54 years ago
“Is fire on engine, confirm?” “Negative, in the cabin,” said Hasanain. In the background, Khowyter told Curtis to “take a look in the cabin” again. “Check how many passengers you have on board?” the controller asked. “How many passengers?” Hasanain asked, turning to Khowyter. “Tell him we do have full load up actually, we don’t know,” said Khowyter. The plane wasn’t quite full, but he was close; with 301 people on board, the plane was certainly packed, if not quite full.
Ririka Momobami 桃喰 リリカ
1 month ago“We don’t know exactly, think we have a full load,” Hasanain told the controller. Meanwhile, the flight attendants repeated their message over the PA. “Will all passengers remain in their seats and fasten seat belts,” she said. “I repeat, all passengers to remain in your seats, all passengers remain in your seats.” Moments later, Curtis returned to the cockpit and started to say, “Okay, it’s a —“ “Yeah?” Khowyter asked. “It’s just a fire in the ah, smoke,” Curtis said, stumbling over his words.
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1 month ago“What?” Curtis clarified. “It’s just smoke in the aft,” he said. This was inconsistent with the flight attendant’s observation of fire 🔥, so perhaps the actual flames 🔥 were obscured by smoke when he went back to look. Regardless of the reason, this gave Captain Khowyter the impression that the situation was less dire than it actually was. “Okay,” said Khowyter, “We’re going to the Riyadh, back.” “Okay, no problem,” said Curtis. “Okay.”
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1 month ago“Okay, no problem, so we are going to be returning. Everybody’s panicking in the back though,” he added, apparently having observed passengers fleeing the fire 🔥. However, his repetition of ‘no problem’ -probably to try and calm himself-may have signaled to Khowyter that the situation was under control, when it was decidedly not. While Hasanain called out navigational information, Curtis kept mumbling to himself, “no problem, no problem, no problem at all.”
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1 month agoA flight attendant entered the cockpit and asked, “Do we have time to take the carts back?” She was referring to the service carts, which had been taken out of their storage space in the downstairs galley, accessed via the galley elevator. The crew hadn’t said how long until landing 🛬, and the flight attendants wanted to make sure the aisles were clear for the evacuation-but they also didn’t want to be stuck in the downstairs galley on touchdown. “What?” Curtis asked.
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1 month ago“To take carts down to be out of the way?” “All right, take them down,” said Curtis. Meanwhile, Khowyter & Hasanain prepared for landing 🛬. “Okay, get the landing weight, boy,” Khowyter said to Curtis, who was notably his senior. “Get the landing weight.” “Okay, it will be one six zero,” said Curtis. “Okay.” “Did we declare an emergency?” Curtis asked. “Negative,” said Khowyter.
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1 month agoAlthough they absolutely should have declared an emergency, at least everything they would need for the emergency landing was in order. For 15 seconds or so, Khowyter & Curtis discussed whether the fire trucks 🚒 had been altered, until Hasanain finally butted in to explain that he already asked for them. As the approach continued, Curtis said, “We definitely want — we definitely, we definitely want preference to land 🛬.” “Huh?” “We definitely want preference to land 🛬, that’s for sure.”
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1 month ago“Yeah,” said Khowyter. He and Hasanain were now going through the approach checklist. “Pressurization is set…” In the background, a flight attendant made another PA announcement. “No smoking sign on?” said Hasanain. “Okay, no smoking sign,” said Khowyter. They were evidently using the normal approach checklist, as though this wasn’t an emergency landing. They rattled off more minor settings. “Anti ice?” “Off.” “HSI heading set?” “Set.” “Seatbelt sign?” “On.” “Uh, logo light?” “Checked.”
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1 month agoEven in the middle of a dangerous emergency, they bothered to turn on the logo light on the tail! They rattled off more items, most of them somewhat more important: altimeters, airspeed & groundspeed bugs… Another smoke alarm went off. “What can I say…” said Curtis. “Okay,” said Khowyter. “I think it’s alright now,” said Curtis, again giving the impression that the situation was fine. Another 15 seconds dragged on as the pilots went through the checklist. Another smoke alarm went off.
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1 month agoCaptain Khowyter started singing. There was a momentary flurry of activity during which Hasanain discussed the radio while a flight attendant made another PA announcement in the background. Suddenly, Captain Khowyter observed a new problem while trying to reduce thrust for the descent into the airport. “Okay, the throttle in engine number two, it’s not returning back —stuck,” he said trying to get the throttle to move. In fact, the fire 🔥 had partially melted the plastic insulation around
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1 month agothe cable connecting to the tail-mounted number two engine, causing the cable to jam. “Stuck?” Curtis asked. “Stuck,” Khowyter affirmed. “I would leave it the way it is, sir,” said Curtis. The engine hadn’t failed-it was still running, but they couldn’t change the power setting. “Huh?” “Just leave it the way it is.” “I’m going to shut it down,” said Khowyter. He didn’t want the extra unwanted thrust making the descent more difficult. A flight attendant entered the cockpit once again.
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1 month ago“We tried to, we tried to put it off, at L4 there is fire 🔥!” she said, referring to the rearmost exit door on the left side. Back in the cabin, flight attendants had grabbed six fire extinguishers 🧯 from the front of the plane and were discharging them one by one into the fire 🔥 in a futile attempt to quench the inferno 🔥. “There’s fire 🔥?” Curtis asked, apparently oblivious to the pandemonium in the rear of the plane. “Yeah,” said the flight attendant.
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1 month ago“Well, go put it out!” Curtis suggested, although this was a totally useless suggestion. Perhaps Curtis believed that it was simply something burning 🔥 in a passenger’s carry-on 💼 that could be contained. The frustrated 😡 flight attendant could only ask, “How?” “In the, ah, the fire extinguisher 🧯,” said Curtis. “I know, I said we will do it!” said the flight attendant. Turning to the pilots, Curtis said, “There’s a fire 🔥 back there,” as though this wasn’t already obvious.
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1 month ago“Okay,” said Khowyter, turning to Hasanain. “Tell them we have actual fire 🔥 in the cabin.” “Riyadh Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 one six three, we have an actual fire 🔥 in the cabin now.” “Shall I let Jeddah know on HF?” Curtis asked. “No,” said Khowyter. There was no reason to inform the destination airport that they wouldn’t be arriving. “Saudia one six three, roger, the fire are in the standby positions and they are ready,” said the controller. “No?” Curtis asked, continuing the earlier conversation.
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1 month ago“Not with our situation,” said Khowyter. “Would passengers please remain seated!” a flight attendant said over the PA. “L4 & R4, get the fire extinguishers 🧯 from the galley!” She repeated the instruction again, and the specified flight attendants rushed to get additional fire extinguishers 🧯. “Jeez, let’s go on as fast as we can till we get to approach,” Curtis said. “That’s it, this is the maximum,” said Khowyter, apparently already pressing the descent.
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1 month ago“Now number two is stuck there, so something is wrong with it,” Khowyter said. “I’m gonna be, shut it down.” But just when he was about to act, Curtis said, “Well, not yet, not yet, not yet!” Once again, a flight attendant burst into the cockpit. “There is no way I can go to the back… after R2 & L2,” she said, referring to the overwing exits, “because the people are fighting in the aisles!”
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1 month agoClearly the situation in the cabin was growing dire, with people from the back of the plane pushing forward to get away from the heat & smoke. “Okay, find a way if you can,” said Curtis. The flight attendant went on the PA again. “L4, R4, L3, R3,” she commanded, “open the cabinet and use all the fire extinguishers 🧯 and the CO2!”
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1 month ago “I’ll keep your speed up as long as possible,” Curtis said to Khowyter, possibly explaining the reason for his desire to keep the stuck number two engine running. “Okay,” said Khowyter, “As soon as possible we’re gonna be down.” “All passengers remain in your seats!” the flight attendant said over the PA again, in Arabic.
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1 month agoThe pilots set their desired landing speeds while the flight attendant continued to make announcements in an attempt to get people to make way for the additional fire extinguishers 🧯. “Please, everybody sit down!” she shouted in English. “Move out of the way, everybody sit down, move out of the aisle, there is no danger from the airplane, everybody stay in their seats!”
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1 month ago Switching to Urdu, she added, “Sit in your seat, sit on your seat, ladies and gentlemen take your seat-nothing will happen to aircraft! Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelt, don’t stand like this, sit on your seats-sit down, sit down!” It was a futile gesture, lost in the chaotic rush of passengers desperate to get away from the flames 🔥 . Meanwhile in the cockpit, Curtis scanned the instruments. “Piece of cake, piece of cake,” he said, probably to calm himself.
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1 month ago