She managed to trace some 200 of the 247 passengers on the flight, and went on to marry a fellow survivor, James Ferguson, who had been seated in the row in front of her. Captain Bob Pearson, 82, and his co-pilot First Officer Maurice Quintal, who has since passed away . They were coming in too hard and too fast, the sluggish controls putting the plane on a collision course with the hard surface of the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Family and friends can send flowers and/or light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. McCormick fought to level out the plane, and got the wheels to the pavement, only to see the plane go skidding wildly off the runway. Shortly after 13:40 UTC (20:40 Jakarta time) above the Indian Ocean, south of Java, the flight crew (consisting of Senior First Officer Roger Greaves and Senior Engineer Officer Barry Townley-Freeman while Captain Eric Moody was in the lavatory) first noted an effect on the windscreen similar to St Elmo's fire. A nearly identical incident occurred on 15 December 1989 when KLM Flight 867, a Boeing 747-400 from Amsterdam to Anchorage, Alaska, flew into the plume of the erupting Mount Redoubt, causing all four engines to fail due to compressor stall. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The landing gear was now stuck down, and the drag that it was causing meant they wouldn't have enough fuel to get to Los Angeles. Then, one by one, the engines began failing, clogged with volcanic ash. And even worse, the windshield was so fogged up that they had to rely on the lights on the tarmac they could only see through a small, clear part of the windshield. June 24, 2022 Aviation Airliner, Barry Townley-Freeman, Boeing 747-236B, British Airways, Captain Eric Moody, City of Edinburgh, Eric Henry John Moody, Flame Out, G-BDXG, Inflight Emergency, Inflight Engine Failure, Mount Gallanggung, Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, Roger Greaves, Rolls-Royce RB211-524D4 . here's Wikipedia's description of the incident: Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, The crew's intense focus on the problem (without false assurances that they could fix it), Concern for the well-being of the passengers (without being patronizing). How old is Eric Moody? Darin Graham speaks to retired Captain Eric Moody, who flew the plane that night. Admit it: At one time or another, you've thought, Man, being an airline pilot seems like a pretty easy job. After being ferried back to London, engine number four was replaced and major work was undertaken to return the aircraft to service. After falling more than 25,000 feet and preparing to ditch in the Indian Ocean, the plane's crew eventually got the engines restarted. Passengers who had a view of the aircraft's engines through the window noted that they were unusually bright blue, with light shining forward through the fan blades and producing a stroboscopic effect. It wasn't going to be easy. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Mr Moody's announcement to the passengers after losing power has gone down in airline lore. Owing to the high Indonesian mountains on the south coast of the island of Java, an altitude of at least 11,500 feet (3,500m) was required to cross the coast safely. Eric Moody was in command of British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing . All four engines have stopped. The plane continued to lose altitude and the oxygen masks dropped in the passenger compartment. The engines had enough electrical power to restart because one generator and the on-board batteries were still operating; electrical power was required for cranking and ignition of the engines. The crew frantically tried to restart the engines in mid-air. All four engines have stopped. One of the passengers, Betty Tootell, wrote a book about the incident, All Four Engines Have Failed. Er und seine Crew retteten durch seine Entscheidungen und sein Handeln viele Menschen. With nerves of steel, the captain, Eric Moody, miraculously landed the plane. [3], At approximately 13:42 UTC (20:42 Jakarta time), engine number four began surging and soon flamed out. The flight crew members had boarded the aircraft at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Kuala Lumpur and were due to pilot the 747 from the Malaysia to Perth Airport leg. Action News and 6abc.com are Philadelphia's source for breaking news and live streaming video online, covering Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware. [3] At 13:44 UTC (20:44 Jakarta time), Greaves declared an emergency to the local air traffic control authority, stating that all four engines had failed. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. It wasnt until later, when he, his crew and the 247 passengers on board the flight, were safely back on the ground, that Moody discovered the cause of the narrowly averted catastrophe volcanic ash. We have . Following the incident, the crew and passengers formed the Galunggung Gliding Club as a means to keep in contact. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung (approximately 180 kilometres (110mi) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia), resulting in the failure of all four engines. Without engine thrust, a 747-200 has a glide ratio of roughly 15:1, meaning it can glide forward 15 kilometres for every kilometre it drops. In trouble. Then, in between bouts of frenzied cursing and pants-inflating bowel explosions, Moody and his crew tried one more time to restart the engines and it worked. When Atchison tried to get on the radio to declare an emergency, he couldn't hear the response due to all the chaos erupting around him. "[10], British Airways continued to operate the Flight 9 route from London Heathrow to Sydney; in March 2012 the route was curtailed to Bangkok. Captain Eric Moody gave an interview to the July 2010 edition of Flaps Podcast, where he recounted his experience. Eric Moody. "We have a small problem. Engines one, two and three were replaced at Jakarta, as well as the windscreen, and the fuel tanks were cleared of the ash that had entered them through the pressurisation ducts, contaminating the fuel and requiring that it be disposed of. Less than a minute later, at 13:43 UTC (20:43 Jakarta time), engine two surged and flamed out. I trust you are not in too much distress.' What the shit? In 37 short, direct, and simple words, Captain Moody conveyed the following: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. So the story had a happy ending. The 747 had 248 passengers and 15 crew members on board. A close examination of the plane revealed the damage a plume of these tiny particles can do to an engine the tips of the turbine blades had been ground away. Moody throttled back; however, engine number two surged again and was shut down. The airplane went through it with no problem at first. Volcanic dustfromerupting Mount Gallanggung, a 7,113 foot (2,168 meters) stratovolcano located in West Java, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Bandung, had been ingested by the engines and melted inside thecombustionchambers, cutting off the airflow and shutting each of them down. The 747 had a glide ratio of 15:1. Because the ash cloud was dry, it did not appear on the weather radar, which was designed to detect the moisture in clouds. Moody described it as "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse. Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement":[4].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I am old enough to remember this incident, but I had forgotten something important about it: What the plane's captain said to the passengers the moment after the engines failed. The Boeing 747 powered by four Rolls Royce engines had become a glider. As they came in to land, the crew managed to get the landing gear down and announced to the passengers that they should brace for impact. At 8:42 PM Jakarta time or 1:42 pm UTC Flight engineer barry freeman called out engine failure number 4 engine number 4 had flamed out, captain moody called for the engine fire drill and the other two pilots carried it out. A dry sense of perspective that probably did more to relax the passengers than thousands of words of explanation ever could have. Needing time to calmly consider his options, Capt Moody used autopilot to put the plane into a gentle descent, and instructed his first officer to issue a mayday call. 24 June 1982. In 37 short, direct, and simple words, Captain Moody conveyed the following: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. At 13,500 feet (4,100m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. We have a small problem. "[1] Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. It was only after a Singapore Airlines 747 was forced to shut down three of its engines while flying through the same area nineteen days later (13 July) that Indonesian authorities closed the airspace permanently and rerouted airways to avoid the area; a watch was set up to monitor clouds of ash. She notes: "The 28th December 2006 marks the start of our 14th year of honeymoon, and on the 24th June 2007 many passengers and crew will no doubt gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our mid-air adventure. Sullenburger was the last one off. We told you, the Chinese didn't give a single fuck. One such passenger was Charles Capewell, who scrawled "Ma. About an hour into the flight, an engine's fan disk failed. At 13,500 feet (4,100 m), the crew was approaching the altitude at which they would have to turn over the ocean and attempt a risky ditching. An emergency landing alert was quickly issued to the plane at the Sioux City airport in Iowa. The crew frantically tried to restart the engines in mid-air. Passengers were told to brace themselves for an emergency landing, and to put their yellow oxygen masks on. Shortly thereafter, engine three restarted, allowing him to climb slowly. A minute later engine number two also surged and flamed out. All four engines have stopped. The QUEEN has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of the Celebration of Her Majestys Birthday, to approve the award of The Queens Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air: The Queens Commendation for Valuable Service In short, they now had no control of the plane whatsoever. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. If an exceptional speechwriter had spent a week composing the message, he or she couldn't have done better. The British are masters of the art, with the result that their communications often leave the rest of us quite bewildered. Despite the lack of time, Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has been described as "a masterpiece of understatement":[3]. Captain Eric Moody's announcement to the passengers after losing power has become legendary. His personal awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, three Strike Flight Air Medals, three . Passengers witnessed first hand the engines going up in flames and smoke and proceeded to scribble goodbye notes to relatives. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. The plane headed back to Jakarta where it landed safely, though even then one of the engines had failed again. Moody. But the flight crew didn't even announce their landing as any kind of emergency to the stunned air traffic controllers. It operated with the call sign, Speedbird 9.. About your Captain. It took a second for the situation to sink in, the flight engineer said four engines do not fail, A quadruple engine failure was almost unheard of. Eventually all four engines were running andthe747 began to regain altitude. Although the airspace around Mount Galunggung was closed temporarily after the incident, it was reopened days later. It turned out someone had forgotten to seal the cargo door, and the force of the takeoff had ripped it straight off and tossed it into the tail of the plane, disrupting the engine and the flaps in the back. When all four engines on the Boeing 747 being flown by Captain Eric Moody shut down at 37,000ft, he hadn't a clue why. Einer der wichtigsten Piloten. Dr. Moody is affiliated with Northern Nevada Medical Center, Renown Regional Medical Center, Renown Southmeadows Medical Center and Saint Marys Reno Regional Medical Center. "He said, 'Ladies and gentlemen. After landing, the flight crew found it impossible to taxi, due to glare from apron floodlights which made the already sandblasted windscreen opaque. He remained calm during an encounter with a plume of volcanic ash in 1982: "Ladies and . Pilot Min-Yuan Ho, drawing from his years of experience, determined that commercial airliners don't normally do this and disengaged the autopilot. In 1982, Captain Eric Moody was piloting a British Airways jet over Indonesia when he unexpectedly flew into an ash cloud. In 1985, Chinese Airlines Flight 006 was flying from Taiwan to Los Angeles when an engine went out on the side of the plane. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox. ST. JAMESS PALACE, LONDON S.W.I The Number Two engine again began to surge sothecrew shut it down and the 747 remained at 12,000 feet (3,658 meters). Moody swiftly decided to descend at 1,800 m per minute to an altitude where there was enough pressure in the outside atmosphere to breathe almost normally. All four engines have stopped. "[1] Although the runway lights could be made out through a small strip of the windscreen, the landing lights on the aircraft seemed to be inoperable. He believes the authorities were right to close our skies. Einer der wichtigsten Piloten aller Zeiten. The aircraft was taken out of service in February 2004; in 2009, the then 30-year-old aircraft was scrapped. It was a masterpiece, period. We have a small problem. And even they'll tell you that airliners pretty much fly themselves. 00:00, 22 APR 2010. He is the Founder and Editor of The Aviation Geek Club one of the worlds most read military aviation blogs. The cloud sandblasted the windscreen and landing light covers and clogged the engines. Born in Savannah, Ga and growing up in Hinesville, I was always close to saltwater. One of the engines went down. Eric Moody is 6-6 (198 cm) tall. Ash had clogged the engines, which only restarted when enough of the molten ash solidified and broke off. 09 Nov 2017 at 5:00pm. The crew members of the accident segment had boarded the aircraft in Kuala Lumpur, while many of the passengers had been aboard since the flight began in London.[2]. We love you. Eric Moody was born in Greenville, SC. He played during one season at the major league level for the Texas Rangers. Oh, wait, the oxygen bags didn't drop because they're only deployed when the plane is above 14,000 feet, and they were a few thousand feet under that window. The crew began engine restart drills, despite being well above the recommended maximum engine in-flight start envelope altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500m). We have a small problem. Despite the crew "squawking" the emergency transponder setting of 7700, the aeroplane could not be located by Air Traffic Control on their radar screens. Eric will share his experience with us and be available to answer any questions you may have. GEOL 1408 Assignment 2: Due Tuesday, 2/20/18 Down to a Sunless Sea: The anatomy of an incident WORK INDEPENDANTLY!!!! ; The Phillies tied it at 4 in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Tomas Perez off Eric Moody. Something went wrong, please try again later. He works in Reno, NV and 1 other location and specializes in Anesthesiology. Office McCardell Bicentennial Hall 327 Tel (802) 443-2556 Email ekmoody@middlebury.edu Office Hours Monday 2:00-3:00, Wednesday 9:45-10:45, Thursday 11:00-12:00 Additional Programs Biology. A dry sense of perspective that probably did more to relax the passengers than thousands of words of explanation ever could have. 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