FAA probes jetliner emergency

[douglas9]

Source: Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday launched an investigation into sudden cabin depressurization on a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 from Houston that forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The flight, bound for Washington, carried 118 passengers, including seven congressmen from Texas.

Les Dorr, an FAA spokesman, said the plane was being inspected in New Orleans, where Continental Flight 458 landed late Tuesday after the pilot declared a mid-air emergency and oxygen masks dropped from overhead compartments.

"It's important to note that this was not a rapid decompression or the plane took a nose dive or anything like that," Dorr said.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5904475.html

[douglas9]

1. Cuellar plane drops

The air masks dropped as a Continental commercial flight from Houston with U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and six other congressmen on board suddenly descended Tuesday due to a loss in cabin pressure and an "engine bleed."The seven-minute descent landed the plane, originally destined for Washington, D.C., in New Orleans, where Cuellar was delayed for about an hour and a half before catching another flight to D.C.

"You could sense the tension in the air, but everybody pretty much stayed calm," Cuellar said Tuesday night after he arrived in Washington.

The ironic part of the ordeal was that the unexpected landing forced the lawmakers to miss a vote on the Aviation Safety Enhancement Act.

Cuellar said the rapid descent seemed like the longest seven minutes he has experienced.

http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2290&dept_id=569392&newsid=19866561

[bdab1973]

12. The press always screws up reporting of this stuff

No wonder people can't make heads or tails of what's going on when it comes to aviation safety. Cabin pressure is maintained by bleed air off the engines...it's called bleed air because pressurized air is tapped off the engine compressor section, and piped into an air mixing system (to cool it off) and then into the cabin where it's regulated by one or more valves called outflow valves. When too much pressure is in the cabin, there's usually another valve that opens called a safety valve.

You can lose cabin pressure by failure of the outflow valve controller, the outflow valve itself, a leaking safety valve, or if the bleed air ducting and/or valve systems shut off or reduce the amount of compressed air coming into the pressurization system. Not to mention other things like broken windows, etc...but that's rare. It's usually a faulty valve or weak bleed air system.

I didn't know if I should have laughed or shook my head when I read the pressure loss was due to an "engine bleed". That makes no sense, except to idiot reporters reporting on stuff they don't understand.

[Angleae]

2. This is SOP for the FAA

They investigate every in-flight emergency.

[bdab1973]

11. Thank you...someone gets it

And actually it's the NTSB that does the investigating.

[Demeter]

3. First Obama's Plane, Now the Texans'

What the hell is going on?

Either the stress of fuel costs, or the stress of losing control of the government.

[DarthDem]

4. Probably More Likely the Former

. . . but in regard to the latter, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more mention of the fact that Ron Paul was also on the flight.

[comtec]

5. I know, This should really motivate teh Paulers out there

MCcAIN TRIED TO OFF YOUR CANDIDATE!!!
VOTE RON PAUL, SHOW THOSE GOP ASSHOLES!!!!!!!
hee hee
oh god i hope the libtards destroy the rethuglican't party.
the conservatives really need to crawl back into the hole under whatever rock they crawled out from. They ahve done enough damage, we'll be lucky to be recovered from it in 100 years... fucking conservatives!!!

[bdab1973]

10. Whatever...one that that bothers me

about this site is the number of conspiracy hacks out there. I've flown aircraft often, and I've had cabins depressurize on a few occassions...I've shut down engines, I've done lots of things..and no one was trying to "off me". Things malfunction on aircraft, just like they malfunction on anything made by people. That's why pilots train so hard, to deal with the situations.

[Ian David]

6. RON PAUL!!!! RON PAUL!!!!

"RON PAUL!!!! RON PAUL!!!! RON PAUL IS ON THE WING OF THE PLANE!!!"


""Must... ignore... RON PAUL!"

[Demeter]

7. Thanks for the Giggles

Sometimes one must step back and cleanse the system by observing the foolishness of it all.

[deadmessengers]

8. ok, I'm PISSED about this.

Back on June 4th, I was on Delta flight 669 from Philadelphia to Atlanta. Under almost identical circumstances - we suffered a loss of cabin pressure, the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling - we made a rather rapid descent into Norfolk, where we landed safely.

Now, why am I pissed? Because the FAA is looking into this incident within 48 hours of it's occurrence, but a nearly-identical incident not involving seven congressmen doesn't even appear on the FAA's website for incidents and accidents almost seven weeks later. I'm so sick of this two-tiered system I could scream right now.

[bdab1973]

9. It actually doesn't work the way you think it does

The NTSB investigates each incident and has reporting criteria regardless of who is on the flight. Now, what they put on a website might be different, because of the press-related issues. But either way, they investigate each incident based on a normal timeline.

[deadmessengers]

13. with all due respect, it works exactly the way I think it does

Bottom line is that an incident involving congressmen will be treated with higher priority than an identical one involving the general public. Yes, both incidents will be investigated, but I think it's naive to think that the incident on my flight is going to get the same degree of prompt attention and internal visibility as the one involving R** P***. And, it is that two-tier system that I am angry about.

Welcome to DU, BTW.

[bdab1973]

14. Here's the point...

Both incidents were minor. You might not think it was, but it was in the grand scheme of things. The Congress flight got press because...wait for it...there were Congressmen on the plane. A blurb is on the website faster for press reasons, not because the NTSB looks the other way when it comes to other incidents.

I've been flying for many years now and cabin depressurization, unless it was a rapid cabin loss (you'd know it because at jet altitudes half the passengers would pass out in a few seconds), it's not that big of a deal. 99% of the time it's a slow pressure loss (slow is relative...to you it might have been fast) that required to crew to get below a certain altitude to remain A) legal per the regs B) safe per human ability to breathe should the leak get worse.

Likely they will look at the airplane and figure out it was a faulty controller, bleed air valve or cabin safety valve/outflow valve. Life goes on. That's how the system works. There are time requirements to getting certain messages released. If the NTSB feels it could be an event that gets press, they will release more messages for more transparency for the media. It's likely that in your incident's case, 99% of the people that walked off that flight will go "wow, that was crazy" and never look back. You're probably one of a handful that decided to check to see if anything was released to the general public. I'm sure if you wrote to the NTSB, they would provide you with any messages associated with the incident.

You need to realize that in the Congressman case, although it gets more transparency for press reasons, they will more than likely have one or perhaps two investigators look into it, and it will probably wrap up quickly because things like that aren't very cosmic, like other accidents can be.