The Most Dangerous Place on a Ship?

Seajet said:
Continuing from my post # 10 here's ' The Flying Lifeboat ' ( you can see the origins of the Fairey Atalanta ) - I've asked a friend who used to fly Nimrods, he's finding out if Poseidons carry rafts to drop and will get back to us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_lifeboat
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I was hoping that link would show the dinghies I remember from my sailing course in Plymouth in the early 1970s where I think the sails had a stylised "ABL" logo. But it didn't!

Mike.
 
Aircraft life jackets are manual. If you inflate them in the aircraft and and the cabin floods, you will not get out.

Commercial aircraft carry life rafts and slide rafts. That means there is enough capacity for every pax and crew. There are ELT's and survival packs that are taken off in the event of a ditching. The equipment carried puts the marine industry to shame. While a successful ditching is not guaranteed, it is by no means a death sentence.
 
Achosenman said:
Aircraft life jackets are manual. If you inflate them in the aircraft and and the cabin floods, you will not get out.

Commercial aircraft carry life rafts and slide rafts. That means there is enough capacity for every pax and crew. There are ELT's and survival packs that are taken off in the event of a ditching. The equipment carried puts the marine industry to shame. While a successful ditching is not guaranteed, it is by no means a death sentence.
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I don't have any links but I'd suggest the slide/raft type are like to be the biggest saver of passengers. The company I worked for and IIRC Red Funnel have them. But I doubt they're certificated outside sheltered waters as our certainly had no canopy.

W.

PS I'd say being caught in the captain's cabin with his wife would be high up the list! :)
 
PilotWolf said:
I'd say being caught in the captain's cabin with his wife would be high up the list! :)
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That's more like getting coated in dover sole from the galley for the sharks and tossed overboard, probably without a raft...

A major snag with modern airliners is the under-wing pylon mounted engines which will scoop and dig in on ditching - so Sully's achievement on the Hudson was quite miraculous.
 
PilotWolf said:
I don't have any links but I'd suggest the slide/raft type are like to be the biggest saver of passengers. The company I worked for and IIRC Red Funnel have them. But I doubt they're certificated outside sheltered waters as our certainly had no canopy.

W.

PS I'd say being caught in the captain's cabin with his wife would be high up the list! :)
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They do have canopies, very substantial ones at that, along with sea anchors and ballast pockets. We carry infant life cots as well. Not everyone can swim. Not everyone will be able bodied after a ditching. I struggle to see a case for not having life jackets.
 
Seajet said:
That's more like getting coated in dover sole from the galley for the sharks and tossed overboard, probably without a raft...

A major snag with modern airliners is the under-wing pylon mounted engines which will scoop and dig in on ditching - so Sully's achievement on the Hudson was quite miraculous.
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All of which is understood by the industry and ameliorated by technique as far as possible.

As you can well imagine the subject has been discussed at length on the flt deck during long ETOPS flights. The consensus leaned towards the fuse plugs shearing, probably wishful thinking, but what can you do?

As an aside, while not detracting from the excellent job the crew did during the Hudson river ditching, they failed to activate the ditching switch. The aircraft still floated long enough to evacuate.

An old instructor once told me, “don't stop flying, until it stops sliding” Survival is in no small way influenced by mental attitude. I am an optimist, any other mindset is counter productive.
 
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I’m just staggered that Sully managed to avoid hitting any of the many helicopters that seem to fly up and down the Hudson. Until that day, I thought the little picture on the safety briefing card of a floating aeroplane was wishful thinking. Just annoys me how many people choose to ignore the safety briefing. So rude and inconsiderate - others survival might depend on their knowing what to do
 
Achosenman said:
They do have canopies, very substantial ones at that, along with sea anchors and ballast pockets. We carry infant life cots as well. Not everyone can swim. Not everyone will be able bodied after a ditching. I struggle to see a case for not having life jackets.
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OK I hadn’t seen one so wasn’t sure if any of the slide type did.

W


I
 
JumbleDuck said:
What does the ditching switch do?
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I have never flown or qualified on any Airbus, but my understanding is that it is a one stop shop to close exterior vents such as the pressurisation outflow valves and misc intakes in order to slow the inevitable flooding.
On the Boeing types I was qualified on, we manually closed the outflow valves as part of the ditching QRH/ECL (Quick reference handbook on older types, electronic checklist newer types)
 
boomerangben said:
I’m just staggered that Sully managed to avoid hitting any of the many helicopters that seem to fly up and down the Hudson. Until that day, I thought the little picture on the safety briefing card of a floating aeroplane was wishful thinking. Just annoys me how many people choose to ignore the safety briefing. So rude and inconsiderate - others survival might depend on their knowing what to do
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Without even checking, I can guarantee Sully called a Mayday a few seconds after losing thrust and ATC would have cleared the area of helos etc.
 
Achosenman said:
I have never flown or qualified on any Airbus, but my understanding is that it is a one stop shop to close exterior vents such as the pressurisation outflow valves and misc intakes in order to slow the inevitable flooding.
On the Boeing types I was qualified on, we manually closed the outflow valves as part of the ditching QRH/ECL (Quick reference handbook on older types, electronic checklist newer types)
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Many thanks.
 
boomerangben said:
Just annoys me how many people choose to ignore the safety briefing. So rude and inconsiderate - others survival might depend on their knowing what to do
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To be fair, many of them will have flown regularly on that type and know the briefing by heart. Mind you, an acquaintance of mine flew out of Manchester a few days after the British Airtours fire in 1985 and said he had never seen a plane load of business travellers listen to the safety briefing so attentively.
 
Old Harry, I'd certainly be hanging on my fingernails wondering if I'd get a girl or a boy - anyway it'd take my mind off crashing ! :ambivalence:
 
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