SWA flight continues for 75 minutes after rapid depresurization!!

[Bdfg1]

Sure have. I've heard of an idiot before as well. How about you?

 

[say again]

They got plane to the destination with no injuries, just at a lower altitude!!! Isn't that there job!?!?! Why are people making such a big deal out of this????:smash:

 

[Spooky 1]

So you're putzing along at 10,000 to 14,000 feet and did everything that your QRH and dispatch told you to do. You think to yourself, "wow, I'm an awesome SWA pilot now; my chief pilot is gonna be proud of me."

Then twenty minutes from destination, you begin to smell something. Smells like smoke and not the mexican burito that you had for lunch. Something is definetly burning, but what? Smells electrical. Then you begin to see smoke.

You look up and see how much oxygen you have left. Its significantly depleted from your emergency descent, not to mention that you had a jumpseater on board who used a lot of your O2 as well. It doesn't look like there's enough O2 for 20 more minutes of flying. Suddenly you realize that the 130 passengers you have on board have no oxygen because all of their O2 generators have been depleted.

Still want to fly for another 20 minutes so you don't have to inconvenience passengers and make SWA look bad? Ever hear of the accident chain?

Linecheck........your obviously not aware as to how much oxygen is available (in time) for 3 pilots. If the bottle was at say 1700 PSI to begin with, you would have in excess of 3 hours for pilots as long as they were not at 100%. Of course your scenario would increase their oxygen use, but regardless it's highly unlikely that they would run our before getting on the ground. They would have much bigger problems with smoke and electrical issues than the availability of oxygen until they got on the ground.

 

[Hpilot]

That's right, leave Southwest alone. Don't you all know they've got a schedule to keep.

 

[TAZ MAN]

So you're putzing along at 10,000 to 14,000 feet and did everything that your QRH and dispatch told you to do. You think to yourself, "wow, I'm an awesome SWA pilot now; my chief pilot is gonna be proud of me."

Then twenty minutes from destination, you begin to smell something. Smells like smoke and not the mexican burito that you had for lunch. Something is definetly burning, but what? Smells electrical. Then you begin to see smoke.

You look up and see how much oxygen you have left. Its significantly depleted from your emergency descent, not to mention that you had a jumpseater on board who used a lot of your O2 as well. It doesn't look like there's enough O2 for 20 more minutes of flying. Suddenly you realize that the 130 passengers you have on board have no oxygen because all of their O2 generators have been depleted.

Still want to fly for another 20 minutes so you don't have to inconvenience passengers and make SWA look bad? Ever hear of the accident chain?

Dude, You are wrong on so many levels here that your license should be revoked.:nuts:

 

[say again]

So you're putzing along at 10,000 to 14,000 feet and did everything that your QRH and dispatch told you to do. You think to yourself, "wow, I'm an awesome SWA pilot now; my chief pilot is gonna be proud of me."

Then twenty minutes from destination, you begin to smell something. Smells like smoke and not the mexican burito that you had for lunch. Something is definetly burning, but what? Smells electrical. Then you begin to see smoke.

You look up and see how much oxygen you have left. Its significantly depleted from your emergency descent, not to mention that you had a jumpseater on board who used a lot of your O2 as well. It doesn't look like there's enough O2 for 20 more minutes of flying. Suddenly you realize that the 130 passengers you have on board have no oxygen because all of their O2 generators have been depleted.

Still want to fly for another 20 minutes so you don't have to inconvenience passengers and make SWA look bad? Ever hear of the accident chain?

And right after that you a have a duel engine flame out, with a cargo fire, flying thru a level six cell, in severe icing, with no anti-ice working, all while experiencing a complete elecrical failure!!!! Did I add the CA is now passed out for unknown reasons, and now you seem to have an elevator jam, oh boy!!!:beer:

 

[AIR2MUD]

Heros! Plane and simple.

I think it's spelled 'Heroes'. Cute play on words with the "'plane' and simple", too, though I wonder if that was intentional.

I have to disagree with you referring them to as heroes. The people who ran back into the World Trade Center on 9/11 to rescue others and never made it out - those are heroes. The folks on UAL Flight 93 - heroes.

These guys:
http://www.homeofheroes.com/

Most definately heroes.

Two SWA pilots who descend to an altitude that allows the customers to breathe normally with O2 masks? All in a day's work for just about any pilot. I don't have a problem with them continuing on to Manchester, either - but to call them heroes is a bit much.

 

[Spooky 1]

Dude, You are wrong on so many levels here that your license should be revoked.:nuts:

Delte!!

 

[TAZ MAN]

Delte!!

I'll take that as a compliment. I think.

Especially after reading the post you "Delte..ed". I thought I was going to have to revoke your license also.

 

[FedEx1]

Once they were down at 14,000 ft, there was no more emergency. If they had sufficient fuel, going to MHT seems like a good idea. Better than some of the many overcrowded airports on the east coast! Besides, the pax went thru a little nerve racking experience. Getting them to their original destination safely was a bonus.

I checked my QRH for my plane- just says to don the oxygen and descend to a safe altitude. No need to land at nearest suitable.

 

[firstthird]

Obviously someone had better spell it out for linecheck.

In the 737, we don't drop cabin O2 for a fire or smoke and fumes. Reasons being 1 - oxygen might feed the fire.
2 - the pax only get a mixture of cabin air and oxygen anyway, so the masks in no way will help them in a smoke or fumes situation.

What we do is land ASAP, which is what I suspect every other airliner does after the Air Florida and Swiss Air disasters, you just never know how long you have to get it on the ground in a fire situation.

And any proficient crew could get a 737 from on high to 10,000 feet in under 10 minutes, so your theory that they would have depleted the crew oxygen does not pass the sniff test.

 

[SWA/FO]

... an example would be (from TV interviews) someone says "My kid is upset that T.O. has be suspended...thats my kid's hero".

Lets look at the full quote. This sounds like a DFW airport trick!! Just use the part of the quote that you want, huh? My kids know better then that.

 

[say again]

What we do is land ASAP, which is what I suspect every other airliner does after the Air Florida and Swiss Air disasters, you just never know how long you have to get it on the ground in a fire situation.

I believe you mean ValueJet , not Air Florida. Air Florida crashed in icing conditions, not because of a fire!!!

 

[firstthird]

You are right, I stand corrected. I meant the everglades crash not the bridge in DC.

 

[linecheck]

Taz, that was cute, thanks.

But back to the subject, I will concede that the probability of having a double emergency is slim to none. But nonetheless, it can not be precluded. ie. UAL232 comes to mind.

Regardless if the crew was in an emergency situation at the bottom of descent, the crew/company elected to continue for 75 minutes after an emergency event, with the rubber jungle hanging out, and with an important piece of cabin safety equipment expired: the pax O2 system and some of the crew O2 system. (and this of course is based on the information in the article which certainly can be heavily scrutinized.)

So why do we as "risk managers" want to take that risk? Why do pilots feel they need to place passenger/company needs above safety? This isn't directed specifically towards SWA, but I think the answer to this can be found within the company's culture.

To me its interesting comparing various company cultures and correlating that information to safety data as well as profitibility.