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Basil

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Saturday evening a week ago, #1 son was flying from Omaha to Houston - a run he's made many times. This time they hit severe turbulence and hail south of Wichita KS. He said the plane was being tossed around like a toy - gaining and loosing hundreds of feet at a time (He said in one updraft, even with the nose pitched down 15deg the plane was still gaining altitude, then suddenly dropped several hundred feet. One seasoned United pilot was on board (deadheading) and commented later it was some of the worse turbulance he'd been in. Son was 1st Officer but was at the controls. The sound of hail was so loud that the two of them could not hear each other. Son was trying to ask AC if he wanted to declare an emergency, but the noise was such that the AC couldn't hear him, so son took it upon himself and called OK City (I think) to declare an emergency. They needed to do whatever was needed right away to get out of the crappy air. They ended up getting back to better air, but because they had declared emergency they still needed to land at nearest suitable airport (OK City). They also needed to land to have the plane checked out since they had a number of warning lights come on for both engines during the bad-air adventure. Besides which, the turbulance was bad enough that it caused them to "over-G" the plane.

Here's a couple screen shots from Flight radar 24 of that harrowing flight. I'm just glad they got everyone one the ground in one piece.

Screen Shot 2019-04-23 at 2.41.38 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-04-23 at 2.42.14 PM.jpg
 

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NutmegCT

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Wow - sure glad everything eventually came out ok.

I remember a *miserable* flight in an Embraer twin (about 10 passengers), flying through a thunderstorm between DFW and HOU about 20 years ago. Passengers screaming, everything (including people) being tossed around the cabin, lightning flashes, booming thunder. Never again. I'd been grasping the seat arms as tight as possible, but eventually just thought "this is the time" and went completely limp, flopping around like a rag doll. A true horror for me.

Tom M.
 
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Basil

Basil

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I remember a *miserable* flight in an Embraer twin (about 10 passengers), flying through a thunderstorm between DFW and HOU

I think my worst experience was in a small jet (Embraer probably, but might have been 737) coming into Atlanta. Trying to thread a string of T-Storms when, about 30 minutes out, we hit some of that kind of turbuance that has everyone making peace with their maker. I suspect my finger indentations are still in the arm of that seat.
 
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Gliderman8

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Glad it all worked out and that he got it on the ground safely. Some years ago I was flying a Grumman Cheetah which has a sliding canopy. Since the weather was nice, I cracked the canopy open. However, when I went to close the canopy I sheared the solid locking pin which prevented the canopy from closing all the way. The small gap (maybe a 1/4") was enough to let the air entering make a high pitch sound so it was hard to hear the tower (no headset) give landing instructions. After the third time I asked the controller to repeat the instructions he came back with "Do you have a problem?". I should have informed him of the situation when I initially called in for landing.
 

dklawson

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I am very glad to hear that they were able to land safely.

My wife hates that I watch almost every air disaster TV program I come across. Just last week I watched a rerun of an episode devoted to a Delta L1011 that crashed at DFW due to a microburst. I was afraid Basil's son's story was headed to the same outcome. I'm glad this one had a happier ending.
 
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Basil

Basil

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I am very glad to hear that they were able to land safely.

My wife hates that I watch almost every air disaster TV program I come across. Just last week I watched a rerun of an episode devoted to a Delta L1011 that crashed at DFW due to a microburst. I was afraid Basil's son's story was headed to the same outcome. I'm glad this one had a happier ending.


I remember that crash in Dallas. Horrible. That second picture I posted is telling. You can see how he basically spiraled down in altitude very quickly to get on the ground (they wanted to get in on the ground asap due to the warning lights they had on both engines). He had a couple other emergencies when he was flying tankers (KC135). One time they had loss of cabin pressure over the Atlantic and had to divert to Iceland for an emergency landing.
 

DrEntropy

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yowser.

Glad it ended well.
 

Bayless

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Scary stuff that. Glad it worked out all right for everyone. I was in one of those situations although apparently not as bad. We were landing in Denver during a thunderstorm, 90 mph wind on the ground and 120 tumbling over the mountains they said. I'm a lot of prayers were said on that one too.
 

Popeye

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I’ve heard the CRJ-200 is particularly bouncy in the rough stuff. Not sure if that is fact or fable. Glad all ended well!!
 
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Basil

Basil

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I’ve heard the CRJ-200 is particularly bouncy in the rough stuff. Not sure if that is fact or fable. Glad all ended well!!

I'm not sure either, but from the sound of it it was a good thing everyone was buckled in. The part that I found particulalry scary was that the hail hitting the aircraft was so loud the two pilots could not hear each other. (I need to ask him if the plane suffered any hail damage). As he was recounting the flight I was thinking about the 737 a few years back that got caught in a bad hail storm and both engines flamed out. You may remember the incident because they ended up landing on a levy in New Orleans (an amazing feat of flying). Son's plan had warning lights on both engines but luckily the engines kept running.
 

pdplot

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If God had meant man to fly, he would have provided wings.
Glad it ended well. I always keep my seat belt fastened on all commercial flights. One bad experience with clear air turbulence over the Atlantic.
 

DavidApp

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The CRJ-200 are kind of bouncy in rough weather. I flew in them from Atlanta to Montreal a lot some years ago. Always kept my seat belt on and snug.

David
 
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Basil

Basil

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The CRJ-200 are kind of bouncy in rough weather. I flew in them from Atlanta to Montreal a lot some years ago. Always kept my seat belt on and snug.

David

Yea I've flown in them many times. I used to go to Hunstville quite a lot for my work and I recall flying into Atlanta on something like a 737 then taking a CJR into Huntsville from ATL. They are not the most comfortable planes to fly on, except for short hops.
 

donbmw

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Yea I've flown in them many times. I used to go to Hunstville quite a lot for my work and I recall flying into Atlanta on something like a 737 then taking a CJR into Huntsville from ATL. They are not the most comfortable planes to fly on, except for short hops.

At least it is not the turboprop aircraft.
 
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