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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Aug 30, 2013 10:53:52 GMT 12
Plane loses cabin pressureBy SARAH HARVEY - The Dominion Post | 9:47AM - Friday, 30 August 2013 CABIN TROUBLES: A view inside the cabin of the Air NZ plane that lost pressure.
— MICHAEL PETERS/Fairfax NZ.AN Air New Zealand plane apparently lost pressure cabin pressure and passengers were forced to use oxygen masks on a flight from Wellington to Auckland this morning.
A passenger on the plane, a Boeing 737, which left Wellington bound for Auckland at 7.30am, said about 15 minutes before it was to start landing procedures the oxygen masks dropped from the panels and a continuous "this is an emergency" was played over the PA system.
The passenger said the plane then went into a "very steep" descent which lasted for about five minutes before the plane levelled out again. The man said flight attendants were calm and controlled but a few people were panicking.
"It was the scariest experience I have ever had in a plane," he said.
The plane was able to continue to fly at a lower altitude and passengers were eventually told they could stop using the oxygen masks.
The plane landed without further incident.
The man said after landing the pilot came out and said it had been a "real deal emergency" but everything went fine as the crew "were trained for this".  MASKS ON: Codey A Jervis tweeted this photo of himself soon after the landing (left). | HAMISH CARTER: Olympic
champion was on Air NZ flight (right).Former Olympic champion triathlete Hamish Carter was also on the flight and said the experience was "terrifying".
"It is nice to be back on solid ground".
Carter said he could sense the pressure dropping "really quickly" but the cabin crew were "great" and kept passengers calm.
"People were pretty nervous".
Carter said he had been in worse mid-flight dramas before but he had never seen the oxygen masks fall down.
Air New Zealand chief flight operations and safety officer, Captain David Morgan, said NZ414 "experienced a gradual loss of cabin pressure on approach to Auckland which caused the oxygen masks to automatically deploy in the cabin".
"The pilots immediately initiated a descent to 7000 feet and the cabin crew advised passengers that oxygen masks were no longer required at that point."
"The aircraft landed without further incident and engineers are now investigating the cause."www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9105753/Plane-loses-cabin-pressure
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Aug 30, 2013 13:07:11 GMT 12
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Post by jonesy on Aug 30, 2013 13:35:18 GMT 12
Good to see the training kicking in, particularly with flight attendants being calm. Makes a huge difference during the event.
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Post by baronbeeza on Aug 30, 2013 13:52:19 GMT 12
Haha, KTJ..... someone had to get in with the plummet word,
I am guessing the crew had this all sorted before they levelled out at 7,000 feet. It will be interesting to see the level of decompression but it may well have just been enough of an increase in cabin alt to drop the masks.
Good exercise to make sure they pay attention to the briefing next time they board a flight.
The most dangerous part of any flight is those few seconds before the aircraft comes to a complete halt at the gate.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Aug 30, 2013 13:59:55 GMT 12
Haha, KTJ..... someone had to get in with the plummet word, Yeah, I just couldn't resist using that word....  |
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Post by Ykato on Aug 30, 2013 19:03:15 GMT 12
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Post by ngatimozart on Aug 30, 2013 19:09:08 GMT 12
And TV3 managed to get in multiple uses of the word terror. Good to see no one hurt and the professionalism of the crew, so a big well done to the crew. I liked the pilots comment about it.
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Post by haughtney1 on Aug 30, 2013 19:20:51 GMT 12
So a 737 suffers from a gradual loss of pressure, the crew carry out a rapid descent, the cabin ALT exceeds 14000ft or so and you get the rubber jungle, descent stopped at 7000' end of story.
Certainly not an explosive depressurization (99% aren't) as there was no rapid pressure loss (it goes foggy and gets cold...and your ears hurt..trapped gases escape from body orifices thanks to the lower pressure).
The shuddering explained by the "I'm sending my last text cos I'm gonna die" would have most likely been buffet from extended speed brakes to aid the descent, losing 26000ft in 5 minutes is only around 5000fpm, not excessive when a MMO/VMO descent in a 737 classic will typically give rates of decent in excess of 10000fpm.
Contrary to what many people think, pressurized aircraft leak like sieves, seals get old and fail, air-con packs can fail in unexpected fashions...id wager they lost a seal, or more likely had a pack issue.
Job well done, and handled correctly...scary for some, but the reality is, its a minor inconvenience. Had one years ago in a 757 over France...slow leak, managed to get down below 14000 before the cabin caught up...and avoided the rubber jungle.
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Post by FlyingKiwi on Aug 30, 2013 20:03:04 GMT 12
Must have been a pretty gradual plummet if it took five minutes.
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Post by ngatimozart on Aug 31, 2013 17:08:05 GMT 12
Must have been a pretty gradual plummet if it took five minutes. Might've been a plumment that takes the scenic route. |
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