
Flight AC837 on an Emergency Call - ainiriand
Flight AC837 from Madrid to Toronto is on an emergency call burning fuel.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.flightradar24.com&#x2F;ACA837&#x2F;23be1953<p>Apparently she is missing a wheel.
======
Symbiote
This link has some information, but this looks likely to be a fairly pointless
HN speculation-discussion this early in the process.

[https://www.thelocal.es/20200203/madrid-airport-prepares-
for...](https://www.thelocal.es/20200203/madrid-airport-prepares-for-
emergency-landing-of-air-canada-flight)

------
aledalgrande
Feed of the airport, supposedly should see the landing from here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B189mltra0&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B189mltra0&feature=youtu.be)

~~~
na85
Watched them come down. Looked like an uneventful landing from that feed's
perspective. Hopefully everything is ok.

~~~
andor
The landing was around 19:06 local time if anyone is looking for it in the
stream.

------
theseadroid
More info, it seems one tire has blown out and debris entered and damaged one
of the engines. It's a Boeing 767-300.
[https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/air-canada-plane-
to-...](https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/air-canada-plane-to-make-
emergency-landing-in-madrid-1.973651)

------
DanHulton
God, what the christ do you even do in such a situation? I'm guessing just
clear the runways and go for the emergency landing at the lowest speed you can
with as little fuel as possible?

And of course, it's Air Canada. I have had/heard of no end of maintenance
issues with their planes.

My heart goes out. I hope they can land this one safely.

~~~
malandrew
I would imagine a water landing over still water would be best. Go as slow as
you can while skimming over the water letting it slow you down and have
emergency boats out there to quickly rescue passengers.

~~~
Rooster61
A plane that size probably can't slow down to the point that water provides
any more cushion than asphalt, especially with less control due to a bum
engine. Plus, its MUCH harder to rescue everyone over water than surrounded by
the resources of a major airport.

~~~
TylerE
Water doesn't provide cushioning at any speed. It is, for all intents and
purposes, incompressible.

------
cdesai
Alternate link to view live flight path:

[https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ACA837/history/20200203/...](https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ACA837/history/20200203/1205Z/LEMD/CYYZ)

And live airport map:
[https://it.flightaware.com/live/airport_status_bigmap.rvt?ai...](https://it.flightaware.com/live/airport_status_bigmap.rvt?airport=LEMD)

I hope they make it safely!

------
Zardoz84
The plane was flying at low height over Madrid. I listened clearly a few hours
ago.

A F18 is doing a visual inspection to see the damage. Looks that perhaps would
be formed to take earth on Torrejón Air base . Updates on Spanish :
[https://twitter.com/aeropuertoMAD/status/1224381048173334530...](https://twitter.com/aeropuertoMAD/status/1224381048173334530?s=19)

~~~
Zardoz84
also, I don't know if is related, but this morning some traffic was delayed or
rerouted to other airports because there was a incident with drones flying too
near of Barajas airport.

------
pyfgcrl123
Depends on the wind I guess. Under favourable conditions, a skilled pilot
should be able to land without loss of life even without landing gear at all.

------
pfarnsworth
I certainly hope everyone lands safely. I know it's obvious that missing a
wheel is bad, but as a non-pilot, how survivable is this? Is this marginally
dangerous or extremely dangerous?

~~~
throwanem
Also not a pilot, but a lifelong aviation buff: It's not _safe_ , but it's a
lot less dangerous than many other things that can go wrong. A landing with
main gear locked and nose gear misbehaving is pretty survivable; a belly
landing is dicier, but still well within the "everybody walks away" range of
likelihood. And if it really is just a single missing wheel - well, that's why
there are two of them on each axle. Again, it's not the day you want to have,
but if that's the only thing wrong then chances are good of everyone walking
away.

 _edit:_ That said, as noted elsewhere in the comments, it's pretty pointless
to speculate, especially when a linked article mentions more issues than just
a wheel having come off. (Although it's not unreasonable to notice that in
particular, seeing as an Air Canada Dash-8 dropped a wheel on takeoff just
last month.)

~~~
jandrese
A single engine landing with no nose gear is definitely trickier since you'll
lose steering authority as the plane slows down--more danger of bouncing off
to the side and flipping over, but overall I'd expect everyone to walk away
from this with no more than minor injuries. The minor injuries happening when
people have to use the rear escape ramps that are at too steep of an angle
because the plane is nose down on the ground and the tail is way high in the
air.

Chances are they'll have that plane back up in the air in a few months in
regular service unless it was right on the edge of retirement already.

------
skookum
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-air-canada-
eu...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-air-canada-eu-spain-
emergency-landing-1.5449975)

------
smn1234
also conversation on
[https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1440333](https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1440333)

------
bamboozled
She’s down safely it seems!

------
haunter
But the whole landing gear looked fine

[https://i.imgur.com/t1HANaG.png](https://i.imgur.com/t1HANaG.png)

Closer [https://i.imgur.com/xwpjRtB.png](https://i.imgur.com/xwpjRtB.png)

~~~
tobib
It does look a bit asymmetric on the left there. But difficult to say given
that there are 4 wheels on each side.

------
jacobloydbash
Twitter Said engine issues too:
[https://twitter.com/sepla_pilotos/status/1224352617964429314...](https://twitter.com/sepla_pilotos/status/1224352617964429314?s=20)

------
JosephRedfern
It appeared to land safely. Well done!

------
jliptzin
Everyone talks about planes being packed with tons of redundancy but this is
simply not true - where is the landing gear redundancy?

~~~
Someone1234
Planes are designed to land without or with partial landing gear. That's the
redundancy.

