EMERGENCY LANDING

(Redirected from Crash landing)

An 'emergency landing' is a non-planned landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.

Contents

Types of emergency landings

Crash landing/ditch procedures

UAV Forced Landing Research

Notable examples of emergency landings

References

Types of emergency landings

There are three general types of emergency landing for powered aircraft:

★ ''forced landing'', the aircraft is forced to divert from its intended flight path to land, not necessarily for technical problems with the aircraft itself.

★
★ ''out landing'', is a fairly routine type of forced landing for gliders and balloons which are designed to land off-airport

★ ''crash landing'', due to failure or damage of one or more system(s) a landing must be attempted where there is no runway and/or without use of vital systems such as engines, hydraulics, or landing gear.

★ ''ditching'', is the same as a crash landing only on water. After the disabled aircraft makes contact with the surface the aircraft will typically sink if it is not designed to float.
A forced landing occurs when the aircraft is still flyable to either facilitate emergency medical/police assistance or get the aircraft on the ground before a major system failure occurs which would force a crash landing/ditch situation. On the other hand, a crash landing or ditch occurs when the aircraft is no longer able to definitely reach a nearby airport. The pilot is essentially trying to get the aircraft on the ground in a way which minimizes the possibility of injury or death to the people aboard.

Crash landing/ditch procedures

During a crash landing, fixed-wing aircraft glide, while a rotary-winged aircraft (helicopter) autorotates to the ground by trading altitude for airspeed when necessary to maintain control.
If there is a suitable landing spot within the aircraft's gliding or autorotation distance, an emergency landing will often result in no injuries or significant damage to the aircraft, since powered aircraft generally use little or no power when they are landing. Light aircraft can often land safely on fields, roads, or gravel river banks (or on the water, if they are float-equipped); medium and heavy aircraft generally require long, prepared runway surfaces because of their heavier weight and higher landing speeds.

UAV Forced Landing Research

Over the past few years there has been a new research area emerging focussed on enabling UAVs to perform a forced landing totally autonomously. This research was started in 2003 and numerous results published since.^[1]

Notable examples of emergency landings

Large airliners have multiple engines and redundant systems, so forced landings are extremely rare for them, but some notable ones have occurred. The most famous example is the Gimli Glider, an Air Canada Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel and glided to a safe landing in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada on July 23 1983. More recently, Air Transat Flight 236 ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean on August 4 2001 and made a successful forced landing in the Azores. And on June 1982, British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, which lost power in four engines, 3 of which recovered, eventually diverting to Jakarta
A less successful crash landing involved Southern Airways Flight 242 on April 4 1977. The DC-9 lost both of its engines due to hail and heavy rain in a thunderstorm and, unable to glide to an airport, made a forced landing on a highway near New Hope, Georgia, United States. The plane made a hard landing and was still carrying a large amount of fuel, so it burst into flames, killing the majority of the passengers and several people on the ground.
Airliners frequently make emergency landings, and almost all of them are uneventful. However because of their inherent uncertain nature, they can quickly become crash landings or worse. Some notable instances include Swissair Flight 111, which crashed near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on September 2 1998 while dumping fuel in preparation for a precautionary landing due to fire; United Airlines Flight 232, which broke up while landing at Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.A. on July 19 1989; and Air Canada Flight 797, which burned after landing at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on June 2 1983 after a fire started in the cabin.

References

1. UAV Forced Landing Research Daniel Fitzgerald