Can an airliner glide to safety ?

Question

If all its engines have failed, and it must decend from its normal
( say 30,000 feet )cruising altitude ....?

Answer 1

yes it can,its been done over canada and over the atlantic.both flights ran out of fuel and were within range to glide in to the nearest run way
the flight into the azores glided 65 miles at 200 kts
the canadian flight had a glide rate of 12:1 at 220 kts and flew app 220 kms
there was also one that glided into germany
hope this helps

Answer 2

Yes they can.

All airplanes glide doesnt matter how big and heavy they are, and It doesnt have to be a runway or an airstrip. They can land on corn fields, deserts, farms etc etc... any flat land.. adn have a safe landing.

The manufacturer of an aircraft publishes after being tested the Vglide Speed. This V speed gives you the best power-off glide performance of the aircraft. Because at this speed the best lift over drag ratio is obtained, in other words the airplane flies at a speed that gives minimum drag. It will glide farther and It will stay up in the air more time, giving the pilots more time to follow the emergency procedure that applies, to read the checklists to troubleshoot the distressed aircraft. The procedure goes like this, the A B C's of an emergency.

A - Airspeed, pitch the airplane to slow it to its Vglide speed.
B- Best Field the best suitable area to land
C - Cockpit Checks. Pull out your checklist and follow the specific emergeny procedure.

Somebody said that a Boeing 737 glides more than a Cessna, HELL NO! a Cessna 172 for each 1,000 feat of altitude it will glide aprox. 1.5 miles at a Vglide seed of 65 KIAS. A 737 will glide farther because it cruises 3 times higher than a Cessna.

Answer 3

A Boeing 737 has a better glide ratio than a small Cessna, about 10:1. That's one of the reasons they fly at the altitudes they do; to give them more options in the case of catastrophic failure. The others have to do with efficiency of the turbine engines, but that's for another question.
There are many points along most flight routes that they are out of reach of an emergency strip, but for the most part, the planes can and do divert to other airports.
The chances of having a twin engine failure are remote, but once you've lost one, there's a lot of strain on the other. It's possible.

Answer 4

There is a 50/50 chance in landing a plane if all the engines are out. Depending on what the weight of the air craft would be, some planes may have to dump fuel because gravity is pulling the plane down. The captain of the plane would have to make a tough decision too. The plane would have to reduce its drag because if the plane is being dragged back, then it will lose a lot of airspeed. The plane will continue to fly at its optimum gliding speed which is way lower than the cruising speed. The plane is also losing around 2500 to 3000 feets per minute which takes around 10 minutes to get to around 50-60 nautical miles or the nearest airport. One happened in canada when a plane lost both engines and were at 35000 ft. The pilot had good techniques and landed the plane safely

Answer 5

Yes. Virtually every aircraft has a glide angle and airspeed that it can glide safely at. Most airliners can glide upwards of 100 miles from normal cruise altitudes.

I was on a mil charter stretch 8 (DC8) that lost all 4 engines due to fuel mismanagement about 80 miles from Tokyo some 25 years ago. We were gliding in for a power off landing when the pilot finally was able to restart the engines about 10 miles out. I also seem to recall a commercial airliner that landed at Tenerife about 10 - 20 years ago after running out of fuel.

Answer 6

Of course. Principles of flight remain in effect so long as the air flows over the wings, and that is a momentum issue and an energy issue when the craft descends.

The aircraft will continue to fly, but the risks are much greater because you have only one chance to land (instead of a flyby or a touch'n'go) and the rate of descent must generally be steeper (higher impact landing).

Also, a very long, flat strip of land must exist within the region of the failure. Roads are not good candidates, as they tend to be too narrow, curvy, bumpy, and "wavy" for airliners, and the cars tend to get in the way also.

If a long airstrip is open and close, a good pilot can land the aircraft, but he must be very conservative with his airspeed/altitude (never to give up too much) and his approach (too high = break the landing gear and wings while pulling up from a sharp dive to the runway, while too low = not enough energy to make it to the runway). The route to landing, including landing strip orientation, must be carefully judged and pre-planned from the point of engine failure.

BTW, the rate of descent can be brought into acceptable landing limits for a short time, if a lot of airspeed is sacrificed at the right time and flaps are fully extended, but care must be taken not to overstress the wings or generate too much lift (and thus "hop" or "float" over the landing strip). Excess airspeed/energy can be quickly burnt off with the spoilers upon touchdown.

For marine situations, landing in the sea is extremely dangerous, as the water is rarely perfectly flat and the task of keeping the wings out of the water, until full stop, is extremely difficult. If a wing goes through a swell, the wing will likely be ripped off and the craft will be thrown/spun into the direction of the swell, thus rolling and breaking the craft into very little pieces. A water landing in moderately rough seas (1-3 meter swells) holds little safety for the crew.

The PFDs (personal flotation devices) are mostly for the psychological comfort of the passengers, similar to the effect of the heightened airport security. Most people are not trained to utilize parachutes in water landings, i.e. detach chute underwater and swim down and out of the chute, and most airlines would rather not invest in the extra expense of training and equiping their customers for every flight. Landing an airliner in the water is highly inadvisable.

Answer 7

Yes, but it has to lose height to keep airspeed - the age old trade of Potential and Kinetic Energy
Look up British Airways Flight 009 on the web.
In that case a volcanic ash cloud caused all engines to flame out at the same time. They did manage to relight some engines after about 15 minutes, having lost about 20000ft in altitude.

Answer 8

Yes. A Boeing 747 is designed to glide if all 4 engines fail. If this happens at 38,000 feet the plane will glide for 120 miles - losing altitude all the time - before landing (or crashing!).

Answer 9

From 30000feet an aircraft can glide for a long way but it has to be very controlled by the pilot. It has been done by an aircraft full of passengers flying across the Atlantic. They landed in Madeira or the Azores.

Answer 10

With a few very high performance military aircraft being exceptions, nearly all aircraft can glide. Whether they can glide to safety depends upon safety being near. Most do not / will not glide far, but given a suitable and close surface to land on, most can do so in a glide. Even a B747.

Answer 11

Yes it has been done several times when a jet ran out of fuel in one instance the plane glided 80 miles to land on the Azores safely at the airport. Another case was in Canada when the fuel gage gave the wrong reading and the plane ran out of gas and landed at a small air strip their was landing gear damage but the plane was repaired and returned to service.