Was waiting to push out a Loganair Embraer 145 at around 9.30 this morning, when I saw a bunch of fire engines heading for the runway and parking up waiting for something coming in. Chatting to the Embraer crew and listening to ATC - since ATC had stopped all pushes and starts - we learned that the fire crews were waiting for a Jet2 B737 which was making a landing with a problem. Specifically it had taken off from I think Dublin, en route for Palma, but had a hydraulic failure in the left engine over the English Channel, and so diverted to Manchester because Jet2 had a replacement aeroplane available at EGCC (loads actually, there's still many of them parked up). The aeroplane landed without incident, but in case anyone was wondering what the emergency at EGCC was, that was it. More of a precaution than a full-on emergency really, the landing looked pretty normal to be honest although I think they came in a bit faster than normal, probably because they didn't want to be relying on spooling up on one engine at the last second before touchdown to get a bit of speed on if they hit some wind gradient near the ground or some such.

I don’t know the 737 but there’s often an addition added to the Vref speed in the case of hydraulic system failures as part of the QRH actions.

Edited August 11, 20214 yr by jon b

27 minutes ago, Chock said:

I think they came in a bit faster than normal

 Most likely.

landing with one engine inoperative limits the landing flap to F15 with significantly higher approach speeds (+15kts) to boot. and If I recall my session in a 737 simulator correctly: if the left engine is INOP (HYD system A), you are without your ground spoilers and some of the flight spoilers wont work either.

Can't be sure, since I was on Stand 17 so the thing was quite a distance away when I saw it, but it actually looked like it had fairly normal flaps deployed. As I say, can't be certain about it. The guy I was chatting too on the headset sounded like he was watching it on his displays and was commenting about it coming in pretty hot and using up a lot of runway though, so maybe it was on less flaps than normal, but it certainly was still pretty fast quite a way down the runway. I guess reverse thrust would not necessarily be a wise option with one engine so maybe it was just brakes to slow it down, don't think it had spoilers up if I recall correctly. Still, that runway is two miles long, so plenty of room to come to a halt.

I was joking with the Loganair crew about that Jet2 advert with Jess Glynne's 'darling hold my hand' taking on an entirely new meaning for the passengers on that thing. 🤣 Just glad it made it down okay, that's the main thing. Good job by the flight crew and the Manchester Airport emergency services in handling it without any dramas. 🙂

Edited August 11, 20214 yr by Chock

regardless of flaps setting, the approach speed would be higher than if they landed at their destination with / or without a bad engine,  due to the large amount of fuel they still carried. The 737 is unable to dump fuel so I'd assume they landed pretty close to MLW.

 

Usually with Boeing theres a secondary flap system which is slower than primary so full flap isn’t used with a hydraulic issue  in case of the go around and slow flap retraction reducing performance.

A higher approach speed is used because you will lose some flight control surfaces and thus a slight reduction in control authority so the extra  speed compensates for that.

As I said I don’t know the 737 at all but I’ve just bought the PMDG 737 in the sale so I’ll be an expert by next week 😉😄

Going into EGCC myself early  tomorrow morning in the plastic jet, I’ll look out for you Chock !

Edited August 11, 20214 yr by jon b

5 hours ago, jon b said:

Usually with Boeing theres a secondary flap system which is slower than primary so full flap isn’t used with a hydraulic issue  in case of the go around and slow flap retraction reducing performance.

A higher approach speed is used because you will lose some flight control surfaces and thus a slight reduction in control authority so the extra  speed compensates for that.

As I said I don’t know the 737 at all but I’ve just bought the PMDG 737 in the sale so I’ll be an expert by next week 😉😄

Going into EGCC myself early  tomorrow morning in the plastic jet, I’ll look out for you Chock !

Not there until 15:00 tomorrow, but if you happen to see me, give us a wave. I think I'm one of the few people who actually wears a cap, so it's pretty easy to spot me!