Nothing by chance

We all knew that we are in big trouble. The control column starts to shake, warning us that
the airplane is about to stall... The flight controls became heavier, the airplane decelerates until
the forest stood still beneath us. A few seconds later, that's what happens, the aircraft stalls and
starts rolling side to side, the pilots are helpless, then it enters in a huge spiral dive and plummets
towards the earth!
45 minutes earlier
"Let's roll 'er out on the grass, you can pull on that outboard wing strut down near the
bottom...", says captain. It was the brand new A320 but it was a shame that we have to roll it on
grass.This was just until we reach the runway, then the fun starts. A quick engine runup here
before takeoff. Controls all free and working properly, oil pressure and temperature pointing as
they should. We have lined up and set up for an unbelievably short takeoff. Throttle going all the
way forward, until every single instrument agrees with what we are to do next. Crackling blast
tumbles behind me and a hard twisting sound rocks through the cockpit. I released the brakes.
There is no instantly rush of speed, no head forced against the headrest, just a gentle push at the
back. This huge piece of metal starts to roll down the runway. Needle lifts to cover 80 knots, to
cover 120 knots, and the nosewheel lifts from the concrete. We were airborne. Two big RollsRoyce jet engines power the airplane through the sky. It was very sluggish takeoff. But something
was deadly wrong, it appears that we have lost almost all pitch control. I struggle to keep the nose
up, but no effect. The nose starts to drop like a rock, lower and lower... We started to slowly level
off. With a detailed analysis, we realized that there is a problem with the so called THS (Trimmable
horizontal stabilizer). It's set at full nose trim down, which is good news because triming it up will
help the airplane to climb again. But that never happens, it stays on full nose trim down. Then we
heard this amazingly strong rumbling sound which spreads through the aircraft like a virus. We
decided to descend to lower flight level where denser air will provide more lift. The whole airplane
was shaking. Suddenly, as it starts rumbling, it shuts down. The A320 is designed to fly with only
one engine, but now it's in danger from losing them both... As they lost an engine, they started to
slow down, we were now nearing our stalling speed. We all knew that we are in big trouble. The
control column starts to shake, warning us that the airplane is about to stall... The flight controls
became heavier, the airplane decelerates until the forest stood still beneath us. A few seconds
later, that's what happens, the aircraft stalls and starts rolling side to side, the pilots are helpless,
then it enters in a huge spiral dive and plummets towards the earth! My intrigued eyes starts to
flick from one instrument to another and back again, without knowning what's crippled our jet.
The G forces suddenly became hazardous. From normal 1G to -2Gs which means the gravity is
upside-down, passengers are now double their weight and pushed to the ceiling! As the pilots
struggle to stop the jet from crashing the G forces change direction! The passnegers pay the price,
they are now pushed into their seats, feeling 5 times their normal weight. The flight engineer tried
to spool the engine up, but his head is pinned to the pedestal and he cannot look back or advance
the thrust levers! The aircraft tremendously overspeeds, putting too much stress on the fan blades
and the engine which simply flames out and for the first time in history, A320 loses both of its
engines. The pilots finally regain control. In those few heroic seconds, the pilots managed to
disconnect autopilot and autothrust and stabilize the jet despite force of 5G! The whole airplane
was quiet, you could feel the quietness. We are now at 5000 feet above the ground level and if the
pilots don't do anything to prevent this fall, the A320 will crash in less than 2 minutes in a forest
dead ahead of them. At that point I felt the weight of my responsibility on my shoulders,I as a crew
member, if I don't do anything everybody will die. The pilots tried to relight the engines but there
is no response. They try again and again but nothing, it seems there is no life left in the

engines.They have started preparing for the worst - unground emergency! They have tried
everything from relighting the engines to squawking 7700, nothing they do seems to help. As we
descend through 1000 feet there is one last chance left to restart the engines, but this time it
works, an engine "coughs" and comes back to life! Now we have much more power on the left
wing than the right which causes the airplane to skid. Like a race car driver skidding through the
turn, we somehow managed to stop the jet from falling. We have tried over and over again to
relight the other engine but it won't start, it seems that this rumbling sound caused some internal
damage. Then we diverted to another airport which has longer runways and better medical
equipment. We have started preparing for the so called NDB approach on runway 12. As we
extend landing gear, flaps, slats the centar of gravity has been changed and with THS problem its
increasingly difficult to establish certain vertical pitch. We have started our approach, but there is
no runway in sight. With a vicious airplane and being unable to make a go-around we are
committed to landing. Then we heard something that no pilot likes to hear under these
circumstances: -"Minimums, minimums!", the brain of A320 was telling us that we hit MDA
(minimum descend altitude) which means if we don't have a runway in sight we must go around. I
asked the captain:
- "What should we do?"
- "Well, certainly we cannot make a go around, do we have ground reference?", he responded
- "Yes!"
- "We are continuing on!"
All I could see through the angled windshield is the ground and silver blur ahead of us, pretending
to be a fog, where it should, I suppose, be the runway. The river was wine beneath our wings. It
poured deep purple from one side of the valley to the other, and back again. The highway leaped
across it once, twice, twice more. We kept descending and descending..., it seems like forever. At
that point, nobody knew if we'll hit the runway or not, so the captain grabbed the microphone
and said to the passengers:"Brace..., brace for impact!"
It was certain, with only 100 meters above ground and unable to make basic maneuvers with a
crippled jet, we are obviously crashing. Then some flashing lights appeared on the windscreen.
They were slightly to the right but still ahead of us, when we realized that's the runway! As we
tried to maintain the altitude and align with the runway, disaster stikes again! At the worst
possible moment the engine overheats and a warning pops up right ahead of us. We were looking
at each other across the cockpit and thinking what to do next. To shut down the engine? Let the
engine to burn up? Is it going to penetrate from the outside of the aircraft, is it going to come into
the cabin? Are we going to burn to death? Are we going to choke to death because of the smoke?
What's going to happen? What's causing it? What are we going to do about it?
Nobody said a word in the cockpit, you could feel the vibration from the peeved engine. The
emergency escalates from bad, to unbelievable. As we lined up and closed in for a landing, the
remaining engine engulfs in flames, it raves loudly and becomes a fire ball going down the glide
path near the runway. There is no margin for error. The captain is out of engines, out of options!
The crew is now comfronting the barrage of error messages from seemingly unrelated items.
The crew tries to sort the things out, but the warnings just kept coming and poping ahead like the
popcorns. We tried to disregard warnings and concentrat on our approach There is nothing in the
world but me, airplane alive, and the runway treshold.
There were 2 problems: 1. If we overshoot the runway we could hit the terrain which could
rupture the airplanes heavily loaded fuel tanks because of our reduced landing capabilities (like
reduced amount of brake pressure applying on the tires, ailerons not making the speed brake
action, no thrust reverses...) 2. The problem is our speed, it decelerates and decelerates as we lost

the engines... If we slow down too much the airplane will stall again as it did before and, believe
me, you do not want that. It's a precarious balancing act. Our options are severly limited now.
One false step and it will send the airplane into an terrifying plunge. The controler spots the fire
and informs the fire department to be ready. The jet touches down very, very rough it tears off a
few pieces of landing gear struts and starts rolling down the runway - very, very fast - blistering
fast! The aircraft is gobbling up 80 meters per second of runway. My experience was telling me
that there is not enough runway, so I started to yell: -"Brakes!"
-"I know!", he immediately responded
-"Brake harder! Brakes, full brakes Rich! Push them, press them,hit them, bump 'em!"
-"My feet are flat to the floor!", Rich(captain) says
Finally, the airplane stops, with 120 meters desparity. But this was not the end of the wild
rollercoaster ride! The fuel was leaking! This usually is not a problem, but when flammable fuel
drains near the 800C hot brakes it could cause a fire. Now the question persists:
Should we evacuate? Is it safer for the passengers on the flammable soaked runway?
It was all on the captain. The Rescue team has arrived along with the fire trucks which are securing
the aircraft right now! There is still no response from the captain. A flight attendant enters the
cockpit and says: "Should we evacuate?".The captain is quiet. We were looking at each other and
nobody knew the answer. Then the flight engineer stood up and said: "Screw everything, evacuate
now!", he knew when you initiate the evacuation you cannot stop it. Fortunately, the flammable
fuel did not ignite and once again the pilots knowledge saves more then 150 people on board this
aircraft! If the engine is the heart of an aeroplane the pilot is its soul!
NTSB (National transportation safety board) report after the accident:
The trimmable horizontal stabilizer is mounted on top of the 22 feet high vertical stabilizer (known
as a rudder - it controls the aircrafts yaw) in a T-tail configuration. The THS has a span of about 55
feet and it splits in a left and right outboard section. The leading edge of the THS can be raised for
13.5 and lowered for 4. THS can be either moved electrically (by autopilot or the pilot's input) or
mechanically.The pilots use interconnected handwheels on each side of centre pedestal to
mechanically move trimmble horizontal stabilizer. It must be mechanically linked to THS in case of
any electrical interference,failures,malfunctions or flight computers inoperatives. In case described
above the failure has accured in screwjack which drives the hydraulically pressurized motors so it
has been unable to move for a certain amount of time. The bird strike has caused rumbling sound
and surge (aslo known as compressor stall) into the engine. As the crew flown through the cloud
they were being unable to see a bird coming from the opposite direction.The fuel leak was induced
from a bird damaging the fuel nozzles... The crew reacted extremely profesional particularly in the
event where the aircraft experienced an aerodynamic stall. As far as the relighting of the engines is
concerned they failed to do a key step which led to unsuccessful engine restart - they should close
the so called AIR BLEED VALVE. The cabin of an airplane is gradually pressurized and depresurized
during takeoffs and landings. The air must be pumped into the cabin to pressurized it and this is
achieved by the engine.The aircrafts air conditioning system takes the air from two places into the
engine. 1. Place is called IP or intermediate pressure stage, it takes the air from 5th high pressure
compressor stage and then it's send to precooler, which cooles down the air, and it passes through
air bleed valve, then pack flow control valve, trim air valve and so on. 2.Place is HP or high pressure
stage which takes the air from 9th high pressure compressor stage to minimize the fuel penalty
and it passes to the same components as described above At low engine speed (engine idle) when
the pressure and temperature of the IP are too low the system bleeds air from HP stage. This
principle pressurizes the cabin through-out the flight. Now if you close air bleed valve the engine
uses all available air to restart. Despite the crews mishap they did an amazing job and saved the
aircraft which is the first priority! Well done!