Passengers have described their terror after their flight was left juddering and shaking in the sky for four hours after a severe mechanical breakdown. Scroll down to see video.
A total of 155 people were on board the Jetblue flight from Las Vegas to New York when their A320 aircraft's hydraulic system failed.
Jetblue flight 194 was on its way from Las Vegas to New York when there was a sudden meltdown of two hydraulic systems, reports the news service.
But the pilot needed to circle the sky in order to dump fuel, and passengers say the plane took steep turns and side to side lurches, making them terrified and causing them to vomit.
Many passengers praised the Jetblue cabin staff - one tweeted after the incident calling them "superheroes" saying they kept calm and helped reassure everyone, but one passenger described the flight as four hours of hell.
The flight eventually landed safely at Las Vegas and no one was injured. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
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I was about to ask how in God’s name they had to stay up there for 4 hours to lose fuel, but another comment said the A320 doesn't have a fuel dump facility? What is wrong with SAA? Why don't they ground all planes that hasn't got a fuel dump facility on board?
Isn't it Las Vegas and not Los Vegas? Why do so many people have trouble saying Las (like Lass) and insist on calling it Loss Vegas? Or is it some kind of ironic joke? A place of loss ?
MMM, so thats the idea of "Pilotless" Aircraft gone out of the window then? Bet Mr Ryanair wont be happy not being able to get rid of his Flight Deck Crews! But seriously todays pilots spend hours simulating this type of emergency and , as had been said do nothing that is not in the best interests of the passengers and crew. Wether the general public will ever accept flying without someone up front to take over in emergency I doubt... Certainly...not me! Well Done
A320's don't have a fuel dump facility. They either hold (circle) to burn off fuel to get the aircraft down to landing weight or in an emergency make an overweight landing.
If this sort of hysterical news reporting upsets you ...then visit our fear of flying site and hear some informed comment on this sort of event. There is nothing in this incident that would require the pilots to bank the plane steeply. Neither would the plane lurch from side to side ...in my 20,000 hours as a pilot my planes never lurched There's nothing happening that would make it do such a thing...even if it could. How on earth one passenger could know that something was wrong immediately after take-off is pure speculation ...whatever he/she thought there is no way that the passengers would be aware of a hydraulic failure....the controls systems would still work and there would be no indication in the passenger cabin. As for the plane juddering and shaking ...it's utter drivel. If you're nervous about flying ignore this trash and everything like it. Captain Keith flyingwithoutfear.com
They never Dumped the Fuel they had to use it up, they can only dump over sea! the time they were up there would have been the time which it took to Fly to Newyork never got that right on there news any one knows that,
With US to save on buying Fuel in England they feel up the tanks enough to fly back to America how much weight is that 50 to 100 extra passangers so the people on the plane going to where ever out of the STATES have to pay for the fuel going back, but flights from America are so much cheaper when i was coming home at Thanks giving to England there was a young American lad going to see his girlfriend in London, my flight in Clubcalss BA was around £850 i said to him your flight must have been a bit pricey as i did not know the price of mine at the time as i had been in Hospital and insurance paid for my tickette Not being nosey of course i was i said how much did you pay and told me $35 i asked him was that a last min deal and told me that he booked it 6 months earyler so why do we have to pay so much on our fares, and that was BA Club Class loverly big lounge chairs only 4 across in a boeing best flight i ever had.
flights from the US to the UK fill up their tanks on departure from the US with enough fuel to fly back to the US from the UK ?????......could you advise the source of this nonsense ?
It really riles me up when all the super boffins come out of the woodwork to air their ever-so righteous views! The pilot and co-pilot , the people sat at the front in the hot seats would have had families they would have wanted to have seen again - and they too would probably favour life over death.....they are trained and know what to do - which is obvious on this occasion as they got everybody back safely, fuel dumped or not! Not for one minute would I consider them having a chat up front "shall we keep them all up here for a few hours just for the hell of it, let's have a wager on how many sick bags we can fill" or "Shall we stay up here a little bit longer and see what happens". They did a top job with a broken piece of machinery and landed it safely, and I would guess as soon as was necessary under the circumstances presented to them.
ool head in a crises. Right man for the job. How many lives can people like that save. Well done, to many you will be a super hero who were able to walk of that plane.