If a similar accident happened to a plane today
If a passenger jet loses an engine and leaks fuel over an ocean today, what are the pilots going to do?
About the same thing except today CNN will be all over it before the plane hits the ground. Airliners have more range today, most will continue flying pretty well on 1/2 of the engines and...most will get you right to the scene of the accident.
shareToday many problems will more likely occur over mid-flight malfunctions. Including the plane not getting to the terminal before the scheduled take off, the pilots not getting to the plane in nearly enough time from a previous flight, an overbooked flight requiring volunteers to reschedule, and my personal favorite-the ready flight waiting for aonother pilot who wants to hitch a ride. Thats on top of the classic weather condition today. I'm not kidding about any of those because one or more at the same time have happened to me at the same time 90% of all round trips I've taken since 2004. And I have flown at least once everyoneof those years. Ever since 911 the airlines have made horrible production ideas that unlike other types of businesses really mess up people's daily lifes. I love "the high and the mighty" but, except for everyone losing their luggage, that flight looked like a pleasure cruise compared to what I've been through.
Dr. Peter Venkman: NOBODY steps on a church in my town.
Modern jet engines are infinitely more reliable than the old piston engines, or even older turbo prop engines.
A twin engine jet can certainly fly on one engine with little difficulty - pilots train for this sort of eventuality. A four engine could also fly on one engine but the pilots would be working hard.
If an aircraft, jet or otherwise, is left with no means of propulsion the pilot can only point the nose downwards to ensure the airspeed remains above stalling speed and the airliner in effect becomes a giant glider.
Unless some power is restored the aircraft will eventually come into contact with Mother Earth, either land or sea.
Some years ago a British Airways Boeing 747 lost all four of its engines at night over the sea in the vicinity of Indonesia. The captain put the aircraft into a shallow gliding descent and the crew tried manfully to restart the engines. After several minutes during which the passengers were warned to prepare for ditching at night in the sea (almost certain disaster) they had descended to about 10,000 feet and they were able to restart the engines one by one and eventually landed safely.
It was later ascertained they had flown through the dust of an erupting volcano that had caused the engines to shut down. They had the additional difficulty of landing with a partly obscured windscreen caused by the volcano dust adhering to the outside of it.
A book was later published describing the entire incident.
An Air Canada flight had a similar problem when it ran out of fuel due to confusion between gallons and liters. There's a TV movie about the incident. The plane was able to make a dead stick landing near Winnepeg. The pilot had glider experience. Also, the recent landing in the Hudson River when the engines failed due to birds. That pilot also had glider experience.
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