FAChrisIAD

delete

meducate

Thanks for posting. Glad that you (and presumably everyone else) is alright. Great info about waiting for the slide to fully inflate - I suppose that at the heat of the moment (no pun intended) adrenaline wins out over common sense...

qasr

Wow! Thanks for the news & glad everyone is safe.

I think you can put your pictures here: http://gallery.flyertalk.com/gallery/

HaeMaker

Wow great story...

You can't post pics directly inline, but if you put your pics on an image sharing site, you can post a link to that site. Use the globe and chain icon at the top o f the text input box.

Rocketman93455

Wow...thanks for sharing with us. I never thought about how long it might take the slide to inflate. How long from throwing the door open until the first pax can jump?

Glad everyone made it off safe ^

kenhawk

Wow - thanks for the post - I'll look forward to seeing your pics. How did the FA's know about the fire? Were there any injuries?

FlyinHawaiian

Photos are allowed in the Trip Report Forum: http://flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=177

You may post your recap and photos in that forum and then provide a link for this thread. Please contact myself or one of the other volunteer moderators if you need assistance.

Glad you are safe and unhurt!

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

UCBeau

Oh geez, a 777 going out of service is NOT what UA needs right now but thank God everyone made it off unharmed. Good job to the flight crew^^^^

paulMIA

FAChrisIAD,

Are you in IAD or CDG? I just read an article that says a tire fire at takeoff took place a CDG on UA915--were there two separate incidents today between IAD and CDG?

Glad you're okay!

boifromtroy

Yah. I am on 915 this Sunday...

Way to go, Chris!

Flyloha

Looks like someone posted a pic on ANET and I thought I would pass it along.

UA777

Trapezium Artist

I was a passenger in business class on yesterday's UA915 from Paris to Washington that was evacuated via slides on a taxiway at CDG. Below is what I wrote to some colleagues yesterday after the event.

I'll admit it's not hugely technical (given the audience), but for what it's worth, I am a pilot with RAF training, my brother is a BA 747 SFO, and I'm a professor of astrophysics by profession, so if you have any further questions, just fire away. I have little time now as we're heading back to CDG to try again today (!), but I'll be in DC later this evening.

Oh, I didn't have a camera with me, but lots of the 80 or so passengers did, and many pictures were taken as we stood on the cold taxiway waiting for busses.

best wishes,
Mark

I had a funny feeling it was going to be one of those days this morning. First, with just 55 minutes before my flight from Exeter to Paris was due to depart, I went out into the dark morning only to find a very tenacious layer of solid ice all over my car. Managed to chip enough off to see, then off to the airport. Of course, this involves negotiating several delightful Devon roads which are more like cart tracks and I managed to wallop straight into some huge pothole at speed, which sent one of my wheel covers spinning off into a hedge. Managed to reverse and recover it, but, luckily, no puncture.

Then FlyBe BE1501 to Paris CDG, fine. An hour or two in the Red Carpet Club, then on-board UA915 (a 777, but am not sure which configuration). All was normal, a light load on the plane to Washington (only 80 passengers or so [edit: I see from the flight crew posting that it was more like 100, but still]), but I did think (as I always do, mind you) that the chap (another Brit, no less) across the aisle was a bit of an idiot for talking his shoes off before we'd taken off. I mean, what if we have an emergency resulting in an aborted take-off and you have to get out of the plane and run across burning fields ... ?

Well, indeed. One of the main undercarriage bogies (right-hand) decided to catch fire as we were sitting on a taxiway at the end of the runway waiting to take off. Apparently (and this is unverified by me), this was spotted by crew on a Continental jet sitting a few hundred metres away, waiting for their take-off, thank goodness. If we'd taken off without noticing, I doubt you'd be reading this.

Anyway, we all of sudden had a full engine and power shutdown, which I thought very unusual, followed by an insistent bleeping sound which the rather startled cabin crew realised after 10 seconds was the evacuation signal. Then, lickety-split, open went all the doors, whoosh went the slides, and out went all the passengers in double quick time, albeit many with no shoes (!), out on to a cold and windy tarmac miles from the terminal.

No particular panic; all rather calm, if a little bizarre. Even the crew were somewhat taken aback (although they did a great job; many thanks to them): apparently they don't practice jumping down slides during training (which is hardly reassuring). Thankfully, very few people tried to grab their belongings, so we were out on the ground and away from the aircraft very quickly. (Admittedly, I was in 8D, so few people upfront, but I didn't see any signs of panic from the crowd when we were outside).

Fire engines arrived after a couple of minutes, sirens, lots of smoke and steam around the undercarriage; all over, busses back to the terminal.

No-one was hurt, thankfully, just a couple of young kids made tearful, but who soon saw the gee-whiz side of things. At which point it just became a long slog waiting for United's less than crack ground staff to work out what to do: some were crap, really, hardly able to think, but a handful were marvellous (thank you Fiona from the RCC). Cue the usual few businessmen getting pissed off and getting sarcastically insulting to the staff, but pretty much every one else took it in their stride: what are you going to do?

Even though another United flight to Chicago took a small handful of our passengers, most of the rest of us were without cabin and hold luggage, which for many people (albeit not me), meant no passport or money either. Took three hours before the plane was taken to a holding area and we we bussed out there to gather our stuff; by this time, all chance of catching a flight to the US was long gone.

Anyway, they've put us up overnight in the Holiday Inn at CDG and I'll take the same flight (although hopefully not the same plane) tomorrow. Ah well, fun in the fast lane ...

Mark

undersky

Thanks for your story! I have some questions and there you go:
1. Was the slide steep? Did people sprang their ankles upon hitting the ground?
2. Any idea the cause of the fire?
3. You mentioned 10 seconds delay before flight attendants realized the evacuation signal, could it be really that long?
4. So from what you said I gathered the pilot learned about the situation and immediately relayed that information to the cabin crew, not via the intercom, but through some kind of general alarm that every one could hear? Am I right?
5. Why weren't some of those exits open? As seen on the previous picture, only the front doors were opened!
6. Did you see the inflation of the slide? How fast was it? Was it loud?
7. Did you notice any cut-off point where slide and door connects? Is there a way for the slide to turn into a boat as seen on the picture?
8. Did the slide contain any compartment for survival equipment such as radio, gps beacon, etc.?
9. Was the inflation physical or chemical reaction?
10. Did the pilot jump out of their cockpit via escape rope?
11. Have you heard any kind of compensation so far?
12. What did they give people at the airport since people were lacking food/money/shoes?
13. Did you see the fire?

Thank you!

Pat89339

First, welcome to FlyerTalk Trapezium Artist. Truly an amazing first post.

Thank you for reminding all of the community that there is a very important reason to keep your shoes on, especially during take off.

GalleyGal

Undersky, The evac sound is a loud beepbeppbeep and the evac button at aoo doors flashed when the cockpit of flight crew hits an evac button. I imagine that in all 'unplanned' evacs there is a second or 2 of ...? ,then your training kicks in. Admittedly we only hear the evac button in annual emergency training in a mock up aircraft, the sound may well be dampened on a full aircraft with engines running, I have no idea ( luckily).

If a ground taxi evac is cockpit initiated, we would only expect to hear the alarm, the cockpit would only make an announcement if there werr special instructions like evac right doors only ( if there was a fire on the left for example).

In any evacuation there are a certain percentages of doors that are expected to 'fail' for whatever reason. This is true for all carriers/aircraft which is why the FAA will only certify a plane if you can evacuate all the pax in 90 seconds with some doors failing. They might open but the slide might not inflate, the door may not open at all or we might not open the door if there is an obstruction outside ( smkoe,fire or debris).

Slides on widebody aircraft may take about 10 seconds to fully deploy, yes they are loud. Think of the gas that is requires to fill that large space!!

The slide is attatched to the door but when used in a ditching there is a quick release pull to detatch the raft from the plane. It stays tetheres to the plane by a long rope. If the quick release fails there is a knife attatched that can cut the slide from the fuselage.

On overwater aircraft there are things like beacons and radios attatched to the slide or in compartments next to the door that the crew take with them onto the slide. It is actually quite amazing what is tucked into the slide raft, all hiding in the door!

The cockpit, IIRC, are supposed to use the 1L and !R slides, after cheching the cabin before leaving in a situation like this, although a pilot could address this in more detail.The escape ropes would be a last ditch means of getting out of the aircraft.

We actually go down the slide in initial training, just not at annual training.