Posted by Wayne on August 22, 2002 at 09:28:17:
In Reply to: More about that Aloha Flight 243 posted by Oops I did it again on August 21, 2002 at 19:03:21:
Don't forget the corrosion issue in that humid place. I was in Hawaii when the top came off that plane. Here on the mainland the coverage did nto seem to be as good as the local coverage in Hawaii, and that is too bad. They had long interviews with the pilots starting that night. They held nothing back. The tremendous skill of the pilots is what saved those passengers and remaining crew.
The female co-pilot was at the controls when it happened. She said as soon as it occured whe handed off control to the pilot and took over the efforts of communication and damage assessment. A woman reporter asked if she released control because he was a man or because he pulled rank. She said something like, "No, because he has 25,000 more flight hours in this aircraft than I do and I wanted him at the controls." Then he described the next few minutes where the systematically determined the parameters of stable flight available to them. Nothing like having a pilot months away from forced retirement at the yoke when things go bad.
Wayne