The media BS really gets to me: "The news follows a similar incident last week on a more conventional Boeing jet, in which a plane on a flight to Warsaw was forced to land on its belly."
"Follows" and "similar" make it seem like there might be a link. What's the connection? Nothing. One was a Dreamliner the other a 767. Do they share any systems? Nope. I guess having wheels is enough.
Also the submitter has editoralized in the heading. It doesn't say 'severe' in the original article.
The hysteria that the mainstream media seems to inject into its reporting of even the most routine aviation incidents has always annoyed me. A belly landing, missed approach, and manual gear drop are all scenarios that crews have practiced and are prepared for. If there's a checklist for it, it doesn't belong in the paper.
I believe it contributes on some level to a subconscious national fear of flying, which is part of what allows the TSA to subject travelers to increasingly ridiculous procedures at the airport...
I agree that too much hero status is given to pilots who crash land planes, but this is about landing gear failing to deploy correctly from a spanking-new, all-electronic cockpit and plane.
There may indeed be a design issue with the new Dreamliner that was not caught in flight testing, but one anecdote doesn't make data, and even the Dreamliner still isn't as automated as your average modern Airbus. Moreover, the safety of planes is not related to their new-ness, but rather how well they're maintained. I'd rather fly on an old plane owned by an airline with good mechanics than a new plane owned by an airline with indifferent mechanics.
It's irresponsible of them to suggest that the passengers were in any sort of danger, and to suggest that this incident has any connection to a completely different (and time-honored) design that rolled out of the factory 20 years ago also landing without a gear halfway across the world.
I think the goal was trying to trick some people into thinking this airplane landed on its belly when:
The pilot was able to lower the landing gear manually using gravity and landed on the plane's second approach to the runway.
I mean as a passenger would you rather the flight last an extra 7 minutes vs. hearing and feeling the horrible sounds of the plain sliding on its belly and then using the emergency exits.
This kind of problems are quite common with new aircraft models. The most dangerous are those which are not as obvious as the landing gear( flight modes bugs and unexpected behaviours)
While we all get stripped searched for water bottles, the pilot is sending commands to the airplane with the same network as the passengers. byebye laptop NetBook smartphone cellphone.
"Follows" and "similar" make it seem like there might be a link. What's the connection? Nothing. One was a Dreamliner the other a 767. Do they share any systems? Nope. I guess having wheels is enough.
Also the submitter has editoralized in the heading. It doesn't say 'severe' in the original article.