Flight Scare?
 

A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I beleive there were some severe thunderstorms in the region on the
morning of the 8th. Can anyone confirm this as the cause, or better
still have access to any flight/aviation reports/information regarding
this incident.

Many thanks in advance.

Keith (Southend)

Flight Scare?
 

Keith Southend 2 wrote:

A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

While it wasn't as bad as that, when I flew out to New York with Virgin
on 22nd July this year we had to land in a rather potent thunderstorm.
Lots of turbulence. Indeed, there had been so much rain that many of the
roads from JFK to Manhattan were flooded meaning that the drive took
twice as long as it should've. Didn't see anything of the Manhattan
skyline owing to the heavy rain :(

Jonathan

Flight Scare?
 

"Keith Southend 2" wrote in message
om...
A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I beleive there were some severe thunderstorms in the region on the
morning of the 8th. Can anyone confirm this as the cause, or better
still have access to any flight/aviation reports/information regarding
this incident.


Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

Pretty scary.

John

Flight Scare?
 

"jochta" wrote
Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically
for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came
over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

That's 60,000 feet per minute rate of descent. Either your memory is a
little rusty or the pilot was exaggerating for effect.
60,000 feet per minute is a colossal rate of descent (nearly 600 knots -
faster than the aircraft's forward speed) and I cannot believe that any
vertical currents in the air come anywhere near that figure. I have heard
of 50 knots in and near thunderstorms (that's about 5,000 feet per minute),
but .......!

Jack

Flight Scare?
 

"Jack Harrison" wrote in message
...

"jochta" wrote
Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically
for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came
over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

That's 60,000 feet per minute rate of descent. Either your memory is a
little rusty or the pilot was exaggerating for effect.
60,000 feet per minute is a colossal rate of descent (nearly 600 knots -
faster than the aircraft's forward speed) and I cannot believe that any
vertical currents in the air come anywhere near that figure. I have heard
of 50 knots in and near thunderstorms (that's about 5,000 feet per
minute),
but .......!

Jack


Probably my memory! I can't remember exactly what he said, how far, how long
etc. it was a long time ago.

John

Flight Scare?
 

.......... plus, any acceleration downwards over 32ft per sec/per sec would
have given you negative G and pinned you to the roof. Weightlessness denotes
falling freely in a gravity field. You were accelerating downwards ( if it
was exactly zero g ) at a rate of 32 feet per sec/ per sec. at the end of
ten seconds this would result in a velocity of 320 ft per second or a little
over 218 MPH ( ignoring drag ) unless my schooldays maths are totally up the
creek ( always a possibility!)

Les


--
Top Posting© Since 1997

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"Jack Harrison" wrote in message
...

"Keith Southend 2" wrote in message
om...
A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
September 2003 described to me a quite scary event during his
flight.

He was flying with Britannia Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I'll put my (retired) pilot's hat on!

It is usually, but not always possible to avoid the worst of the
turbulence.

I have little doubt that this second hand story has become embellished in
the telling
(dropped....for a few minutes!)

Nevertheless, the captain should have made some comment, preferably before
the event and certainly afterwards. It probably meant absolutely nothing
to
the flight crew, but I always remembered that the passengers paid my
wages.
So even if their fears were a little unreasonable (in my opinion) I would
always reassure them that this was nothing to worry about, the aircraft is
designed for this level of turbulence (even if my coffee cup wasn't) etc.
I
never received a single complaint about not keeping them informed about
the
weather. I did receive complaints from the punters about other things (eg
why their baggage had gone missing, or why we were late again)

Jack

Flight Scare?
 

I got the correct flight number this time:

BY 386B

Has anyone any more information on this incident? Just curious to
know, rather than speculate as to the cause. Don't they have radar
(doppler) on aircraft?

Thanks

Keith (Southend)

http:/www.southendweather.net

"Les & Claire" wrote in message ...
......... plus, any acceleration downwards over 32ft per sec/per sec would
have given you negative G and pinned you to the roof. Weightlessness denotes
falling freely in a gravity field. You were accelerating downwards ( if it
was exactly zero g ) at a rate of 32 feet per sec/ per sec. at the end of
ten seconds this would result in a velocity of 320 ft per second or a little
over 218 MPH ( ignoring drag ) unless my schooldays maths are totally up the
creek ( always a possibility!)

Les


--
Top Posting© Since 1997

"Oh Bother!" said the Borg, "We've assimilated Pooh!"

"That's 10 times I've explained binary to you. I won't tell you a 3rd time!"

https://www.paypal.com/mrb/pal=5K2NM99YE7JHW

"Jack Harrison" wrote in message
...

"Keith Southend 2" wrote in message
om...
A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
September 2003 described to me a quite scary event during his
flight.

He was flying with Britannia Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I'll put my (retired) pilot's hat on!

It is usually, but not always possible to avoid the worst of the
turbulence.

I have little doubt that this second hand story has become embellished in
the telling
(dropped....for a few minutes!)

Nevertheless, the captain should have made some comment, preferably before
the event and certainly afterwards. It probably meant absolutely nothing
to
the flight crew, but I always remembered that the passengers paid my
wages.
So even if their fears were a little unreasonable (in my opinion) I would
always reassure them that this was nothing to worry about, the aircraft is
designed for this level of turbulence (even if my coffee cup wasn't) etc.
I
never received a single complaint about not keeping them informed about
the
weather. I did receive complaints from the punters about other things (eg
why their baggage had gone missing, or why we were late again)

Jack

Flight Scare?
 

Would it ever matter if lightning hit a plane? The plane is not earthed, so
the lightning can't travel through the plane, and therefore should have no
effect.. its like those guys that repair electricity lines from
helicopters.. they can touch what they like (as long as they don't touch two
at a time!) and it makes no difference..

"Pieter Kuiper" wrote in message
...
"Jack Harrison" wrote:

I'll put my (retired) pilot's hat on!

I
never received a single complaint about not keeping them informed about
the
weather. I did receive complaints from the punters about other things
(eg
why their baggage had gone missing, or why we were late again)

On my first flight ever, we landed on Chicago O'Hara in a snowstorm.
Lightning struck the plane. The captain tried to reassure us by saying
that lightning did not matter "in this kind of aircraft".

Which made me wonder what was so special about our aircraft, and what
other airvraft would be affacted by lightning.

--
http://www.masda.vxu.se/~pku/

Flight Scare?
 

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:24:40 +0100, InMyTree in
wrote:

Re-ordered
"Pieter Kuiper" wrote in message
...
"Jack Harrison" wrote:

I'll put my (retired) pilot's hat on!

I
never received a single complaint about not keeping them informed about
the
weather. I did receive complaints from the punters about other things
(eg
why their baggage had gone missing, or why we were late again)

On my first flight ever, we landed on Chicago O'Hara in a snowstorm.
Lightning struck the plane. The captain tried to reassure us by saying
that lightning did not matter "in this kind of aircraft".

Which made me wonder what was so special about our aircraft, and what
other airvraft would be affacted by lightning.

Would it ever matter if lightning hit a plane? The plane is not earthed, so
the lightning can't travel through the plane, and therefore should have no
effect.. its like those guys that repair electricity lines from
helicopters.. they can touch what they like (as long as they don't touch two
at a time!) and it makes no difference..

Whilst I think in general that is true, the electronics on an aircraft are
highly sensitive and *could* be affected by the current passing around and
though the aircraft. Well that is what my son informs me - he's involved
in design and testing of aircraft engine control units.

--
Mike posted to uk.sci.weather 11/09/2003 08:20:01 UTC
Coleraine
Seeking information about the Internet and the way it works? - Subscribe to
news:uk.net.beginners

Flight Scare?
 

InMyTree wrote:

Would it ever matter if lightning hit a plane? The plane is not earthed, so
the lightning can't travel through the plane, and therefore should have no
effect.. its like those guys that repair electricity lines from
helicopters.. they can touch what they like (as long as they don't touch two
at a time!) and it makes no difference..

It could probably affect electrical stuff I guess. When I was in America
(yes, again!) in August we were lucky enough to fly over the Grand
Canyon in a helicopter during which time we were treated to a rather
stunning pyrotechnic display all around us from a thunderstorm
(literally - lightning to the sides and in front of us). The pilot of
the helicopter said that the helicopter would shut down if struck by
lightning but he'd still be able to land the thing (don't know where -
the Grand Canyon isn't exactly flat at the bottom).

Jonathan