Back on August 22, a Smartwings Boeing 737-800 took off from Samos, Greece. Flight QS1125 was headed to Prague with 170 people on board. About 100 nautical miles northeast of Athens the aircraft’s left engine shut down while at 36,000 feet.
The crew tried to restart the engine while descending to 24,000 feet. The engine wouldn’t restart. The captain decided not to declare an emergency. Regulations require they head for the nearest suitable airport. They did not. Instead they continued for another 2 hours and 20 minutes, flying mostly at 24,000 feet, until they made it to Prague.
The Aviation Herald reports that they determined intermediate airports wouldn’t have the necessary parts, and didn’t want the delay. The captain who made the decision not to divert, when forced to fly on a single engine, was serving as the airline’s head of flight operations at the time.
The plane passed by “major airports including Sofia, Belgrade, Zagreb, Budapest and Vienna.”
None of the air traffic control centres en route was notified by the crew about the engine failure, adds UZPLN.
The pilots only transmitted a ‘pan pan’ urgency message, mentioning the failure, after entering the Prague flight information region and contacting the Prague area control centre.
The number one engine failed due to an obstructed fuel filter and failure of the fuel pump.
So on one hand I’m pleasantly surprised that people aren’t randomly bashing pilots… Too many times pilots are second guessed.
But in this case, wow. So I am not a Smartwings 737 pilot, but I flew 737s several years ago (for the US military) and this goes 100% against what we learned, I know there are different rules around the world but I’d bet my next paycheck this is a gross violation of their SOP.
Many people are pointing out all the glide-able airfields within range of the aircraft throughout their route… This just blows my mind. Dead engine gliding an airliner is not some simple task with a 99% guarantee of success. It is VERY easy to screw it up. Furthermore, I’d also bet my next paycheck the periodic sims these pilots go through do NOT practice dead engine gliding to airports.
Sure, losing an engine is very unlikely. But that doesn’t mean losing the second engine is equally unlikely… As pointed out before, if this is a contaminated fuel issue, you bet there is a not so unlikely chance the other engine will fail.
Unless their checklists were wildly different, single engine is land as soon as POSSIBLE. Not land as soon as practicable. That doesn’t mean you need to pick the absolute closest asphalt strip of minimum length, but if there is a suitable field (NOT suitable and convenient field), you don’t to pass it.
Kind of silly to see people saying they would have been happy not to be diverted. Yeah, obviously I would rather make it on one engine safely than divert safely if those are my only two options. That’s easy to say after they are safe on deck. Had it been a fuel contamination issue and they lost the other engine and ended up screwing up their glide into an airport (not an unreasonable scenario) there would’ve been an uproar had they passed perfectly good airfields.
This isn’t how we do things in prossional aviation, this will NOT be how I fly my passengers around when I get to the airlines in a few years (hopefully in just a few!) I’d like to hear more info from the pilot but honestly, this looks very bad… Looks like what we call “get-there-itis.”
Any other airline pilots / pilots of large twins that disagree? Definitely don’t want to sound like a snobbish know-it-all, but I don’t think people defending this supposed action have professional flying experience or understand the gravity of this situation and how it goes against everything (I hope) pilots around the world are taught
Well congrats a pilot who knows how to fly manually
Human mind works in strange ways. Whatever reason be, Cptn when errs, copilot n flight engineer should overrule him right?
Life is a risk. Flying is even a bigger risk. Best risk takers like this pilot make life achieve new levels. Boeing certainly learnt the need to have better fuel system in place, from a living pilot and an intact plane, not from a burnt out black box and forensic connotations. I like this pilot, and am sure in the 800miles he engaged all his faculties to the fullest extent for any emergency. His passengers still talk of how lovely the journey was
I cannot believe the positive support this captain is getting. He should lose his license to fly. Having been a career airline pilot for 40 years, rarely have I heard of such gross disregard for passenger safety, rules and regulations. There are some 2 engine airplanes that are allowed to fly long distances (across oceans) when an engine fails. About the only reason to bypass the closest “suitable” alternate airport is If another “suitable” airport can be deemed a safer course of action. I flew many years as a captain, instructor pilot, and check pilot on Boeing 777. I’m not just blowing smoke!
There’s an old adage , I believe, from a Canadian pilot, “A superior pilot is one who uses his superior judgement to avoid situations that require his superior skill.” This captain is judgement challenged.
I have used this quote for 50 years. Worked for me.
These passengers were at the hands of a lunatic. What else could have gone wrong besides the dead engine?
ETOPS allows many hours on one engine. Twins flying across any number of oceans especially south Pacific or southern Indian Ocean cannot simple land as soon as practical Was it high risk ? Don’t think so
@Arnold Long – this is not an etops-certified aircraft
Fire all pilots involved. Only see that as a proper alternative. There were violations here and lack of the communication management resource guidelines??
These Smartwings are dumb , I will never fly with them after knowing it, thanks.
If he is a U.S. certified pilot his license should be revoked and never allowed to fly a passenger plane again.
I have 3000 hours in multi engine jets- not the 737. I would not have chosen to fly over 2 hours with one engine out but the most dangerous part of the flight is an engine out landing. I would want to land a an airfield that gave me the best chance of success. That is a decision the pilot has to make.
He won this one. Hope he rethinks that decision for future reference.
My kind of Pilot,Someone ,please give this man an award, and make him a flight teacher!
737 is too now certified to fly over the ocean. It got certified this or last year and now flies from the mainland to Hawaii by several airlines, Southwest, and Alaska being two that I know of. That being said, this pilot was not flying over an ocean and large city airports were in his flight path and he should have followed manufacture and I would believe about all countries directives and land at one at his nearest location to prevent endangering his passengers.
@Gary Leff if this particular plane is not certified ETOPS then the standard rule is to stay within 60 minutes of a suitable airport. This rule doesn’t mean to land in 60 minutes or less. Once over Europe the plane was always at less than 60 minutes of an airport if it needed to land with an emergency. With no engines at all, flying at 24000 ft the plane is able to glide to an airport in a radius of 50 km – not sure you can find all the time a “big” airport close enought.
I totally agree with frank and others who blame the pilot .. I strongly believe that this behavior is out of responsibility and NON PROFESSIONAL and indicate how this pilot is having teenager attitude and lacks the slightest sense of responsibility . This pilot should be FIRED .
I was on a 777 from Los Angeles to Sydney that lost and engine about 3 hours out of LAX and the pilot turned around and flew the 3 hours back to LAX. Must have been the only choice. I believe that we were very close to Hawaii but that must not have been enough. We landed safely and I rebooked a flight for the next evening. The plane was not ready to fly until about 24 hours later.
Hi, i guess, well i hope, that the people who said that the crew in question made the right decision l, are not pilots cos i know for a fact they know very little about commercial aviation that entails other aspects apart from hand flying the plane such as crm and decision making: the priority number one is the safety of the passengers and of everyone onboard, the rest comes second or third in line! Even the concept od ETOPS has been mentioned in a way that clearly shows that the ones who did are completely clueless about what it is and what it entails! So people please document yourself prior to commenting on matter that you are not familiar with! Of course we are willing to educate you.
Keep the blue side up!