Plane drops 18,500 ft over Goa, but lands safely

[Dave Noble]

An Emirates flight flying over Goa averted tragedy on Sunday, and landed safely in Kochi.

The Boeing 777 - flying from Dubai to Kochi with 350 passengers on board - dropped from a height of 20,000 to 1,500 feet, possibly due to turbulence caused by rains in the Goa-Kerala region.

Full article at Plane drops 18,500 ft over Goa, but lands safely

 

[straitman]

I fail to see how turbulance could have caused this but I'm sure jb747 will be able to enlighten us on the possible causes of this incident.

Another strIke against Emirates IMHO. They seem to have avoided disaster by the skin of their teeth again :!:

 

[Aussie_flyer]

EK 530 was cruising at 35,000 feet when encountered a short period of heavy turbulence prior to descent into India. The drop in altitude was minor - a descent of 200 feet. There were 350 passengers on board the flight, 20 of whom suffered minor injuries," said Majid Al-Mualla, Emirates' Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in West Asia.

SOURCE: NDTV.COM

This above sounds more plausible. All the articles flying around the net each have a different story with widly varying figures they have plucked from who knows where. It seems ridiculous an air pocket would cause a 5 km drop!

 

[straitman]

SOURCE: NDTV.COM

This above sounds more plausible. All the articles flying around the neat each have a different story with widly varying figures they have plucked from who knows where. It seems ridiculous an air pocket would cause a 5 km drop!

I would replace ridiculous with totally unlikely and in fact impractical/impossible considering the aircraft was still flyable.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I would replace ridiculous with totally unlikely and in fact impractical/impossible considering the aircraft was still flyable.

Just for once, I will agree with you straitman

 

[harvyk]

I would replace ridiculous with totally unlikely and in fact impractical/impossible considering the aircraft was still flyable.

In 1985 China Airlines Flight 006 was at FL410 when it fell 30,000ft (mismanaged engine flameout), and yet was still flyable at the end (just, but with extensive damage which required an emergency landing at SFO).

So I believe the airframe can fall a long way and yet still survive, but the likelyhood turbulence being the only factor is IMHO extremely low...

 

[pandafyed]

Regardless of whether or not plausible, it still scares me no matter how many times I've flown...