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What a flight!
"This is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem and all four engines have stopped. I trust you're not in too much distress." The ice-cool words of a BA pilot at the start of his epic battle to save 263 lives over a shark infested ocean.

And what a night.

Cpt Moody passed away. An interview: Airsidetv.com - Interview With Capt Eric Moody BA Flt 9
(1st part)
Just one of the several videos, of course. One really has to be tough to have been that efficient and calm! - or is it that there's little choice in minutes like that? Be calm or be doomed?

Captain Moody passed away March 19, aged 82.

Edited: actually, this animation+interview is a nice one despite the 'horrifying' catch (even though it was horrifying, obviously).

I know there are many aspects of BA that are less than satisfactory, but having flown with most of the world's major airlines, there's only one carrier's aircraft I'd want to be on in a tight spot. There is something about the British that sets them apart from most other nations when the chips are down. BA009 is a classic example, as is BA038 and BA5390 (the 1-11 window incident). There is also the British Airtours disaster at Manchester, which was a total game-changer for the industry. One of the few occasions where lessons were actually learned. I knew one of the cabin crew who was on that flight. She lost her best mate, who was at the back of the aircraft. She only ever spoke about it once, after quite a few drinks, but the point she made was none of her training had prepared her, or the other carbon crew members, for what happened that day.

It was exemplary CRM. I remember studying it during various ATPL courses (CASA and JAA).
During a time when it was common to criticise poor CRM, this crew stood out as exemplars in how to do it right.

One ATPL instructor (CASA) was a former Qantas pilot. He visited that B747 after landing. He said that there was a lot of dust around and instead of a neat, tidy flight deck, ready for the next crew, it looked like they just ran away from it. He didn't blame them at all. He did note just how sand blasted the windscreens were.

reddo wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:52 pm

It was exemplary CRM. I remember studying it during various ATPL courses (CASA and JAA).
During a time when it was common to criticise poor CRM, this crew stood out as exemplars in how to do it right.

One ATPL instructor (CASA) was a former Qantas pilot. He visited that B747 after landing. He said that there was a lot of dust around and instead of a neat, tidy flight deck, ready for the next crew, it looked like they just ran away from it. He didn't blame them at all. He did note just how sand blasted the windscreens were.

reddo wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:52 pm

It was exemplary CRM. I remember studying it during various ATPL courses (CASA and JAA).

Wow - so it's almost as if you'd seen it yourself!
Is it still studied these days?
I was extra impressed by the Captain telling how he understood that 'by the book' won't work and he had to use his own best judgement. One has to have guts to make such split-second decisions.
Weren't they lucky to have a crew like that?!

As reddo says

this crew stood out as exemplars in how to do it right.

The Flight Engineer must have been outstanding! Talk about a 'one-armed paper-hanger'!

@probes I don't know if it's still on the curriculum for the ATPL Human Performance section. I haven't done any ATPL exams for over 20 years. Curiously, we did not look at it during my Masters. Especially, since resilience is "big" and the new way of looking at improving crew performance is to highlight what is working well, instead of "blame and train".