Airplane gliding occurs when all the engines shut down, but the wings are still functional and can be used for a controlled descent. This is a very rare condition in multi-engine airliners, [1] though it is the obvious result when a single-engine airplane experiences engine failure. The most common cause of engine shutdown is fuel exhaustion or fuel starvation, but there have been other cases in aviation history of multiple engine failure due to bird strikes, flying through volcano ash, ingesting debris, and various forms of damage due to water (hail, ice or overwhelming rain).
Below is a list of commercial airline flights that were forced to glide at some point while in the air.
Date | Flight | Aircraft | Location | Cause | Result | Total fatalities | Occupants |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 April 1953 | Miami Airline (irregular air carrier) [2] | Douglas DC-3 | East of Selleck, Washington | Dual engine failure due to poor maintenance | On approach to Boeing Field, left engine failed & its propeller feathered; minutes later, right engine failed. While gliding, aircraft was unable to clear mountain, crashed into trees, breaking up. Investigation showed both engines suffered bearing failures due to negligent maintenance. | 7 | 25 |
30 April 1953 | Aeroflot Flight 35 | Ilyushin Il-12 | Kazan, Russia | Dual engine fire | At altitude of 300 m, both engines caught fire. Crew tried feathering propellers, captain decided to land plane on Volga River. One passenger drowned during evacuation. [3] [4] | 1 | 23 |
24 February 1962 | Tarom Ilyushin 18V [5] | Ilyushin Il-18 | Paphos, Cyprus | Icing of fuel filters (probable) | En route at 7,000 m (23,000 ft) over Mediterranean Sea while 70 km (43 mi) from coast of Cyprus, engine 3 lost power, followed by engines 1 & 2. At 3,100 m (10,200 ft), 45 km (28 mi) offshore, engine 4 also lost power. Plane underwent belly landing on ground near Paphos, Cyprus after 45 km (28 mi) glide. | 0 | 100 |
21 August 1963 | 1963 Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-124 Neva river ditching | Tupolev Tu-124 | Leningrad, Russia | Fuel exhaustion | Nose landing gear failed to properly retract after takeoff, crew unable to lock gear in extended position. Aircraft circled to expend fuel to reduce weight & fire hazards in event forced landing was required. Aircraft ran out of fuel, pilot successfully ditched plane in Neva River without injury to passengers or crew. | 0 | 52 |
30 May 1967 | East African Airlines 5Y-ADA [6] | Vickers VC10 | Bombay, India | Fuel starvation due to improper use of boost pumps | Climbing through 15,000 ft on departure from Bombay, all four engines lost power because of failure to use fuel boost pumps. Flight engineer was sick in lavatory & was retrieved by purser to restore power, thus arresting descent toward Indian Ocean. | 0 | Unknown |
2 May 1970 | ALM 980 | McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | Near Saint Croix | Fuel starvation after multiple missed approaches due to bad weather | Flight originating from John F. Kennedy International Airport made three landing attempts at Princess Juliana International Airport but aborted due to bad weather. Captain diverted to St. Croix, short on fuel, decided to ditch before reaching island. Both engines flamed out shortly before ditching. | 23 | 63 |
6 September 1971 | Paninternational Flight 112 | BAC One-Eleven | Hamburg, Germany | Engine failure due to accidental use of jet fuel in water-injection tanks | After take-off, both engines failed; pilots decided to make emergency landing on highway – Bundesautobahn 7 (also part of European route E45) – about 4.5 km (3 mi) from Hamburg Airport. During landing, aircraft collided with bridge, shearing both wings; plane caught fire. | 22 | 121 |
17 July 1972 | Civil Aviation Ministry test flight | Tupolev Tu-134 | Moscow oblast, Russia | Engine shutdown due to electrical system fault | Fourth prototype Tu-134 commuter jet, undergoing testing near Moscow. Failure of onboard accumulators caused fuel pumps to halt & both engines to shut down. Attempts to restart engines did not succeed, crew decided to glide to Iksha Reservoir. No casualties occurred during ditching. Plane experienced minor damages, was grounded for use as emergency training aid of cabin crews until 2000. [7] | 0 | ? |
4 December 1974 | BOAC flight 910 | Vickers VC10 G-ASGL | South China Sea | Fuel starvation due to fuel transfer error | On flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo, flight engineer failed to switch tanks feeding engines, resulting in failure of all four engines. Aircraft suffered from Dutch roll; later, engineer returned & restarted engines. [8] | 0 | Unknown |
4 April 1977 | Southern Airways Flight 242 | Douglas DC-9 | Georgia, US | Hail & water ingestion | After entering thunderstorm at 14,000 ft, both engines flamed out. Aircraft performed emergency landing on Georgia highway but struck gas station & exploded during rollout. [9] | 72 (incl. 9 on ground) | 85 |
2 December 1977 | 1977 Benghazi Libyan Arab Airlines Tu-154 crash | Tupolev Tu-154 | Near Benghazi, Libya | Fuel exhaustion | The intended destination airport was blanketed in fog; aircraft could not successfully land, ran out of fuel while attempting to locate an alternate airport. Forced landing was made. | 59 | 165 |
19 May 1978 | Aeroflot Flight 6709 Baku – Leningrad | Tupolev Tu-154B | Maksatikha, Kalinin Oblast, Russia | Fuel exhaustion due to improper actions of flight crew | Automatic fuel-pumping system was improperly disabled, causing power generators & all three engines to fail midair at altitude of 9600 m. Attempts to restart engines & auxiliary power unit did not succeed; after 14 minutes of gliding, crew made emergency landing in potato field. This type of aircraft is capable of landing on unpaved surfaces, but landing gear, although extended, was not locked & thus collapsed. Aircraft hit trees, was destroyed; 130 people survived crash, including 27 who were injured. Four passengers died. [10] | 4 | 134 |
28 December 1978 | United Airlines Flight 173 | Douglas DC-8 | Portland, Oregon | Fuel exhaustion | Aircraft aborted first landing attempt due to possible landing-gear failure. Pilot focused on landing gear problem, neglected crew's warning of lack of fuel. Plane ran out of fuel, glided several miles before crashing within 10 miles of airport. | 10 | 189 |
12 April 1979 | Aeroflot Flight 3582 Tashkent – Krasnoyarsk | Tupolev Tu-154B | Chimkent, Kazakhstan | Failure of three engines due to flight engineer error | Soon after take-off from Tashkent at altitude of 2200 m, first engine failed, followed by second & third. Aircraft glided to Chimkent airport; crew managed to restart one engine at altitude of 900 m & land safely at night. [11] | 0 | 164+crew |
24 June 1982 | British Airways Flight 9 | Boeing 747-200 | Jakarta, Indonesia | Volcanic ash ingestion from Mount Galunggung | En route at FL370, all engines failed. After 10 minutes of gliding, four engines restarted, but one failed again & was shut down. Flight landed safely in Jakarta. | 0 | 263 |
5 May 1983 | Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 | Lockheed L-1011 TriStar | Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida | Crew shut down of engine due to low oil pressure; remaining two engines failed due to loss of oil. | After gliding for five minutes, one shut-down engine was successfully restarted. Aircraft made emergency landing at Miami International Airport; the sole running engine could not generate enough thrust to taxi aircraft to gate. | 0 | 172 |
23 July 1983 | Air Canada Flight 143 ("Gimli Glider") | Boeing 767-233 | Gimli, Manitoba, Canada | Fuel exhaustion as result of refueling calculation error due to recent conversion to metric & deficient maintenance policies | Aircraft glided to emergency landing on decommissioned runway that had been converted to drag strip. | 0 | 69 |
19 August 1983 | United Airlines Flight 310 [12] | Boeing 767-222 | Over the Arapahoe National Forest west of Denver, Colorado | Dual-engine flameout due to fuel system contamination | Crew restarted both engines at 15,000 feet (4,600 m), successfully landed in Denver. | 0 | 205 |
24 May 1988 | TACA Flight 110 | Boeing 737-3T0 | New Orleans, Louisiana, US | Dual engine flameout due to water ingestion | Plane glided to emergency off-airport landing on levee, undamaged; subsequently flown out to New Orleans after engine replacement. | 0 | 45 |
8 January 1989 | British Midland Flight 092 | Boeing 737-4Y0 | M1 Motorway, Kegworth | Blade fracture in left engine causing heavy vibration & engine fire; pilots shut down wrong engine | When aircraft was diverted to East Midlands Airport, vibration returned, pilots erroneously shut down remaining engine. Aircraft crashed onto M1 motorway, skidding up motorway embankment, 689 yards from runway threshold. | 47 | 126 |
3 September 1989 | Varig Flight 254 | Boeing 737-200 | São José do Xingu, Amazon jungle, Brazil | Navigation error, fuel exhaustion | Crew entered incorrect heading into flight computer (270 instead of 027), taking plane over remote area of Amazon jungle. Attempts to reach alternate airport were unsuccessful; plane ran out of fuel, pilot made belly landing in jungle. | 13 | 54 |
15 December 1989 | KLM Flight 867 | Boeing 747-406M | Redoubt Volcano, Anchorage, Alaska | Lost power in all four engines after flying through cloud of volcanic ash | All engines restarted, landed safely. | 0 | 245 |
25 January 1990 | Avianca Flight 52 | Boeing 707-321B | Cove Neck, New York | Fuel exhaustion | Plane ran out of fuel due to multiple bad-weather approach holds to JFK Airport, crashed into hillside on Long Island. | 73 | 158 |
27 December 1991 | Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 | McDonnell Douglas MD-81 | Gottröra, Sweden | Ice ingested into engines; dual engine failure | Crash landed in open field near Gottröra | 0 | 129 |
12 November 1995 | American Airlines Flight 1572 | MD-83 | Hartford, Connecticut | Engines ingested tree debris. | Aircraft was low on approach, clipped trees on ridge-line. One engine failed, other engine severely degraded. Aircraft glided to runway. [13] | 0 | 78 |
23 November 1996 | Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 | Boeing 767 | Indian Ocean, off Africa | Hijacking, fuel exhaustion | Aircraft taken over by hijackers demanding reroute to Australia. Plane ran out of fuel, ditched into Indian Ocean off Comoro Islands, broke apart on impact. | 125 | 175 |
12 January 2000 | Aeroflot aircraft transfer flight from Krasnodar to Novosibirsk | Tupolev Tu-154M | Tolmachevo, Novosibirsk, Russia | Failure of all three engines during descent due to defective fuel | All three engines failed at altitudes of 700, 300, and 6 m, respectively; crew managed to land aircraft safely. | 0 | 30 |
12 July 2000 | Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378 | Airbus A310-304 | Vienna, Austria | Fuel exhaustion as result of landing gear failure to retract | Glided for about 20 km (12 mi) before crash landing 500 metres (1,600 ft) short of runway. | 0 | 150 |
27 February 2001 | Loganair Flight 670A | Shorts 360-100 | Firth of Forth, Scotland | Dual engine failure from accumulation of large volumes of snow or slush in both engines | Ditched in the Firth of Forth c. 100 metres from shoreline near Granton Harbour. | 2 | 2 |
24 August 2001 | Air Transat Flight 236 | Airbus A330-243 | Terceira Island, Azores | Fuel exhaustion 120 km (75 mi) from emergency airport as result of fuel leak | Emergency landing; aircraft glided for 20 minutes. [14] | 0 | 306 |
14 January 2002 | Sibir Flight 852 | Tupolev Tu-204 | Omsk, Russia | Fuel exhaustion due to closure of destination airport in Novosibirsk & strong headwinds en route to reserve airport | Airliner ran out of fuel, engines failed 15 km from airstrip in Omsk around 2000 m altitude. Aircraft glided for four minutes; crew managed to extend gear & land safely. [15] | 0 | 119 |
16 January 2002 | Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 | Boeing 737 | Indonesia | Hail & water ingestion | After entering thunderstorm, both engines flamed out. Aircraft performed ditching on Bengawan Solo River, Indonesia. One flight attendant was killed; all others aboard survived. | 1 | 60 |
14 October 2004 | Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 | Bombardier CRJ-200 | Jefferson City, Missouri | Dual engine failure outside of flight envelope | During repositioning flight, pilots experimented with performance limits of aircraft. Both engines failed at high altitude & low speed, could not be restarted. Plane attempted emergency landing at Jefferson City Memorial Airport, crashed 2.5 miles (4.0 km) short of runway. Both pilots killed. | 2 | 2 |
6 August 2005 | Tuninter Flight 1153 | ATR 72-202 | Mediterranean Sea | Aircraft fitted with incorrect model of fuel indicator, leading to incorrect assumption by flight crew of sufficient fuel | Engines failed about halfway through flight. Crew unsuccessfully attempted to restart engines, attempted to ditch aircraft at sea. Aircraft broke apart on impact. | 16 | 39 |
14 August 2005 | Helios Airways Flight 522 | Boeing 737-31S | Grammatiko, Greece | Flight crew incapacitation due to wrong setup of pressurization system | After take-off from Larnaca, Cyprus, flight crew continued ascent despite cabin pressurization warning; all on board, except one flight attendant who attempted to control aircraft, were eventually incapacitated by lack of oxygen. The auto pilot flew aircraft to Athens, Greece, entered holding pattern until both engines flamed out due to fuel exhaustion. Aircraft descended in gliding spiral until striking hill in Grammatiko, killing all aboard. | 121 | 121 |
17 January, 2008 | British Airways Flight 38 | Boeing 777-200ER | London, England | Fuel starvation caused by blocked fuel lines due to formation of ice | While landing at Heathrow Intl Airport the 777 lost all thrust from its engines and glided to the airport where it crashed. All 152 occupants survived. | 0 | 152 |
15 January 2009 | US Airways Flight 1549 | Airbus A320-214 | New York City | Complete dual engine failure due to bird strikes moments after takeoff from La Guardia Airport | Aircraft glided, successfully ditched in Hudson River ("Miracle on the Hudson"). | 0 | 155 |
13 April 2010 | Cathay Pacific Flight 780 | Airbus A330-300 | Juanda Surabaya East Java Indonesia | Duel engine failure and compresser stall after takeoff; Fuel contaminaton | Landed at Hong Kong International Airport 4 hours after the first ECAM message | 0 | 322 |
3 June 2012 | Dana Air Flight 0992 | McDonnell Douglas MD-83 | Iju-Ishaga, Lagos | Dual engine failure from improper maintenance of fuel lines, failure for crew to divert to alternate airport when first engine failed | Crashed during landing approach into densely populated neighborhood. All 153 on board were killed and an additional six on the ground were killed. [16] | 159 | 153 |
4 February 2015 | TransAsia Airways Flight 235 | ATR 72-600 | Keelung River, Taipei, Taiwan | One engine autofeathered due to fault in its control module; pilots shut down wrong engine. | Crashed into Keelung River three minutes after take-off. | 43 | 58 |
28 November 2016 | LaMia Flight 2933 | Avro RJ85 | Near Medellín, Colombia | Fuel exhaustion | Took off with insufficient fuel reserves, crashed about 10 nmi (19 km) short of destination after short holding delay. | 71 | 77 |
15 August 2019 | Ural Airlines Flight 178 | Airbus A321 | Near Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Russia | Complete dual engine failure due to bird strikes | Occurred moments after takeoff from Zhukovsky International Airport. Aircraft glided & successfully landed in corn field. | 0 | 233 |
22 May 2020 | Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 | Airbus A320-214 | Model Colony, Karachi | Dual engine failure after belly landing and go-around, loss of engine oil | Crashed into buildings on approach, 97 on board were killed and one person on the ground was also killed. [17] | 98 | 99 |
2 July 2021 | Transair Flight 810 | Boeing 737-200 Advanced freighter | Māmala Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, United States | Single engine power loss power after takeoff; engine mismanagement | Ditched into Māmala Bay while attempting emergency landing. Crew misidentified failed engine & left both thrust levers in idle position until impact. | 0 | 2 |
Aeroflot Flight 6833, en route from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, to Leningrad, Russian SFSR, with an intermediate stop in Batumi, was the scene of an attempted aircraft hijacking by seven young Georgians on 18–19 November 1983. The crisis ended with a storming of the Tu-134A airliner by Alpha Group that resulted in eight dead. The surviving hijackers were subsequently tried and executed.
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Mineralnye Vody Airport is an airport in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Mineralnye Vody. It features a civilian terminal area on its west side with 41 parking spots. The airfield houses a Tupolev Tu-154 maintenance facility on the east side.
Aeroflot Flight 411 was an international scheduled flight from Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow to Freetown, Sierra Leone via Dakar in Senegal. Early on 6 July 1982, the four-engined Ilyushin Il-62 crashed and was destroyed by fire after two engines were shut down shortly after take-off. All 90 passengers and crew on board died as a result of the crash.
Aeroflot Flight 5143 was a domestic scheduled Karshi–Ufa–Leningrad passenger flight that crashed near Uchkuduk, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, on 10 July 1985. The crash killed all 200 occupants on board. Investigators determined that crew fatigue was a factor in the accident.
Aeroflot Flight 1691 crashed near Moscow Vnukovo Airport on 17 March 1979 killing 58 of the 119 people on board. The Tupolev Tu-104B operating the flight was overloaded and the crew received a false fire alarm.
Aeroflot Flight 3932 was a flight operated by Aeroflot from Koltsovo Airport to Omsk Tsentralny Airport. On 30 September 1973, the Tupolev Tu-104 operating the route crashed shortly after takeoff from Sverdlovsk, killing all 108 passengers and crew on board.
Aeroflot Flight 15 was a passenger flight from Moscow-Domodedovo Airport to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airport with a stopover at Yemelyanovo Airport that crashed on 29 February 1968 en route to Petropavlovsk. All but one aboard the aircraft were killed in the crash.
On 6 December 1997 a Russian Air Force Antonov An-124-100, en route from Irkutsk Northwest Airport to Cam Ranh Air Base in Vietnam, crashed in a residential area after takeoff from the airport.
Aeroflot Flight 2415 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Moscow to Leningrad that crashed shortly after takeoff on 28 November 1976. The cause of the accident was attributed to crew disorientation as a result of artificial horizon failure in low visibility conditions.
The 1969 Yukhnov mid-air collision occurred when an Ilyushin Il-14M, operating as Aeroflot Flight 831, a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Moscow-Bykovo Airport to Simferopol Airport, Crimea collided in the air on 23 June 1969 with an Antonov An-12BP of the Soviet Air Force over the Yukhnovsky district of Kaluga Oblast, in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union. All 120 occupants of both aircraft perished in the crash.
Aeroflot Flight 5003 was a Soviet domestic cargo flight that crashed during climb out on 14 January 1967. The Antonov An-12B was flying between Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in Russia with a crew of six when it crashed. It was carrying industrial parts from Moscow to Khabarovsk with several intermediate stops in between, however it caught fire shortly after takeoff, resulting in a fatal accident. At the time Flight 5003 was being operated by Polar Aviation Management under Aeroflot.
The 1958 Aeroflot Тu-104 Kanash crash occurred on 17 October 1958 when a Tupolev Tu-104A operated by Aeroflot flying an international route from Beijing to Moscow crashed in bad weather near the town of Kanash, Chuvashia, Russia, four hundred miles east of Moscow, killing all 80 people on board. The flight was carrying high-level diplomatic delegations from numerous Soviet aligned countries such as China, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. It was just the second fatal accident involving the Tu-104 which had been introduced into Aeroflot's inventory two years earlier, and the deadliest in the airline's history until the crash of Aeroflot Flight 902 in 1962.
Aeroflot Flight 699 was a scheduled flight, operated by Tupolev Tu-154B CCCP-85254, from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Krasnovodsk Airport that crashed on approach to its destination.
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The 2021 Menzelinsk parachute Let L-410UVP-E crash occurred near the town of Menzelinsk, Tatarstan, Russia on 10 October 2021.
The An-24 Crash in Navoiy came March 23, 1991. An-24 belonged to Aeroflot airline. The plane crashed in Navoiy airport during landing. 34 people lost their lives.
Rus Flight 9633 was a cargo flight operated on an IL-76TD aircraft of «Rus» airlines from Chkalovsky Airport (Moscow) to Taiyuan Wusu Airport (Taiyuan) with intermediate landings at Alykel Airport (Norilsk) and Bratsk Airport (Bratsk). On July 14, 2001, the plane carrying out this flight crashed a few seconds after takeoff from Chkalovsky Airport. All 10 people on board were killed.
Aeroflot Flight 31 was a cargo flight from Moscow-Bykovo Airport to Koltsovo Airport with a stopover in Gorky Airport. On 13 January 1955, the Lisunov Li-2 operating the route crashed during takeoff after the right engine failed. The investigation assumed a sabotage to be the cause of the crash.
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