“The same flight crew flew the passengers later that day” I’d have been like “ yeah, I’m not getting back on the plane unless that pilot is the one flying us”
At that time, many Olympic captains were ex-air force and therefore had experience of thinking ahead and trusting their knowledge. I would have happily flow Olympic at any time during that period.
I havent seen the video yet but based on the title, ill trust the pilot that also wants to get home to his family over some desk jockey that makes the rules. Im a truck driver and i would be dead if followed the "rules" in certain situations like blizzards and 90mph winds through Montana. When shit hits the fan, ill trust the experienced pilot who also has something to lose. That pilot is a damn boss!!! He did everything so perfectly! Of course they tried to blame the crew to save face, nothings changed even in 2024.
The captain should have a medal for his astonishing job he did. 🥇🥇🥇 I watched another video earlier about this event where it was mentioned that the aircraft almost scraped the roofs of buildings when passing over the hill.
Amazing! Thank you for sharing this incredible story of 1978 Olympic Flight 411. Experience, gut feeling & making quick decisions has saved many lives! Greetings from Madang, Papua New Guinea!
Well, I am speechless about his heroic and incredible act saving both the plane and passengers. It is incredible and amazing. This is a miracle performed by the crew. Hats off the Captain and all.
Seems like being dishonest and duplicitous is nothing new to Boeing! Thank God for an experienced, intelligent Captain and crew!!! His every decision, regardless of the rule book, and every move, in ever changing conditions, resulted in an astounding outcome! He deserves to be in an aviation Hall of Fame❣️
All his years saved countless lives!…. I’m just a chef!…. I don’t save lives!…. I just feed them!…. But even my insignificant profession comes with moments of, ‘F The Rules!’…. Dude acted on instinct, and experience!…. And actually saved lives!…. Not just ruining some dinner party!…. 💯
Very smart captain, to resist turning back, with so low altitude, and airspeed. I think that was a major plus in all surviving also. Praise God for calm and sensible pilot, who respect life, and make right choices.
The Captain used daring skill to beat the odds and managed to get away with it. At some point luck becomes the deciding factor in life or death situations. In any case, the making of a hero begins at the point where danger, opportunity and chance meet. Interesting video.
The old Hellinon airport had a runway that was a wee bit too short. No chance of shutting engines down and slamming on the brakes. Takeoff was always fun, the aircraft was taxied to the blast deflectors at the base of the runway. They would run up the engines to full power for at least a minute before releasing the brakes. Takeoff provided a good slam into one’s seat!
I raise my hat to the Captain, he did what only a seasoned professional could. Brick bats to Boeing for tipping a bucket on him but, as usual, they accepted no responsibility for a failure of the engine due to a design flaw. Onya Boeing!
Great thinking great knowledge n great performance by a great man.keep up the great work ur doing.Youre in Gods hands sir....Elvis Miller.from Bahamas.
Sometimes we have to trust human instincts. If this plane was flown by computers it would have surely crashed. The Captain and his co pilot are heroes in my book.👍👍👍👍
The Pratt and Whitney JT9D was a rushed solution for the 747 and an accident waiting to happen, it depended heavily upon water injection not just for additional wet thrust but to stop is destroying itself. Formally a military engine It was far from robust enough for a civil airliner suffering from ovality of the compressor engine casing at TOGA thrust settings resulting in catastrophic damage from blade collision. The Rolls Royce RB211 fan bypass was delayed due to development problems nearly driving RR into liquidation, however redesign of the N1 blades redeemed the situation and JT9D was dropped in favour of the now more powerful and reliable RB211. The JT9D problems were later resolved and its power increased without water injection.
The heck??? The JT9D was originally developed as a competitor engine for the C-5A Galaxy program, years before the Boeing 747 was flight tested. The main problem was that Pratt & Whitney had let production sit idle because they weren't selling any engines to the Air Force. The ovalization problem you refer to did exist in the JT9D, but it was found during stand testing and was corrected before the 747 entered production, and by the time of this incident the JT9D was - justly - considered a highly robust and reliable engine in all flight regimes. Boeing had always intended for the 747 to have multiple available engine options for its customers, and indeed by the end of the 70s had options available from all three major Western turbine manufacturers: The P&W JT9D, the General Electric CF6 and the Rolls-Royce RB211. The JT9D was the most common of these throughout the commercial lifespan of the 747, however, and its successor, the PW4000, was the launch engine for the 747-400.
The Captain did the right thing! There is a reason every Navy Flight Manual has something similar for the introduction. The NATOPS ( Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization ) actually says.. "This manual contains information on all aircraft systems, performance data, and operating procedures required for safe and effective operations, however, it is not a substitute for sound judgement. Compound emergencies, available facilities, adverse weather or terrain, or considerations affecting the lives and property of others may require modification of the procedures contained herein."
Well, well, well, BOEING engineers managed to blame flight crew and not their design, poor maintenance record and downplay the role that the flight crew played for passengers and populace.
I would rather have a pilot who can think and reason in a crisis than one who can only follow written instructions that can't possibly foretell all potential scenarios.
The reason for checklists is so that pilots get to know them off by heart. Then in an emergency, they can change the sequence to match the situation, without missing anything.
Exactly! There is a reason every Navy Flight Manual has something similar for the introduction. The NATOPS ( Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization ) actually says.. "This manual contains information on all aircraft systems, performance data, and operating procedures required for safe and effective operations, however, it is not a substitute for sound judgement. Compound emergencies, available facilities, adverse weather or terrain, or considerations affecting the lives and property of others may require modification of the procedures contained herein."
@@wilsjane In almost every case (this wasn't one of them), following the checklist with exactitude is what saves lives, and skipping around things you think are unimportant is what gets people killed.
I thought the 747 was designed to be able to take off normally even on 3 engines at max weight for exactly this type of situation. Even with the water pumps off, I would have expected the thrust of 3 engines could keep the plane airborne. Actually I guess it did stay airborne, but it shouldn't have been so difficult to gain some speed. I guess that is why they switched engines.
While the Captain DID do a fantastic job of keeping the plane in the air. The purpose of the pumps they shut off is for providing additional thrust by injecting water into those combustion chamber.
This Captain Deserves A Dam Medal For What He Did To save All Of Those Lives On That Plane And The Main Company Engineers Were Just Doing The Old DEM Gaslighting Trick To Take The Heat Off Of Them For THEIR FAULTY Engines, END OF STORY !!
I saw this video I it’s original state were magidis the captain spoke Greek with his copilot and the engineer if it wasn’t for his good thinking the plane would have crashed killing everyone on. Board and how many more on the ground!!! Years later he said that everyone on that flight was living on. Borowd time and also when Boeing re instructed the flight on a simulator not one pilot 🧑✈️ was able to save the plane!!!! Godbless his memory
1995 I experienced a similar incident with a 747 when flying on a KLM direct flight from SFO to Amsterdam, while taxing to the run way, we heard a big bang, the passenger next to me commented, wow that must have been a big pot hole, I then said if that was a pot hole then why didn't the plane shake, for sure there was something wrong and I wanted out of that plane, but I stayed calm as can be, as we were making speed for take off, I had that gut feeling that there was something wrong with this plane, once air born it didn't feel right as like the plane was struggling to climb, about 20 minutes into the flight the Captain notified the passengers that we were having engine problems with an engine so were going to shut it down and were now going to make a pit stop at JFK, he assured us that the plane will have no problems flying with only 3 engines, as we were arriving to JFK at about 2:00 Am, many of the passengers were clapping their hands, that's when I said loudly, it ain't over till the fat lady sings the blues, look out side and you can see what I'm talking about, as they looked out the widows they could see the light flashing on emergency Vehicles that were lining both sides of the run way and that's when the celebration ended, anyway we landed with no problems but we were now going to be stuck in N.Y. for 2 days, instead of trying to source a part locally they decided they going to fly the needed part from Amsterdam, well long and behold it was the wrong part but they were trying to make the wrong part work anyway which I thought was nuts, I will know this because some one from the cabin crew told me this. End game we ended up on a Delta flight to continue our way to Amsterdam, yeah we made it there but our luggage didn't because it was still on the KLM plane that was stuck at JFK.
This was 1995, so nothing much has changed since then! The KLM aircraft must have eventually made it to Amsterdam and the luggage that was left behind in JFK!? 🙂😝
Amazing skill and knowledge of one’s ability to fly such a majestic and iconic aircraft with the loss of an engine during takeoff. His experience, skill and knowledge kicked in to save the iconic 747 aircraft and 415+/- souls that lived to come home to family. 👍🏼💪🏽
Boeing’s report is ‘interesting’ in that it casts blame (which national air accident investigations rarely do) on everybody else, even ignoring the primary cause. I thought the water injection was turned off AFTER the engine failed. It may have limited power to the remaining three but couldn’t have caused the engine loss which had already occurred. ‘Blame the aircrew’ seems to have been the default position amongst manufacturers which is why they should never be allowed to do anything without independent supervision. How times have changed - NOT. The flight-deck crew did an amazing job in near impossible circumstances.
Boeing used to be a company you would never expect to be anything but superior. We've learned otherwise and now I wonder how many times they covered up faults before.
@@BeeWhistler I think it's always been the case. There's just too much at stake for a manufacturer not to "spin" the initial news where there's still latitude to do so because the true cause is not yet known or officially understood. Dead pilots are of course readily blamed, and have been for decades. Boeing may have had a good reputation earlier, and have had some systemic management problems since, but as far as "massaging the news cycle", I think that's always occurred, and likely not just by Boeing either. It's almost as if there's a play-book for this -- hence Boeing's initial attempts to blame the (dead) pilots when the first Super-max went down.
I’m no pilot, but I would have “cleaned up” the aircraft by retracting the gear to give me more airspeed. In a power deficient craft, airspeed is life!
A well know aviation history incident that marked the flying procudures are not always done by the book. In his interview the captain added that he didnt dumped the fuel because the attidude from the ground was that low. The plane landed with most of his fuel. He even said that it would had been such a waste by doing so.
The plane was extremely heavy because of all the fuel for crossing the ocean. I presume the captain dropped several tonnes of fuel before landing safely ?
The weight of the fuel is not as big a factor as the volume is. An aircraft weighing a half-million pounds is not worrying about a few tons of fuel although that could be the difference. The biggest reason for dumping fuel is to reduce the severity of a fire when crash-landing.
I have my pilot's license and they teach you now that the gear causes drag, and if you have reduced power, or loss of power not to drop the gear until you have your landing spot made. Also, depending on the plane and the landing spot the gear could either help or hurt you, but there isn't a lot you can do about it.
The Captain was a real hero in this tense and dangerous situation. His quick thinking doubtless saved the lives of all onboard!
The captain is a genius and should be given a medal worthy of his tremendous skills, he’s a hero. 18.10pm.
“The same flight crew flew the passengers later that day” I’d have been like “ yeah, I’m not getting back on the plane unless that pilot is the one flying us”
The Captain did a supernatural thing: he saved 400 people's lives, plus probably hundreds if not thousands on the ground. The guy is a hero.
Now that’s a real pilot. Put in a difficult situstion.
My hat goes off to the pilot.
What a surprise that Boeing immediately put the blame on the pilots, they will never change
The captain was a hero and quick thinker. Wonderful story.
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.
Brilliant piloting! The crew saved a lot of lives.
Typical of Boeing to blame the flight crew rather than themselves!
"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools." (Sir Douglas Bader)
Outstanding piece of airmanship.
At that time, many Olympic captains were ex-air force and therefore had experience of thinking ahead and trusting their knowledge. I would have happily flow Olympic at any time during that period.
I havent seen the video yet but based on the title, ill trust the pilot that also wants to get home to his family over some desk jockey that makes the rules. Im a truck driver and i would be dead if followed the "rules" in certain situations like blizzards and 90mph winds through Montana. When shit hits the fan, ill trust the experienced pilot who also has something to lose. That pilot is a damn boss!!! He did everything so perfectly! Of course they tried to blame the crew to save face, nothings changed even in 2024.
The captain should have a medal for his astonishing job he did. 🥇🥇🥇
I watched another video earlier about this event where it was mentioned that the aircraft almost scraped the roofs of buildings when passing over the hill.
He remained calm and this was the main reason. Stay calm and do what you need to do.
The captain’s decision to retract landing gear was by feeling and experience, not by a calculated decision. That makes a good pilot
@expansionone, I call this "Airmanship".
Captain is a pilot par excellence, Boeing representative who bent the truth was despicable. Well done, Captain. Thanks for the video.
My thought exactly! A real snake!!!
Brilliant piece of flying in all respects. The captain is an absolute hero.
One very smart and well experienced pilot... Great flying...
My grandfather was a Squadron leader in WW1. From what i have seen, rates this pilot as the best ever, in other words he could fly.
This was a master class of skill, we must not lose these type pilots
In the event of an emergency there’s only one rule
The pilot can do anything necessary to land safely
This rule overrides all other rules
Amazing! Thank you for sharing this incredible story of 1978 Olympic Flight 411. Experience, gut feeling & making quick decisions has saved many lives! Greetings from Madang, Papua New Guinea!
He broke the rules yes but he saved so many lives that day including his off course so he is a hero to me.
That’s one hell of a pilot great job.
Well, I am speechless about his heroic and incredible act saving both the plane and passengers. It is incredible and amazing. This is a miracle performed by the crew. Hats off the Captain and all.
Seems like being dishonest and duplicitous is nothing new to Boeing! Thank God for an experienced, intelligent Captain and crew!!! His every decision, regardless of the rule book, and every move, in ever changing conditions, resulted in an astounding outcome! He deserves to be in an aviation Hall of Fame❣️
All his years saved countless lives!…. I’m just a chef!…. I don’t save lives!…. I just feed them!…. But even my insignificant profession comes with moments of, ‘F The Rules!’…. Dude acted on instinct, and experience!…. And actually saved lives!…. Not just ruining some dinner party!…. 💯
Wow! What amazing airmanship!
What a disgrace of Boeing lying about the facts , just shows the deceit started in 1978 and continues until today
What a pilot and crew. God bless. ❤❤❤
Boeing telling lies back then as now and blaming the man who saved all these lives!
Boeing always do anything to keep own ass safe.
That’s everyday Boeing job
You completely misunderstood the entire video.
They always blame the crew, even when their engine blew up!
Experience is sometimes a better plan than the rule book.
Gaz UK
Very smart captain, to resist turning back, with so low altitude, and airspeed. I think that was a major plus in all surviving also. Praise God for calm and sensible pilot, who respect life, and make right choices.
He did what he was supposed to do. He flew the plane! 🤍🎉
The Captain used daring skill to beat the odds and managed to get away with it. At some point luck becomes the deciding factor in life or death situations. In any case, the making of a hero begins at the point where danger, opportunity and chance meet. Interesting video.
He deserved an award for his quick thinking
Boeing reflew this on it's simulator, and it crashed every time! Amazing pilot, something computers couldn't ever do?
Definitely, mission impossible!😮
FAA: In the event of an emergency the PIC may deviate from any rule or regulation to meet the emergency.
THE CAPTAIN WAS BEYOND BRILLIANT! YES, A TRUE HERO! HE WAS A VERY SPECIAL PERSON INDEED!
Rules are to help you avoid trouble. Once you are in trouble, there are no rules to break.
The captain what a hero ❤
The old Hellinon airport had a runway that was a wee bit too short. No chance of shutting engines down and slamming on the brakes. Takeoff was always fun, the aircraft was taxied to the blast deflectors at the base of the runway. They would run up the engines to full power for at least a minute before releasing the brakes. Takeoff provided a good slam into one’s seat!
Oh my word ! Was there in 1978, spent time on Paros and thoroughly enjoyed the Plaka, the food and above all the people !
Great work. Thnx
Stunning Pilotage.
Thank God there are people like the Captain
Wow! God blessed him with great wisdom!
Unfortunately,pilots like Captain Magedies are very few and far between.
Good piloting skills & very lucky to have landed in 1 piece, ✈️👍😎🍺
The pilot doesn't want to die either !
I raise my hat to the Captain, he did what only a seasoned professional could. Brick bats to Boeing for tipping a bucket on him but, as usual, they accepted no responsibility for a failure of the engine due to a design flaw. Onya Boeing!
Great thinking great knowledge n great performance by a great man.keep up the great work ur doing.Youre in Gods hands sir....Elvis Miller.from Bahamas.
Right on, this is where experience pays off.
I think 32years of experience is the difference. Big balls too.
Engine No.2 just had maintenance so wasn't performing at 100%"
So what the HELL was the maintenance for ???
to reduce the performance for fuel savings. An accounting idea.
Sometimes we have to trust human instincts. If this plane was flown by computers it would have surely crashed. The Captain and his co pilot are heroes in my book.👍👍👍👍
Great Airmanship "Semper-Fi"
Rules are for the blind obedience of fools and the guidance of wiser men.
That captain should knighted , declared a Saint and Holy as he did something beyond and above the supernatural.....WOW What a HERO .
The Pratt and Whitney JT9D was a rushed solution for the 747 and an accident waiting to happen, it depended heavily upon water injection not just for additional wet thrust but to stop is destroying itself. Formally a military engine It was far from robust enough for a civil airliner suffering from ovality of the compressor engine casing at TOGA thrust settings resulting in catastrophic damage from blade collision. The Rolls Royce RB211 fan bypass was delayed due to development problems nearly driving RR into liquidation, however redesign of the N1 blades redeemed the situation and JT9D was dropped in favour of the now more powerful and reliable RB211. The JT9D problems were later resolved and its power increased without water injection.
The heck???
The JT9D was originally developed as a competitor engine for the C-5A Galaxy program, years before the Boeing 747 was flight tested. The main problem was that Pratt & Whitney had let production sit idle because they weren't selling any engines to the Air Force. The ovalization problem you refer to did exist in the JT9D, but it was found during stand testing and was corrected before the 747 entered production, and by the time of this incident the JT9D was - justly - considered a highly robust and reliable engine in all flight regimes.
Boeing had always intended for the 747 to have multiple available engine options for its customers, and indeed by the end of the 70s had options available from all three major Western turbine manufacturers: The P&W JT9D, the General Electric CF6 and the Rolls-Royce RB211. The JT9D was the most common of these throughout the commercial lifespan of the 747, however, and its successor, the PW4000, was the launch engine for the 747-400.
My family rode a Olympic 747 to Athens from JFK in 1973. They said that our flight was the first for that airplane.
He s a hero
That is why a good education is important
Great job
The Captain did the right thing! There is a reason every Navy Flight Manual has something similar for the introduction. The NATOPS ( Naval Air Training
and Operating Procedures Standardization ) actually says..
"This manual contains information on
all aircraft systems, performance data, and operating procedures required for safe and effective
operations, however, it is not a substitute for sound judgement. Compound emergencies, available
facilities, adverse weather or terrain, or considerations affecting the lives and property of others may
require modification of the procedures contained herein."
Having a near death experience changes you and your outlook on life.
What a skunk response from boing...
BRAVO CAPTAIN
Good job
And Boeing CEO lied per usual
The pilot is the one who is ultimately held responsible good or bad!
Well, well, well, BOEING engineers managed to blame flight crew and not their design, poor maintenance record and downplay the role that the flight crew played for passengers and populace.
Great job by the captain!
If an engine can't handle 32 degrees celsius, then it is n9t fit to be on an airplane.
I think the captain is a total badass.
I would rather have a pilot who can think and reason in a crisis than one who can only follow written instructions that can't possibly foretell all potential scenarios.
The reason for checklists is so that pilots get to know them off by heart. Then in an emergency, they can change the sequence to match the situation, without missing anything.
Airline pilots are thinkers not checklist monkeys
Exactly! There is a reason every Navy Flight Manual has something similar for the introduction. The NATOPS ( Naval Air Training
and Operating Procedures Standardization ) actually says..
"This manual contains information on
all aircraft systems, performance data, and operating procedures required for safe and effective
operations, however, it is not a substitute for sound judgement. Compound emergencies, available
facilities, adverse weather or terrain, or considerations affecting the lives and property of others may
require modification of the procedures contained herein."
@@wilsjane In almost every case (this wasn't one of them), following the checklist with exactitude is what saves lives, and skipping around things you think are unimportant is what gets people killed.
Captain M is a super cool head air hero !
I thought the 747 was designed to be able to take off normally even on 3 engines at max weight for exactly this type of situation. Even with the water pumps off, I would have expected the thrust of 3 engines could keep the plane airborne. Actually I guess it did stay airborne, but it shouldn't have been so difficult to gain some speed. I guess that is why they switched engines.
nice video
While the Captain DID do a fantastic job of keeping the plane in the air.
The purpose of the pumps they shut off is for providing additional thrust by injecting water into those combustion chamber.
This Captain Deserves A Dam Medal For What He Did To save All Of Those Lives On That Plane And The Main Company Engineers Were Just Doing The Old DEM Gaslighting Trick To Take The Heat Off Of Them For THEIR FAULTY Engines, END OF STORY !!
I saw this video I it’s original state were magidis the captain spoke Greek with his copilot and the engineer if it wasn’t for his good thinking the plane would have crashed killing everyone on. Board and how many more on the ground!!! Years later he said that everyone on that flight was living on. Borowd time and also when Boeing re instructed the flight on a simulator not one pilot 🧑✈️ was able to save the plane!!!! Godbless his memory
The captain should have retired, with millions pd to him. A teal human being.😊❤❤
1995 I experienced a similar incident with a 747 when flying on a KLM direct flight from SFO to Amsterdam, while taxing to the run way, we heard a big bang, the passenger next to me commented, wow that must have been a big pot hole, I then said if that was a pot hole then why didn't the plane shake, for sure there was something wrong and I wanted out of that plane, but I stayed calm as can be, as we were making speed for take off, I had that gut feeling that there was something wrong with this plane, once air born it didn't feel right as like the plane was struggling to climb, about 20 minutes into the flight the Captain notified the passengers that we were having engine problems with an engine so were going to shut it down and were now going to make a pit stop at JFK, he assured us that the plane will have no problems flying with only 3 engines, as we were arriving to JFK at about 2:00 Am, many of the passengers were clapping their hands, that's when I said loudly, it ain't over till the fat lady sings the blues, look out side and you can see what I'm talking about, as they looked out the widows they could see the light flashing on emergency Vehicles that were lining both sides of the run way and that's when the celebration ended, anyway we landed with no problems but we were now going to be stuck in N.Y. for 2 days, instead of trying to source a part locally they decided they going to fly the needed part from Amsterdam, well long and behold it was the wrong part but they were trying to make the wrong part work anyway which I thought was nuts, I will know this because some one from the cabin crew told me this. End game we ended up on a Delta flight to continue our way to Amsterdam, yeah we made it there but our luggage didn't because it was still on the KLM plane that was stuck at JFK.
This was 1995, so nothing much has changed since then! The KLM aircraft must have eventually made it to Amsterdam and the luggage that was left behind in JFK!? 🙂😝
Sounds like a wacky-tobacky assessment. Amsterdam? Interesting.
Amazing skill and knowledge of one’s ability to fly such a majestic and iconic aircraft with the loss of an engine during takeoff. His experience, skill and knowledge kicked in to save the iconic 747 aircraft and 415+/- souls that lived to come home to family. 👍🏼💪🏽
It’s not heroics: it’s a cool head with outstanding airmanship and captaincy.
Boeing’s report is ‘interesting’ in that it casts blame (which national air accident investigations rarely do) on everybody else, even ignoring the primary cause. I thought the water injection was turned off AFTER the engine failed. It may have limited power to the remaining three but couldn’t have caused the engine loss which had already occurred. ‘Blame the aircrew’ seems to have been the default position amongst manufacturers which is why they should never be allowed to do anything without independent supervision. How times have changed - NOT. The flight-deck crew did an amazing job in near impossible circumstances.
Boeing used to be a company you would never expect to be anything but superior. We've learned otherwise and now I wonder how many times they covered up faults before.
@@BeeWhistler I think it's always been the case. There's just too much at stake for a manufacturer not to "spin" the initial news where there's still latitude to do so because the true cause is not yet known or officially understood. Dead pilots are of course readily blamed, and have been for decades. Boeing may have had a good reputation earlier, and have had some systemic management problems since, but as far as "massaging the news cycle", I think that's always occurred, and likely not just by Boeing either. It's almost as if there's a play-book for this -- hence Boeing's initial attempts to blame the (dead) pilots when the first Super-max went down.
IM SURE HE WAS WELL PRACTICED WITH 3 ENGINE TAKE OFF. GREAT JOB BY EVERYONE
Sometimes trusting ones gut works. Sometimes it leads to disaster.
I’m no pilot, but I would have “cleaned up” the aircraft by retracting the gear to give me more airspeed.
In a power deficient craft, airspeed is life!
Miracle
A well know aviation history incident that marked the flying procudures are not always done by the book. In his interview the captain added that he didnt dumped the fuel because the attidude from the ground was that low. The plane landed with most of his fuel. He even said that it would had been such a waste by doing so.
Shades of Captain Sullenberger!!! Go with your gut!!!
A lesson for all in regard to Rules
The plane was extremely heavy because of all the fuel for crossing the ocean. I presume the captain dropped several tonnes of fuel before landing safely ?
The weight of the fuel is not as big a factor as the volume is. An aircraft weighing a half-million pounds is not worrying about a few tons of fuel although that could be the difference. The biggest reason for dumping fuel is to reduce the severity of a fire when crash-landing.
God was with them that day!!
I have my pilot's license and they teach you now that the gear causes drag, and if you have reduced power, or loss of power not to drop the gear until you have your landing spot made. Also, depending on the plane and the landing spot the gear could either help or hurt you, but there isn't a lot you can do about it.
Not the first nor, certainly, the last time Boeing was not able to discern it's arse from it's elbow concerning the provable flaws of its airplanes
Shows that the experience of a great jockey is more valuable than just a Boeing handbook. What is it about Boeing being economical with the truth....