Yet again, William Langewiesche, for Vanity Fair Magazine’s June issue, authors another great article. His topic this time: the miracle Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549.

At one point during the article, particularly relevant given the news of Air France 447, Langewiesche details a high-altitude, engines-out glide of an Air Transat flight in 2001. It all ended well but for a couple near-death experiences.

Engines-out airline gliding is not a sanctioned category, but records exist nonetheless. The current holder appears to be a Canadian named Robert Piché, who, if not exactly a rebel, seems to be something of a maverick.

The runway ahead was 10,866 feet long. It was outlined in lights. Piché saw that he was high, and put the Airbus through a series of S-turns, like switchbacks, much as some F-4 pilots might have wanted to do when flamed-out, if only they had been allowed. Piché was flying at F-4 speeds or faster, though with descent rates much lower. In the cabin the flight attendants were screaming “Brace! Brace! Brace!” to the terrified passengers. The airplane crossed the runway threshold doing 230 miles an hour, slammed against the pavement about a thousand feet along, bounced back into the air, and floated for another 1,770 feet until Piché goddamned planted that airplane down to stay, and locked the brakes. The planting did not drive the landing gear through the wings, but it was hard enough to wrinkle the fuselage. The locked tires slid for about 400 feet, then abraded and deflated, leaving the airplane to grind to a halt on the ruins of its wheels. It was 6:46 a.m., at the end of a world-record, 20-minute, 34,500-foot, 90-mile, 306-person, engines-out airline glide. The passengers evacuated down the slides. Piché followed, and walked around the airplane. The wheels were destroyed. Jesus Fuck Me Mother Mary.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 9 pm and is filed under flight, links, news, travel.