Student’s Notes

AIRCRAFT EMERGENCY LANDING

1. Read the text and answer the questions given below.

What is an emergency landing of a plane?
Speak on the types of emergency landings.

An emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a

crisis which interferes with the aircraft operation or it is connected with
sudden medical emergencies requiring diversion to the nearest airport.

Types of emergency landings

There are different types of aircraft emergency landings: planned landing

or unplanned landing

 Forced landing - the aircraft is forced to make a landing due to

technical problems, or rarely weather conditions. Landing as soon as
possible is a priority, when a major system failure has happened. This
means that the forced landing may even happen when the aircraft is still
able to fly, in order to prevent an air crash.
 Precautionary landing may result from a planned landing, in case of
some unexpected changes during the flight, or from abnormal or even
emergency situations. They may result from problems with the aircraft,
or a medical or police emergency. A pilot has to locate a potential place
for landing in case of a precautionary landing.
 Crash landing is caused by the failure of or a damage to vital systems
such as engines, hydraulics, or landing gear, and so a landing must be
made, but a runway is not available. The pilot has to try to get the
aircraft on the ground in a way to minimize and avoid the possibility of
injury or death to the people aboard.
 Ditching is the same as a forced landing, only made on water. After
the disabled aircraft makes contact with the surface of the water, the
aircraft will possibly sink if it is not designed to float, depending on
damage.

Light aircraft can often land safely on fields, roads, or river banks (or on the
water, if they are float-equipped); but medium and heavy aircraft generally

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require long, prepared runway surfaces because of their weight and high
landing speeds. Large airliners have multiple engines and emergency
systems, so forced landings are extremely rare for them, but still some
forced landings happen. Airliners frequently make emergency landings.
However, they can quickly become crash landings or even worse because
of their nature.

2. Read two examples of real cases of airplanes’ emergency landings

and answer the following questions.
a. What were the reasons for emergency landing in each case?
b. How much were the aircraft damaged?

1. For example, Delta Flight 4951 was forced to make an emergency

landing at JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) airport on
September, 25, 2010 because of mechanical failure. The crew realized that
the jet's right wheel was jammed in the up position. The flight was quickly
re-routed to land at JFK. None of the 60 passengers and three crew
members were injured. Flight 4951, operated by Atlantic Southeast
Airlines, was a connection flight headed from Atlanta to White Plains. The
wing of the aircraft scraped the runway; the aircraft safely landed on its left
wheel and right wing tip.
The pilot and the flight crew did a good job. When the pilot was
making his approach to the runway, the tower controller alerted specially
trained firefighters, all emergency services. Pilots have to be fully trained to
respond to all types of abnormal and emergency situations, and sometimes
they have to do a fantastic job to ensure the safety of the passengers.
2. United Airlines Flight made an emergency landing shortly after
takeoff at Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner, La., Monday,
April 4, 2011. The United Airlines flight lost power in all its instruments
but it was able to return to the airport and land safely, guided by air traffic
controllers. United Airlines Flight 497, an Airbus A-320 with 106
passengers and crew onboard, had just taken off from New Orleans' Louis
Armstrong International Airport when the power onboard the plane went
out and the plane began to vibrate. At the beginning it seemed that
everything was routine, but a few minutes later the things started to
change. The pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. Air traffic controllers
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started working on returning the plane to the New Orleans Airport. Then,
the United pilots told air traffic controllers that the situation had quickly
deteriorated in the cockpit, as United 497 lost all its instruments. Flying
blind, the pilots were guided by air traffic controllers. The pilots realized
that without power, they would have problems with stopping and steering,
they requested the longest runway. What they did not know that the
longest runway was closed for construction. Quickly, ground staff began
clearing that runway. The construction vehicles were quickly removed
from the runway. When the Airbus touched down, it had minimal braking
and steering power. The plane, full of fuel for the flight to San Francisco,
ran off the runway, blowing the front tyre and stuck in the mud.
Emergency slides were used to evacuate passenger from the plane. In a
moment the passengers ran for safety. No passengers were injured and
then they were put onto other flights.

3. Give a short summary of the aviation events happened to Delta Flight

4951 and United Airlines Flight 497, making use of the following words
and phrases.

1. to make an emergency landing due to

2. to be re-routed to land at
3. to scrape the runway
4. to land safely
5. to alert specially trained firefighters, all emergency services
6. to lose power in all its instruments
7. to fly blind
8. to be guided by air traffic controllers
9. to have problems with stopping and steering
10. to clear the runway
11. to have minimal braking and steering power
12. to run off of the runway
13. to blow the tyre

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14. to use emergency slides for evacuation of passengers
15. to be injured

4. Read the text and answer the questions given below.

a. How do we call incidents when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully

extended and uses its belly?

b. How dangerous are “belly landings”?

c. What are the reasons for “belly landings”?

When an aircraft lands without its landing gear extended and uses its
belly, it is called “belly landing”. Belly landing is dangerous, because there
can be extensive damage to the airplane and the aircraft may catch fire if it
lands too fast or too hard. Moreover, pilots have to land the plane as
straight as possible and maintain control of the airplane.

Mechanical failure is the most common reason for belly landings. In

some cases where only one landing gear leg may fail to extend, so the pilot
may choose to retract all the gear and perform a belly landing. Another
common cause of belly landing is a pilot’s error, when a pilot simply
forgets to extend the landing gear before touchdown. But pilots have to
comply with the pilot's landing checklist, and lowering the landing gear is
on the checklist. Bad weather conditions such as, strong crosswinds, low
visibility, damage to the airplane, flight instruments or controls failure
greatly increase the danger of making a belly landing. Still, belly landings
are one of the most common types of aircraft accidents, and are normally
not fatal if they are executed carefully.

5. Read the text and find detailed information to answer the following
questions.

a. What airport emergency services respond to aircraft emergencies?

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 b. What kind of safety equipment is used by Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting

Units in emergencies?

Airport Emergency Service

The safety of passengers is very important at any airport. Highly

trained airport emergency service is always ready to provide necessary
assistance, as the emergency staff is on duty 24-hours a day. Airport
emergency service has a lot of important responsibilities: they give medical
assistance if necessary and they are ready to assist to major aircraft
emergencies. Airport emergency staff provides a well-organized, equipped
Rescue and Fire Fighting Service.

Airport emergency personnel are constantly practicing their

professional skills to be ready for any emergency, no matter how big or
small it is. The airport emergency teams have modern rescue vehicles
equipped with fire-fighting and rescue equipment. The aircraft rescue and
firefighting vehicles (“fire trucks” / fire engines) are designed to extinguish
both aircraft and structural fires at airports quickly and efficiently.
They have all necessary safety equipment for people evacuation, they
have to deploy evacuation chutes (emergency slides/escape chutes) to rescue
people from an emergency plane. For example, in case of an emergency
landing of an airplane, emergency services and fire engines have to wait on
the tarmac ahead of the emergency landing, waiting to use foam trucks, as
the runway should be foamed after airplane lands, because the pre-foaming
might also reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft's brakes, potentially
causing it to slide off the runway. In general the Airport Rescue and Fire
Fighting Units are ready around the clock to help aircraft emergencies,
emergency medical calls, fires.

ROUND-TABLE TALK

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1. How dangerous is the situation when an aircraft catches fire in case of

emergency landing? Why?

2. What could the reasons for such incidents be?

3. What airport emergency services assist an aircraft in an emergency?

4. What kind of safety equipment is used by Airport Rescue and Fire

Fighting Units in emergencies?

5. How do passengers usually leave the plane in emergency?

6. What are pilots’ actions in case of emergency landing?

7. How reliable are modern aircraft equipped with modern safety rescue

and fire protection equipment?

8. What are pilots’ actions in a situation when “gear not down”?

9. What are the reasons for “belly landings”?