Passengers had a wild journey on a Spring Airways Japan flight that seems to have suffered from a cabin pressurization challenge on Monday night. Information from FlightRadar24 reveals that flight JL8696 out of Shanghai, China, was cruising at 36,000 ft. At 6:51 pm native time, the Boeing 737-800 briefly rose, then quickly descended to 10,000 ft over the following ten minutes. It then made an emergency touchdown at Kansai Worldwide Airport close to Osaka, Japan. No accidents have been reported for the 191 passengers and crew, in line with Easy Flying. It does not seem like anybody threw out the door plug bolts on this one.
Whereas there could have been no bodily accidents, it was a harrowing expertise for all on board. The Customary studies that flight attendants seemed to be holding again tears as oxygen masks deployed and the aircraft plunged towards the ocean. One passenger even wrote a be aware to her husband to say goodbye through the fast descent, fearing the worst. Folks tells of one other passenger writing their will, together with insurance coverage and banking information.
We’re all fantastic right here now, thanks, how are you?
As scary because the expertise should have been for the passengers, the flight crew seems to have finished every little thing appropriately and by the e-book. Cabin pressurization is what makes high-altitude and high-speed flight potential. Dropping this pressurization requires descending from cruising altitude, the place there is not sufficient oxygen within the skinny air to stay acutely aware, to 10,000 ft, the place there’s, as shortly as it’s protected to take action with out overstressing the airframe.
Some basic math tells us that descending from 36,000 to 10,000 ft is a change of 26,000 ft in 10 minutes, which suggests a descent fee of two,600 ft per minute. That is quick, contemplating that a regular strategy descends at 700 ft per minute. But it surely’s additionally not unparalleled in an emergency, comparable to United Airways Flight 510 which dropped 28,000 ft in 10 minutes as a result of the same pressurization challenge. A Korean Air flight dropped 25,000 ft in simply 5 minutes for a similar purpose.
Although a bit excessive, this fast descent is a regular working process, because the above video demonstrates in a simulator. The pilots instantly placed on their very own oxygen masks, activate oxygen for the passengers, then plunge to 10,000 ft whereas decreasing throttle. These are reminiscence gadgets that pilots should know by coronary heart and execute instantly when wanted. Solely towards the top of the video does the primary officer attain for a guide to proceed troubleshooting the issue.
