Sunday, June 5, 2011

Engine fire

Imagine you are on a plane.  You book a seat on the wing.  The flight takes off late in the evening.  Less than an hour into the flight there is an explosion and the engine right out your window is in flames.

That's what happened for a friend of mine returning from Canada three nights ago.  She made it back to the UAE safely and I had a chance to talk to her today.  The good news?  She slept through the scary part.  She didn't hear (or feel) the explosion.  She woke up shortly after and the person next to her was terrified beyond wits end - he saw the flames shooting out of the engine - but by the time Doris woke up the plane had descended and headed for the nearest airport.

She also learned that this is the reason why the trans-Atlantic trips go over Greenland/Iceland:  Two engine planes can fly safely on one engine for 90 minutes.  To fly directly over the Atlantic would put them out of reach of an airport in an emergency.

I actually found this very reassuring.

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