All right, here's the story...

I got into another stupid discussion today with a few guys at work involving a "Hypothetical" situation, I don't know how I keep getting sucked into these types of arguments, and this one ended up with everyone in the garage from the shift supervisor on down chiming in, and had a few guys laughing so hard, there stomachs started to hurt. We have discussions all the time to help pass the time, and there never taken seriuosly.

We were talking about the planes that were involved in 9-11, how the passengers rushed the cabin and stopped it from crashing into the Whitehouse.

I casually mentioned how it was too bad they couldn't have gotten control back from the terrorists, and land the plane.

Of course my friends said no way could anyone short of a real pilot could have landed a big commercial plane, I said anyone with a half a brain should be able to be talked through the landing cycle, I said I thought I could land one if It was a do or die situation... Of course they ripped me a new A$$ for that!

Honestly, I think if I was in that situation, given that I have a basic working knowledge of aircraft from being a Jet Eng Mech/Crewcheif, plus a few hours playing around with flight sims years ago, I think I have enough of the basics to be able to land it (in one peice) if I had some basic help from the tower.

Oh and one more thing, they didn't seem to believe me that at one time Crewchiefs used to have something called a Taxi Liscence, they were alowed to move planes around on the flightline using the engines, until a few idiots decided to take a joy ride, and stole the plane. Shortly after that they stopped issuing them. Any ex-military around here know what I'm talking about?

Of the 6 or so guys on this shift, I had one agree with me (He said he probably could too) 3 disagreed, and one said maybe.

So am I full of BS and need to STFU or, is there any precedent of a civilian landing a commercial plane? I know there is a ton of ex military here, anyone a Pilot?

I was in 1st of the 7th air calvary, I was on tanks, and we only had helicopters. I was on the airfield alot and in my time the mechanics would go on flights with an authorized pilot but thats it. In fact my avatar is my commanding officers tank, and my executive officers Bradley, and the two warrant officers attached to us.

I think it's feasable. I don't have any experience, but from watching some relatives and friends fly private aircraft, it looks like you could be walked through it easily enough for a safe crash landing. If you have experience, it'll probably be even easier.

One of my drinking buddies was a pilot of a C-130 and said it was easy, you just have to maintain a sense of awareness of all your surroundings.

My take on this is you could probably CRASH land the plane in keep it in one DAMAGED piece. I dont believe you could land the plane in any way resembling a NORMAL landing. I think at low speeds everyone would survived but the plane but I think you could have saved the people.

I think it would greatly depend on the person. But I think it could be done.

C'mon, hasn't anyone ever seen a movie like "Airplane"? They could do it, I could

Though, seriously, I think I could. Sure, it wouldn't be perfect. Sure, I'd tell them to brace for crash landing. Sure, it wouldn't be ideal, but I think that you could be talked down and be fine and neither seriously damage the people or the plane, maybe the landing gears, but, that's not a big deal.

I can hardly imagine that anybody at that point in time, especially ordinary civilian passengers without military or aviation training would have had the “heads-up” mentality to think that they were facing a terrorist attack of that nature, or how to react/stop it.

I'm shure with the correct person at the controls and a knowledgeable person on the radio an untrained person could land most modern aircraft. I'm a licenced aircraft mechanic and I could reasonble say that I could land one. Like some of the others said, it wouldn't be pretty and the airplane probly would be bad off but it would be a survivable event. I've flown copilot on a couple maintenance flights and have to say that a real aircraft is much easier to control than a sim because you have a sence of movement. Some other things to consider is the growing number of aircraft that have autoland computers installed in them. Pilots go hands off till the wheels touch the ground, the autopilot computer lands the aircraft by itself.

I know I would try like hell. And I agree if you have a basic understanding of the controls and someone to talk you through it, it could be done.

Let's also add that statistically, there is probably a pretty good chance that somebody sitting on that plane will have a more than average Joe amount of knowledge on how to fly a plane. On your typical airliner you've got at least 20 rows with 5 seats a row, and I don't think that it would be absurd to say that 1 in 100 people can fly a plane. Even if 1/100 doesn't hold up, a lot of the people that would not help that statistic, such as poor people, wouldn't be riding on a plane.

Noone saw Airport 77 ??, lolol.
Anyways at the gym I go to I know this woman who is a pilot for American Airlines, I asked here the same questions not to long ago, she said planes can land themselves, the big ones anyways with all the gadgets and controls but you just have to input some info into it thats basic you wouldnt be holding the controls as it lands, she said at night time alot of pilots let the planes land themselves if its to dark as long as the right coordinates and whatever else is entered corectly and trilliontripledouble quadrupley checked.
So I think you could prolly do it Necro !!!!!!

Haha, nice avatar jcarkeys. Just keep lookin over your shoulder for Godfoot, lol.

Edit: Oops, just saw the "Official fluffy made me do it" thread

Even if planes don't auto land I think I could pull it off, it'd be rought but in general I believe the basic concept can be completed and the plane put on the runway at the complete stop without anyone dead

Ok we can all practice or learn here.Landing a plane.

Hey, I've watched "Airplane" a few times to know it's a piece of cake.

Seriously, it can be done by the average person as long as the ATC uses basic English that the average person can understand.

Oh, this only applies if the plane isn't leaking fuel, losing oil pressure, suffered extreme decompression, no landing gear deployment (or even no landing gear), or other errors that can make it interesting.

Rob

Yep, any movie fan knows it's possible for anyone to land a plane in any condition, no matter what the weather is like ...

Realistically, I think it would be possible for a lot of people to take a plane that was in level flight on autopilot to a safe landing, with outside help from a good pilot on the radio.


The problem with the scenario $SOLID$ Necro described is that very, very few people would have the skill to recover a plane that was spinning, in a stall, and/or pointed in the ground, while a life & death fight was going on in the ****pit around them.

All in all, I think those passengers did the best they could, and prevented a whole lot more death & destruction.



edit/add: Stupid autoedit. ****pit? I guess I should have said "flight deck" instead.

i think i could do it, if i were talked through it, and destroying the plane in the process wasn't a biggie. also, the level flight bit. i had issues pulling out of nosedives in M$ Flight sim, i expect it would be worse in real life.

it's like....staying warm. a well-trained technician (?) knows to turn on the heater, but any moron can set fire to the house. either way, you stay warm, but you're trained so you can stay warm on repeated occasions.

If ever in such a situation always remember the numbers 121.5

Hell, before you go on a flight write it on your arm!

121.500MHZ is the emergency distress channel for ALL airplanes international.

If you transmit on it-anywhere in the world, you will probably get an immediate response.

So forget your social security #, your phone number, the number of wives you have, forget it all! except 121.5

I'm sure it's possible, you would want some idiot attempting to do it naturally, but I have no doubt it could happen.

I'm sure maybe you could land a plane with little trouble, and people with some knowledge of how air planes worked could do it. I know I'd have a tough time with it myself.
None of us were on that plane, it could be someone tried to take control, but we have no way of knowing what really happened. Could be that in a time of panic like that no one thought to take control of the plane, or maybe people were freaking out so much that the few rational minded ones couldn't get to the controls. It's just one of those mysteries.

LOL, like my two cents really counts!