGal

Me, too!

United to Honolulu many years ago (1970’s) Light showing landing gear was faulty or something. We had to do a fly by for the tower to see if the wheels were, in fact, down.

But then not sure if they were “locked”. Had fire trucks greeting us as we were all in brace position.

All went well. We clapped too!

ExplorerWannabe

This is why I will continue to book on US majors or airlines with equivalent standards whenever possible, even if it costs me a little more.

gold23

We landed about an hour before sunset, and the direction of the sun showed a huge shadow of the plane out the right side. We could see the landing gear in the shadows, so I felt confident the wheels would at least touch first!

This was my second emergency landing. First was in early 90's on a CO Express flight out of EWR to ROC. Engine caught fire, captain says we're turning around due to cargo door issue. Older woman adjacent to me asks "Do you think he also knows about the fire?" as she looked towards the wing. That one was very fearful on my end.

LarryJ

Modern transport jets generally have three independent hydraulic systems.

When one system fails, critical systems work on the remaining systems while less critical systems degrade to backup operation so that the remaining system(s) have enough capacity for the critical systems. i.e. Gear and flaps are extended via alternate procedures so that flight controls can operate normally, nosewheel steering may be unavailable for taxiing so the aircraft may have to be towed to the gate after landing, etc. The specifics of which systems are degraded depends on the specifics of the failure.

Each aircraft type is a little bit different but the philosophies and results are the same. We've learned from the failures on previous generations of airplanes and now have robust systems and procedures for hydraulic failures. I've never flown the Airbus, but have flown the 767 which is a design from a similar era.

The 767 has three hydraulic systems and nine hydraulic pumps. Two pumps are engine-driven, four are electric, and one is pneumatically driven. The eighth pump is the power-transfer-unit (PTU) which uses pressure from one system to pressurize a portion of the failed system--a hydraulically-driven hydraulic pump. The ninth pump is the ram-air-turbine (RAT) that drops with the loss of all generators (i.e. loss of both engines which would take out all of the other seven pumps). The RAT provides hydraulic pressure to the flight controls. How well does that work? Read about Air Canada Flight 143, commonly known as the Gimli Glider.

SPN Lifer

Thank you for letting us know about that incident. I was stationed on Guam in 1983 with the Navy and never heard about it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

gold23

Yep. This is what happened to us. After we came to a stop on the runway, all engines shut down, emergency crews surrounded us for a few minutes, and we awaited a tow in to the gate. Something has to shut EWR down for 25 mins on a Wednesday afternoon, so I guess yesterday we were it.

LarryJ

If I were an Airbus pilot, that would be enough for me to know which of the three hydraulic systems failed. I'm not, so I don't.

You don't need nosewheel steering for the landing. You have directional control through aerodynamics at high and moderate speed and through differential braking at slow speeds. That good enough to stay on the runway for the landing. You can't make the tighter turns needed for taxiing, though, which is the reason for the tow-in.

lincolnjkc

What seems like just a few years ago but actually (according to my FlightMemory) was 10 years, 1 month, and 13 days ago I was on a UAX Q400 into RDU (N34NG) when about 20 minutes out the flight deck made the announcement that we'd be "Landing Normally" in about 20 minutes and then after a long pause "however, we've lost hydraulic pressure so we won't have any brakes on landing...so it might be a bit bumpy. We should be able to stop...Please follow your flight attendant's instructions."

Landing was relatively uneventful but a lot more bouncing/shuddering than I expected. Came to a stop on the runway and breathed easy until I heard a child somewhere behind me (I was in 2D) yell "Mommy, what is that fireman doing to the wing?!?" -- but otherwise we got towed into the gate and aside from some media at baggage claim looking for "harrowing stories" that was the end of that.

The FAA Service Difficulty Report System entry for that event noted
That was my first (and only) declared emergency in 34 years of flying, and my last (not necessarily intentionally) Q400 flight

Ted

Sorry who has the authority to tell the captain who wants to go to JFK that he can't?

clubord

Especially as an emergency aircraft. You get pretty much whatever you want once you declare.

aCavalierInCoach

Wonder if there's something lost in translation here. JFK may have simply pushed back because of incoming traffic, ground congestion, winds on the longer runway that would've made them deter the pilot from declaring there. At the end of the day you're right they couldn't stop him.

gold23

Captain announced we were diverting due to longer runway, and his tone when informing us we were "back to EWR" was complete disdain. He was amazing, and I don't recall if he claimed that they refused to take us, were unable to take us, etc. Or whether Chicago may have overruled the captain (which I would be surprised, as in emergency I thought captain always had whatever he/she wanted at their disposal).

Would love to hear if there's any ATC chatter with him asking and being refused.

Selfishly, we would've landed at 5pm in JFK and I needed to be in NJ that evening. Would never have made it :-)

mahasamatman

Correct. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-1...part-T#121.557 However, if a pilot can be flexible, they will try to be agreeable and not shut down the entire system. It also helps with the required post-emergency paperwork.