American Airlines jet loses control

[krh]

On October 16, 2006, American Airlines flight 2434, an MD 80, had left Dallas bound for Jacksonville, FL. We had reached cruising altitude without hitting any significant turbulence when all of a sudden the plane rolled approximately 35 degress to the right and lost altitude for about 3 seconds. The plane made a very loud vibrating sound and shuddered during the entire 3 seconds, which seemed like a lifetime. There was a very loud gasp from the passengers and the flight attendants hurried back to their seats. Neither the pilot or the copilot spoke to us for about another 4 minutes. Then one of them came on the speaker and said we had hit turbulence. It felt as if the plane was going to roll completely over. What do you experts think happened? Was it simply turbulence or could there have been a malfunction with temporary loss of control? Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[keezy44]

On October 16, 2006, American Airlines flight 2434, an MD 80, had left Dallas bound for Jacksonville, FL. We had reached cruising altitude without hitting any significant turbulence when all of a sudden the plane rolled approximately 35 degress to the right and lost altitude for about 3 seconds. The plane made a very loud vibrating sound and shuddered during the entire 3 seconds, which seemed like a lifetime. There was a very loud gasp from the passengers and the flight attendants hurried back to their seats. Neither the pilot or the copilot spoke to us for about another 4 minutes. Then one of them came on the speaker and said we had hit turbulence. It felt as if the plane was going to roll completely over. What do you experts think happened? Was it simply turbulence or could there have been a malfunction with temporary loss of control? Any comments would be appreciated.

Many MD80's have had problems especially at FL370 getting into low speed buffet for several reasons. It happened to us once in the clouds at 36,500 feet when the captain got too slow trying to get above the clouds. I told him he needed to level off to get the speed up but it was too late. We started getting low speed mach buffet and as it got worse had to descend without clearance to prevent loss of control. Climbing to FL370 too heavy and autothrottle malfunctions have also caused this to happen. The MD80 has to be flown very carefully at high altitude. Of course when all this is happening the flight attendants are calling wondering what the vibration is. We told them turbulence. What else could we do? Admit it was our fault?

 

[Leto2]

On October 16, 2006, American Airlines flight 2434, an MD 80, had left Dallas bound for Jacksonville, FL. We had reached cruising altitude without hitting any significant turbulence when all of a sudden the plane rolled approximately 35 degress to the right and lost altitude for about 3 seconds. The plane made a very loud vibrating sound and shuddered during the entire 3 seconds, which seemed like a lifetime. There was a very loud gasp from the passengers and the flight attendants hurried back to their seats. Neither the pilot or the copilot spoke to us for about another 4 minutes. Then one of them came on the speaker and said we had hit turbulence. It felt as if the plane was going to roll completely over. What do you experts think happened? Was it simply turbulence or could there have been a malfunction with temporary loss of control? Any comments would be appreciated.

Yikes, that would be pretty scary for the passengers. I can only imagine.

 

[D-Jet]

I had that happen on approach to ORD in an AA MD-80. The plane rolled about 40 degrees in each direction. It was due to the wake vortex from a passing aircraft on approach to 27R. It was a bit unnerving though having never experienced that before in hundreds of flights. For once I was shaken up on landing needed some time away from flying. But I got over it soon

 

[delldude]

Had the same thing happen to me.....was reading the newspaper while on auto pilot(really good article on rate of return on investments) and didn't notice until my coffee spilled on my lap.Lucky for me the copilot just came back from the galley just in time.

 

[Ifly2]

"Then one of them came on the speaker and said we had hit turbulence"

Sometimes things are just what they are, ya' know...

 

[nwa400]

"Then one of them came on the speaker and said we had hit turbulence"

Sometimes things are just what they are, ya' know...

And the world says, "I want cheaper tickets". Becareful what you want! Most pilots have taken 50% pay cuts for your cheap tickets. When you hit wake turb. on short final.....do you want a guy making 19K a year in the flight deck? That is what you are getting now. You choose. Safety for your family or 50 dollar ticket.

 

[JohnHenry]

Check out the following link and look at the ASRS MD80 Series Aircraft Stall Incidents. Note Flight Crew Human Performance as the problem area in many of the incidents. delldude gave a good example of this problem area.....one pilot doing toilet paper while the other was doing newspaper. Must be a lot of 19K pilots out there. 😛h34r:


http://www.air-safety.com/fordown/MD80_rpts.pdf

 

[Warchant]

And the world says, "I want cheaper tickets". Becareful what you want! Most pilots have taken 50% pay cuts for your cheap tickets. When you hit wake turb. on short final.....do you want a guy making 19K a year in the flight deck? That is what you are getting now. You choose. Safety for your family or 50 dollar ticket.

Amen to that! 🙂