The SHOW: Airlines still a "good gig"??

[sevenhelmet]

You know, the more I think about this one, the less I understand. These were federal charges from what I have read. It boils down to risk management. Were they concerned about his mental state in knowing he would be arrested, and had passenger safety concerns as a result? Or, could they have kept things on the DL and waited until the trip was complete, taking him into custody from the crew parking lot?

In my (very) limited experience, I have heard of more suspects taken in quietly than not. I haven’t seen justification for the timing or tactics used, and it’s probably tied up in red tape. One does wonder though. AI will not know the answer, but it sure will make you think it does.

 

[taxi1]

A United Airlines flight was diverted shortly after departing Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday, July 25, when an engine failure caused the pilot to make a mayday call.

United Flight 108 had just taken off for its journey to Munich at around 6 p.m. As the Boeing 787 was ascending to 10,000 feet, its pilot told air traffic control, "Engine failure, left engine, United 108 declaring an emergency. Mayday, mayday, mayday," according to an audio recording.

Air traffic control asked the pilot if the aircraft could make its "way back into the field" by turning right. "There's nobody between you and the field," the air traffic controller said in the recording.

The flight diverted back to Washington Dulles, landing safely at around 8:33 p.m.,
**********
So he had to drone around for two hours single engine to dump gas?

 

[HuggyU2]

Is there an issue flying single-engine airplanes? They are pretty reliable.

 

[sevenhelmet]

So he had to drone around for two hours single engine to dump gas?

As long as you don't turn the fuel cutoff switches off, it's probably fine.

 

[wink]

A United Airlines flight was diverted shortly after departing Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday, July 25, when an engine failure caused the pilot to make a mayday call.

United Flight 108 had just taken off for its journey to Munich at around 6 p.m. As the Boeing 787 was ascending to 10,000 feet, its pilot told air traffic control, "Engine failure, left engine, United 108 declaring an emergency. Mayday, mayday, mayday," according to an audio recording.

Air traffic control asked the pilot if the aircraft could make its "way back into the field" by turning right. "There's nobody between you and the field," the air traffic controller said in the recording.

The flight diverted back to Washington Dulles, landing safely at around 8:33 p.m.,
**********
So he had to drone around for two hours single engine to dump gas?

Highly doubt it takes two hours to dump to max land. Biggest plane I flew with a dump was the DC-10. It would not take an hour to dump to max land. I suspect for some reason they chose to burn down, to some acceptable weight, if not max land.

 

[HuggyU2]

There is a good write up from Boeing's magazine a few years ago talking about landing overweight in a Boeing.

After reading that, I'll land overweight almost every time, assuming runway length is adequate.

 

[wink]

Of course, it varies on air frame and operator, but I recall that at my airline, the discussion surrounding overweight landings was don't sweat it, it just requires an inspection.It's not that long or expensive.

 

[SynixMan]

Some places have SOPs against dumping over land even above altitudes allowed in the FARs. In general I'm not gonna second guess a crew that shit a motor and wanted to get everything suitcased before landing. 121 training constantly preaches slowing down the EP lest you fuck something away. And if WX wasn't great, you'd need manual landing minimums because AP can't auto land overweight. Obviously a fire, dual engine failure, or something effecting airworthiness, you gotta do some of that pilot shit.

@HuggyU2 This One? I'm generally neutral on the subject, having done it in the sim both ways, neither was cosmic. Throw in random Asian ATC and I could imagine things getting interesting quickly.

 

[zipmartin]

I landed overweight once in the 737, short of our destination, due to an onboard medical emergency. After the emergency medical personnel got the patient off and in an ambulance, the over weight inspection took about 15 minutes, and we were on our way. No big deal.

 

[HuggyU2]

That's the one.

 

[zippy]

A United Airlines flight was diverted shortly after departing Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday, July 25, when an engine failure caused the pilot to make a mayday call.

United Flight 108 had just taken off for its journey to Munich at around 6 p.m. As the Boeing 787 was ascending to 10,000 feet, its pilot told air traffic control, "Engine failure, left engine, United 108 declaring an emergency. Mayday, mayday, mayday," according to an audio recording.

Air traffic control asked the pilot if the aircraft could make its "way back into the field" by turning right. "There's nobody between you and the field," the air traffic controller said in the recording.

The flight diverted back to Washington Dulles, landing safely at around 8:33 p.m.,
**********
So he had to drone around for two hours single engine to dump gas?

The link for the audio you posted states they took off around 8pm. Took off of Runway 30. Their track shows an immediate turn back toward the field, and then one larger lap past the field and to the west and back north to dump and back on final to 19C.

Flight aware show scheduled departure of 540pm, a push off the gate at 611pm takeoff at 8pm, land 833pm and return to gate at 849pm

UA108 (UAL108) United Flight Tracking and History 25-Jul-2025 (KIAD-KIAD) - FlightAware

Track United (UA) #108 flight from Washington Dulles Intl to Washington Dulles Intl

www.flightaware.com

 

[taxi1]

The link for the audio you posted states they took off around 8pm. Took off of Runway 30. Their track shows an immediate turn back toward the field, and then one larger lap past the field and to the west and back north to dump and back on final to 19C.

Flight aware show scheduled departure of 540pm, a push off the gate at 611pm takeoff at 8pm, land 833pm and return to gate at 849pm

UA108 (UAL108) United Flight Tracking and History 25-Jul-2025 (KIAD-KIAD) - FlightAware

Track United (UA) #108 flight from Washington Dulles Intl to Washington Dulles Intl

www.flightaware.com

That makes infinitely more sense.

 

[mad dog]

…too fat…

Never underestimate the capabilities of a fat cop. When I was a rookie Cincinnati cop 20 years ago, I saw my FTO [who was fat at the time] chase down on foot a [not fat] suspect. It was truely amazing.

 

[sevenhelmet]

There is a good write up from Boeing's magazine a few years ago talking about landing overweight in a Boeing.

After reading that, I'll land overweight almost every time, assuming runway length is adequate.

Bingo. We do this in flight test all the time, and it's no big deal, even in a 100,000 lb bizjet. Remember that a lot of airplanes can't dump, and even the ones that can are still capable of stopping in a reasonable runway length (think V1 cuts at max gross). Dumping in heavier airplanes is (I think) mainly to mitigate the hazards of an OEI go-around. Heavy pilots, tighten me up if I'm not correct about that.

Navy carrier pilot jokes aside, if you don't trust yourself to mitigate VSI at touchdown as a type-rated pilot, I'm not sure what to tell you...