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4 April - UA497 (MSY-SFO) Makes Emergency Landing at MSY due to Smoke in Cockpit

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4 April - UA497 (MSY-SFO) Makes Emergency Landing at MSY due to Smoke in Cockpit

 
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 1:26 pm
  #31  
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Originally Posted by PanHam
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

UA pilots are some of the best in the biz. Mega ^
Originally Posted by FriendlySkies
A bit creepy to hear them stating souls onboard


As another FTer mentioned, I'm glad to have some of the best pilots in the Friendly Skies ^
Bolding mine: Try being on the plane and hearing it!!! (so I'll see your and raise you )
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 1:30 pm
  #32  
 
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Kudos to the pilots, FAs, and air traffic controllers who helped bring the bird back safely.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 2:16 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by FriendlySkies
You have to wonder how many pax were trying to grab their personal belongings...
This does pose an honest question from me...

Being that these people are displaced for awhile and plane is able to be boarded safely (which, but the correct personel I think this is the case) what are the chances people got their carryon's back. Personally, if I was displaced for most of the day, I'd want, no, need my laptop to work. Any thoughts or experiences?
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 2:31 pm
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by nevansm
This does pose an honest question from me...

Being that these people are displaced for awhile and plane is able to be boarded safely (which, but the correct personel I think this is the case) what are the chances people got their carryon's back. Personally, if I was displaced for most of the day, I'd want, no, need my laptop to work. Any thoughts or experiences?
I saw some raw video with a voice in the background speaking - probably on a cell phone and they were describing that ground staff had gone to the plane and begun offloading bags to get them back to the passengers, so at least in this case, it was all being handled quickly and efficiently.

That said, these folks are very lucky to be alive. If it was me, I'd be taking the day off and counting my lucky stars.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 2:41 pm
  #35  
 
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Man, hearing the alarms going off in the cockpit over the radio is freaking scary. ^ to getting that bird down in one piece.

Tower vectoring the plane down is
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 3:01 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by PanHam
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UA pilots are some of the best in the biz. Mega ^
Fully agree. Always in the back of my mind. I have started to fly UA now out of MSP and always think we have the best on the flight deck.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 3:10 pm
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by jhayes_1780
^ to the crew. If most of the instruments died, it could prove to be a "US1549" moment.

Trying to find info, one source says its a 319, others say 320.

Only pics I can see are only of the nose... and I can't quite make out the "ship" number..... looks like maybe 4708? IIRC, that would translate to N470UA?
A320 N409UA per Aviation Herald initial report on the incident. Link here.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 4:00 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by greg99
Interesting/ominous that the pilot reported that they lost *all* instruments - I wonder what happened to the standby instrument.

Greg
It would have to have been a massive electrical failure to lose the standby "steam gauges" as they are on a separate circuit and in a separate wiring harness.

I suspect that they only lost the EFIS displays.
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 7:03 pm
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by nevansm
what are the chances people got their carryon's back.
100%
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 10:52 pm
  #40  
 
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United emergency landing on 4/4/2011

Don't see a thread discussing this event. Anyone from the flight around here?

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/united-...ry?id=13295085
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Old Apr 4, 2011, 10:58 pm
  #41  
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Glad that the pilot made a very successful emergency landing and nobody was hurt.
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Old Apr 5, 2011, 1:18 am
  #42  
 
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Why were none of the 4 overwing exits used? This seems like it'd be standard procedure for someone sitting in one of the exit rows overwing in this type of evacuation
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Old Apr 5, 2011, 8:01 am
  #43  
 
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Bella92108 WELCOME TO FT!

One of our FA or pilot members will better answer your question but if you listen to the announcements use of the over wing exits is often prefaced by "only if instructed by a uniformed crew member". My understanding is that exiting through them is more dangerous and tends to result in more injuries than through the main door slides. In this situation with no detectable fire, it might have been considered prudent to begin evac using main doors only.

Of more concern is that it looks like the slide at 1R did not deploy? Is that correct? Any theories?

Lurker
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Old Apr 5, 2011, 8:51 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by Lurker
Of more concern is that it looks like the slide at 1R did not deploy? Is that correct? Any theories?
IIRC when they certify aircraft for evacuations, they anticipate that 50% of the slides will fail to deploy. So it doesn't surprise me that one failed. I think I read somewhere that the rear slides were deployed only after the evacuation.

listen to the announcements use of the over wing exits is often prefaced by "only if instructed by a uniformed crew member". My understanding is that exiting through them is more dangerous and tends to result in more injuries than through the main door slides. In this situation with no detectable fire, it might have been considered prudent to begin evac using main doors only.
Given the nose-down pitch of the aircraft, it seems prudent to my untrained eye that they would evacuate from 1L/1R only if there wasn't a huge hurry. The height of the rear slides was much higher, and passengers could have easily lost their footing on the wing or gotten tangled in the behind-the-wing slides which would have deployed "up hill."

However, as a passenger who spends a lot of time in exit-row window seats, I find the question very interesting. Regardless of crew member instructions, would I choose to wait in line behind half a planeload of passengers exiting forward or aft, or get out quicker using the more accessible (to me) window exit? With no discernable fire or delay in deplaning, I hope I would follow instructions. But a hint of smoke or a slow queue down the aisle (or moron passengers trying to get their rollaboard out of the overhead) might change my mind real quick.

I also get the impression the FAs did not have time to do the "standard" pre-emergency landing briefings and that they didn't really say much more than "leave everything, get out" after landing. So it's interesting that in the absence of instructions, no passengers chose to pop the wing exits. That could be 1) passengers obeying FA instructions (good), 2) exit-row passengers who weren't actually willing/able to assist and chose inaction (bad), or 3) exit-row passengers who were willing/able to assist but made the choice (as an exit-row passenger is to supposed to in the absence of FA instructions) that exiting over the wing didn't look particularly safe (good).
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Old Apr 5, 2011, 9:28 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by studentff
Given the nose-down pitch of the aircraft, it seems prudent to my untrained eye that they would evacuate from 1L/1R only if there wasn't a huge hurry. The height of the rear slides was much higher, and passengers could have easily lost their footing on the wing or gotten tangled in the behind-the-wing slides which would have deployed "up hill."

However, as a passenger who spends a lot of time in exit-row window seats, I find the question very interesting. Regardless of crew member instructions, would I choose to wait in line behind half a planeload of passengers exiting forward or aft, or get out quicker using the more accessible (to me) window exit? With no discernable fire or delay in deplaning, I hope I would follow instructions. But a hint of smoke or a slow queue down the aisle (or moron passengers trying to get their rollaboard out of the overhead) might change my mind real quick.

I also get the impression the FAs did not have time to do the "standard" pre-emergency landing briefings and that they didn't really say much more than "leave everything, get out" after landing. So it's interesting that in the absence of instructions, no passengers chose to pop the wing exits. That could be 1) passengers obeying FA instructions (good), 2) exit-row passengers who weren't actually willing/able to assist and chose inaction (bad), or 3) exit-row passengers who were willing/able to assist but made the choice (as an exit-row passenger is to supposed to in the absence of FA instructions) that exiting over the wing didn't look particularly safe (good).

From the discussion on this page:
I was an emergency row passenger on UA flight 497, April 4, 2011. An announcement about the movie ended abruptly, and the next instructions we received was without the PA system. One attendant was yelling for us to, "get off the plane, leave everything and get off the plane!". This was the first "real" emergency evaluation for this crew, and passengers, however I know I was not supposed to open that emergency exit door unless the flight attendant needed assistance, obviously she did not. Not following instructions in an emergency situation can cause more injuries.
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