A 747 pilot's account of how he saved his plane from crashing

[thewinchester]

Just read it this morning, and let's say it's a gripping account of how a pilot and his crew managed to get a plane back safely after the rudder went 31 degrees hard over left.

How I Saved A 747 From Crashing
By Capt. John Hansen

Former Northwest Airlines Capt. John Hansen flew the airline's Boeing 747 route from Detroit to Toyko for years. In 2002, the plane tried to kill him and 400 passengers. This is the never-before published story of how he saved them.

Hansen told the story in a 2006 court hearing, and the version below is his own words edited from the transcript. After taking off from Detroit in October 2002 and reaching the halfway point over the Bering Sea, Hansen and his co-pilot were retiring to the crew bunk while the other two officers took over for the remainder of the trip:
...
We got it down to taxi speed, and you could hear all four pilots exhale at the same time.

The tower said that must have been quite a ride, when you get to the gate you're going to want to go back and look at that rudder.

As I parked the airplane, I looked down and here was Sterling Benson, the Anchorage chief pilot. He told me later that as we taxied up, it was a very impressive sight because the wheels and brakes were all cherry red they were so hot.

I said to Sterling, I'd like to go down and see that rudder. And he said, oh, sure, come on, I'll take you.

It's hard to envision how big that lower rudder really is. But when you consider that the wing span of this airplane is a couple hundred feet, you can imagine that's a huge rudder. And it was impressive.

It was hard over to the left thirty-one and a half degrees by the time we landed. And there was hydraulic fluid running down the bottom of the airplane and pooling on the ramp beneath it.

[straitman]

A great read IMHO.

[samh004]

Riveting stuff. Wish there was a photo of what it looked like somewhere.

[harvyk]

Pretty incredible... Having a rudder lock itself too far in one direction has caused many planes to fall out of the sky in the past...

Whilst most of the time I guess the "Bus Driver" tag would fit a pilot, every so often they really do show why they are paid the big bucks...

[serfty]

I wonder if actually having two rudders (upper/lower) incorporates a bit of 'fail safe' into it.

I don't think the Pilot would have been able to tell his story to the court hearing if both rudders had failed.

[BAM1748]

Good story, pity there was no explanation as to what mechanically had caused the problem.

[samh004]

Good story, pity there was no explanation as to what mechanically had caused the problem.

I thought there might be something on wikipedia about the incident, as it would seem serious, but nothing on the Northwest page about it. Strange.

[serfty]

Event Details

[samh004]

Event Details

So from what I read, they couldn’t find anything wrong with the part and nothing wrong on other similar systems, but developed a way of testing without taking it to pieces?

[serfty]

So from what I read, they couldn’t find anything wrong with the part and nothing wrong on other similar systems, but developed a way of testing without taking it to pieces?

Not at all!

... An inspection of the forged aluminum manifold of the lower rudder power control module (PCM) revealed the end portion which houses the yaw damper actuator had fractured off from the main portion of the manifold. ...