Worst Case Scenario: Here’s How to Land a Boeing 737 If You Really Had to Do It Yourself

by Gary Leff

Maybe you’re an ex-military pilot who led a sqaudron over Macho Grande and lost many men. You’ve vowed never to fly again. But you find yourself onboard a commercial jetliner with the cockpit crew knocked out after they’ve eaten the fish.

Or maybe you don’t have any flying experience at all, but you’ve got to safely land your airline’s 737 anyway.

Via Road Warrior Voices, Delta pilot Tim Morgan made a video explaining everything you’d need to from the moment you enter the cockpit.

Put on the headset, announce your “Mayday!” and learn how to use the breaks once you’re on the ground. All those switches and knobs and gauges will make sense.

The upshot though is: the flying part is easy, it’s the landing that’s hard.

Meanwhile, here’s How to Survive a Plane Crash.

Other editions of Worst Case Scenario:

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  5. I have 270 real hours in the left seat including my high-performance, retract, and instrument ratings. I’ve used X-Plane (the amazing simulator that is even FAA certified for simulator training given the proper stick and rudder) to land everything up to a 737. I wouldn’t recommend volunteering to land your stricken plane, but I think I would at least get it close to the ground with my experience, based on my X-plane landings.

  6. or you could just let the plane auto land and not potentially hurt everyone by attempting it yourself…….

  7. Funny he is using the PMDG 737 software, which is a very in-depth simulation. If this was a real emergency situation I highly doubt they would have someone do a manual landing. They would likely redirect them to and airport with an ILS runway and just walk them through setting up the autoland. This video makes it much harder than it needs to be and someone flying by hand would likely crash the plane. With the autoland you set it up and the plane handles the landing.

Comments are closed.