pilots plunge 20,000 feet, safely land aircraft

[Mace 1,902]

This happened at my local airport. I posted this in another thread but thought some of you might be interested:http://www.semissourian.com/story/1188041.htmlRhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

[Wnuk 12]

What an incredible story!

[LAdamson 240]

Yes, I did find it of interest! Thanks!L.Adamson

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Amazing story!-John

[Bob Scott 7,715]

Glad they're OK.Where I learned to fly you get on O2 before you completely depress the airplane. And this idea that a blown windscreen would kill the crew immediately...no, don't think so. Somebody needs some more training.I think the "A" answer would have been to start the cabin up, get on O2, and once they realized the O2 wasn't working (someone needs to figure out why that was) keep the cabin at, say 13000 feet while in an emergency descent. That minimizes the diff press on the windscreen, and still keeps the pink flesh pink.Hard to accept a totalled airplane due to a simple windshield fracture.But, like I said at the beginning, glad they survived to be able to work on some new resumes...CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

[AWACS 12]

They are very lucky to be alive, but I have questions probably no one can answer right now. Did they not check their O2 during preflight? Did they just forget to fill up the tanks? Was there a leak? Something clearly happened with the O2 system and had they checked for a positive flow of O2 prior to depressurizing, this whole incident could have easily been avoided. Right now I'm saying pilot error.Jeff

[Cessnaflyer 56]

I'm with you on that one. The proper preflight checks would have solved that problem. What is the TOC at their cruising altitude?

[AWACS 12]

>>What is the TOC at their cruising altitude?<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_Useful_ConsciousnessJeff

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Yeah sounds about right for what they went through.

[Mace 1,902]

>completely depress the airplane. And this idea that a blown>windscreen would kill the crew immediately...no, don't think>so. Wouldn't shards of glass travelling at 200 mph, pretty much kill you?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

[Cessnaflyer 56]

They are blown out of the airplane by the pressure differential most of the time.

[Bob Scott 7,715]

>They are blown out of the airplane by the pressure>differential most of the time.A properly seat-belted pilot would not get sucked out the window even at the full ~6 PSID diff at that altitude, and if they had brought the cabin up to 13K, they'd have had the DP down to only ~3 PSID.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

[Bob Scott 7,715]

>Wouldn't shards of glass travelling at 200 mph, pretty much>kill you?If the window completely fails, it blows out due to the pressure inside the cabin. The windows are multiple-ply plexiglass...losing one ply, as in this case, weakens the window but does not necessitate a complete failure...in fact the vast majority of windshield fractures are exactly of this type, one ply shatters, leaving the window intact (but pretty $^%$& hard to see through).Even with a complete structural failure, any pieces of the windshield blown back into the cabin are not travelling at anywhere near 200 knots relative to the pilots. But it's still gonna smart, and maybe even leave a mark.A number of pilots have survived complete structural failure of a windshield due to birdstrike penetration, for example. It's not the sort of risk of immediate sure death that the mishap pilot was quoted making it out to be.CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Sorry about that I should've went into more detail. I'm talking about the glass not the pilots.

[Mace 1,902]

In your opinion, is the aircraft a total loss? The article makes it sound like it won't return to service, or that they are going to write it off.There is some wing structural damage, and the tail...but it seems to me like the a/c could be repaired...it's a nice King Air 200.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case