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An airport worker told the BBC the pilot on the Boeing 777 had said he had lost all power, and had been forced to glide the plane into land.
The worker also said the pilot had told him all the electronics had also failed.
Originally posted by apex
I was thinking more like this, but even so, it shouldn't cause total loss of power, and the chances of simultaneous bird strikes on two engines must be pretty low.
One eyewitness, Steve Bell, said the wheels were not down on landing, and he heard a grating noise.
Originally posted by Canada_EH
The chances are higher to have both engines fail then to have dual birdstrikes.
Also the comments on control of flight systems etc. I'm lead to believe that Airbus and possibly Boeing planes have a small wind turbine that will deploy if power is loss and the turbine runs the basic flight systems.
The engines also supply power for the hydraulic systems, without which an aircraft the size of the 767 cannot be controlled. However, aircraft designs are required to accommodate such a failure, and a ram air turbine automatically deployed on the underbelly of the aircraft. In theory, the forward velocity of the aircraft would spin the ram air turbine, a propeller-driven generator, providing enough power for the hydraulics to make the aircraft controllable, although this proved problematic during landing.
The crew managed to control the descent to a touchdown with wings level, on grass just over the perimeter fence at Heathrow, on the 27L extended centreline. The gear was down, flaps were set at about 20°, and the indications are that the crew had started the auxiliary power unit.
Originally posted by stumason
The pilot said he had a "total loss of power", which is lucky he was in a Boeing seeing as they don't use fly by wire for their avionics (I am led to believe), whereas an Airbus would have been almost impossible to control without power given it's avionics are FBW.
Originally posted by Now_Then
One of the reports I saw said that rather than loose all power in both engines the actual problem was that the engines did not respond to the input from the pilot for more power - ie he had throttled back on the approach, as he required more power he pushed the levers forward and got no response. - I'm not all that sure on the precise procedure for landing a large twin engine such as a 777, but it does make sense that power is applied at the last minute for control (not for acceleration - just to balance forces and tip a hat to sir Newton)
Originally posted by Now_Then
That flight you mentioned would of had considerably more airspeed and a lot more height - a lot more options!! Still very skilled to put down safely.