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  • Here’s a pop quiz! Name three differences between an airplane and your car. If one of

  • your answers was "I don't fall ten thousand feet when I run out of gas," you and I clearly

  • think alike. But really, planes are pretty good at staying up in the air when an engine

  • goes down. So, how do they do it?

  • First off, it’s essential to distinguish between an engine failing and needing to be

  • shut down. That might seem strange at first; you wouldn't turn off your car while driving,

  • after all, but there are a lot of reasons pilots might need to shut the engines down

  • while still in the air. One of the most common causes is that something

  • got into the engine’s air intake. Jet engines work by mixing fuel with air and igniting

  • it. The force of this explosion is what pushes the plane through the air.

  • The internal combustion engine in most cars works on basically the same principle. The

  • difference here is that in a car, the explosive force is contained inside the engine and used

  • to move the pistons and gears that spin your wheels. Also like your car, a jet engine needs

  • an opening on the front to maintain a constant flow of air. As anyone who's ever driven through

  • a sandstorm will happily confirm, getting dirt in your engine doesn't exactly make it

  • run any smoother. In an airplane, birds are among the most significant

  • hazard when it comes to plugging up the intake, -- and it’s not too good for the birds either.

  • Hail stones are bad too. Ash from volcanic eruptions and large forest fires are a less

  • common, but no less serious, hazard to aircraft in flight.

  • Think of the air intake as the plane’s videogame weak spot, and you get the idea.

  • The ingestion of foreign objects can result in the engine becoming starved of oxygen,

  • interrupting the reaction and causing what’s known as a flameout: literally the flame in

  • the engine going out. One somewhat humorous example of this can

  • be seen in the US Air Force's A-10 Warthog aircraft. Due do a design oversight, this

  • plane’s large, fuselage mounted engines had the habit of ingesting the smoke produced

  • by its own firepower. This would result in a flameout and a very unhappy pilot. While

  • this problem was eventually fixed, it shows that a bit of smoke can be a big problem,

  • even for top-of-the-line military hardware. Flameouts can also be caused by an equipment

  • failure on the plane itself, typically in the fuel pump or other engine components.

  • Regardless of the cause, the effects are typically the same across the board.

  • When a flameout occurs, the pilot's first action is to shut off the fuel being pumped

  • to the misbehaving turbine, quickly and quietly shutting it down. At which point, the pilot

  • will calmly inform the passengers of the emergency and descend to a lower altitude as the crew

  • figures out what exactly went wrong. The plane will often have to make an emergency

  • landing, but the descent isn't exactly going to be a wild ride. The Federal Aviation Administration

  • requires commercial planes to be able to fly and land safely with only one engine operational.

  • The stricken aircraft will usually be rerouted to the nearest airport, and emergency responders

  • will be standing by; but this is mainly a precaution rather than a necessity. Engine

  • failure is no laughing matter, but neither is it a guaranteed catastrophe.

  • Have you ever experienced an emergency landing? Let me know about it in the comments!

  • It’s so easy to land a plane on one engine that many autopilot systems can manage it

  • without assistance from the humans in the cockpit. Sleeping passengers, or anyone really

  • engrossed in the cat videos on their phone, might not even know there was an emergency

  • until theyre on the ground. Now, I've told you that losing one engine

  • isn't going to send your plane hurtling out of the sky, but what about the worst-case

  • scenario. What happens if all the engines were to go out at once?

  • This kind of total failure is extremely unlikely, but there have been isolated incidents of

  • that very thing happening to aircraft in flight. For example, Air Canada Flight 143 suffered

  • a double engine flameout in 1983. A series of problems, including technical issues, miscommunication,

  • maintenance errors, and faulty Metric conversions lead to the plane leaving the tarmac without

  • enough fuel to reach their destination. Predictably, this led to further problems.

  • While passing over the small town of Red Lake, Ontario, an alarm sounded in the cockpit.

  • At first, they thought it was a problem with the fuel pumps, but within seconds of rerouting

  • to Winnipeg, the left engine went dark. The right soon followed. Oh boy.

  • So, this is the part where Flight 143 dropped like an aluminum rock, right?

  • Well, no. A plane’s engines may push it forward, but they aren’t the part that keeps

  • it in the air. That would be the wings, which provide lift when air passes under them. Losing

  • its engines cost Flight 143 the ability to climb or accelerate, but it could still glide.

  • Running out of fuel also caused the 767 to lose all power, disabling not only the lights

  • and radio, but the controls and instrument panel as well.

  • Fortunately, like most modern airliners, the plane was equipped with what's known as a

  • ram air turbine or RAT. These are small wind turbines, often concealed behind a panel in

  • the fuselage, that can be extended in the event of a complete power loss.

  • This device allowed the pilots of Air Canada Flight 143 to safely navigate to, and land

  • in, an airfield-turned-racetrack outside the town of Gimli, Manitoba.

  • Flight 143 did end up partially losing power again during the final approach. This time

  • it was due to the aircrafts reduced velocity, preventing the RAT from spinning at full speed.

  • Despite these challenges, the plane was able to set down with only minor damage. After

  • undergoing repairs, it was able to continue flying until it's retirement in 2008, twenty-five

  • years after the emergency landing. The plane, which was officially registered under the

  • name C-GAUN, earned a new moniker after the incident, The Gimli Glider.

  • Oh, Canada. Now, you mightve noticed the conga line

  • of problems that led to Flight 143's awkward landing. This near disaster was the result

  • of an unlikely sequence of events, giving you an idea of how many different things need

  • to go wrong before a complete engine failure can occur.

  • Tighter regulations and improved maintenance procedures have mitigated the risk substantially,

  • although there’s still the occasional fluke. For example, the famous "Miracle on the Hudson"

  • in January 2009 occurred after an Airbus A320 collided with a flock of geese shortly after

  • taking off from New York City's LaGuardia Airport. The accident resulted in the loss

  • of both engines and forced the pilot, ChesleySullySullenberger, to make a risky

  • water landing in the nearby Hudson river. Despite the below zero temperatures and the

  • extreme difficulty of the landing, all one hundred and fifty-five passengers and crew

  • were evacuated onto boats and carried to safety. While many people had to be treated for hypothermia,

  • and there were several injuries, only five of them were considered severe.

  • Multiple engine failures have the potential to become very dangerous, but the good news

  • is that theyre extremely rare. Now, that covers planes, but what would happen

  • if a helicopter lost its engines in flight? As it turns out, helicopters have an even

  • easier time landing without power than planes do. A helicopter's rotors act like a combination

  • propeller and wing, providing both lift and forward momentum.

  • While this might seem like bad news at first, helicopters have a saving grace in what's

  • known as autorotation. If the engine’s revolution per minute ever drops below a predetermined

  • threshold, a mechanism will be tripped, disconnecting the main rotor from the engine. This allows

  • it to continue spinning independently on its own momentum, buying the pilot time to regain

  • control of their aircraft. If left uncontrolled, the helicopter would

  • tumble out of the sky, very much dropping like the before mentioned aluminum rock. Fortunately,

  • this rarely happens, as helicopter pilots are trained to pitch the aircraft slightly

  • down, allowing them to maintain control throughout its descent.

  • The correct angle will vary depending on the model of helicopter, but that information

  • is available in the helicopter's operation manual. You got time to open the book? Accounting

  • for wind speed and other variables can be challenging at first. However, autorotation

  • landings are considered to be one of the most straightforward helicopter procedures, and

  • all helicopter pilots have to complete one to get their license.

  • No matter how you fly, I wouldn’t worry too much about a complete engine failure,

  • since theyre exceptionally rare and surprisingly easy to recover from. Plus you get to walk

  • away with a great story to share. Hey, if you learned something new today, then

  • give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other cool videos

  • I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!

Here’s a pop quiz! Name three differences between an airplane and your car. If one of

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