A Glass of Water Saved a Plane From Crashing

[Music] so what do they have no electricity onboard all equipment down no airport inside and only a half forgotten runway deep in the Siberian snow forest it's hard to imagine a worse scenario for a passenger plane landing so it's a real miracle that everyone ended up safe and sound and all of it thanks to a glass of water flight 516 was scheduled for September 7th 2010 as a regular flight from Adana Russia to Moscow the plane had been used for 20 years but it had never suffered a single accident before so the cabin crew had no doubts the flight would be easy passengers got on board the plane flight attendants nonchalantly checked their boarding passes everything went as usual the first pilot greeted everyone and the flight began the crew noticed the first signs of trouble when the plane was over a small town of oozing skin Siberia the electronic equipment started acting abnormally what the pilots shrugged it off as a nuisance and continued the flight air traffic control also neglected the problem the aircraft captain yevgeny Novus Olaf made an announcement for the passengers to remain calm the plane was going through a slight turbulence and the flight could get a little rough for a short time and it worked there was no commotion on board the people trusted their pilot however just eight minutes after the announcement the lights in the cabin went off only the flight attendants paid any attention to it believing everything was all right in the cockpit though the situation immediately became desperate it wasn't just the lights that shut down all the electronics on board suddenly went out basically leaving the pilots to their own devices without the equipment the plane became crippled it was still operable but all the navigate no systems refused to work the radio went offline and the fuel transfer pumps were also lost this resulted in pilots having to navigate using only their visuals and the fuel that remained usable could only keep the plane in the air for about 30 minutes the situation was critical the time was not enough for the flight to get to the nearest airport even an otherwise perfect condition but with all the electronics gone finding a good spot to land and land there safely for that matter was next to impossible the pilots had to use all their experience and expertise to keep the plane steady when the electrical failure occurred the plane was high above the clouds at thirty four thousand seven hundred eighty feet the crew had to get below the curtain to see the ground in case they needed to make an emergency landing but also to turn on the auxiliary generator that couldn't function at high altitudes without any means to control the angle at which they descended they used an old and almost forgotten trick a glass of water put on the control panel taking turns the pilots watch the water in the glass and measured the angle of descent by its incline this perfectly simple but genius solution made it possible to get as far down as nine thousand eight hundred forty feet at which level the pilots were finally able to try and switch on the generator as misfortune would have it the attempt failed no electricity still the crew didn't lose hope though and as they could see the ground now they scanned it for a place to land as Captain Novus Olaf later said in an interview it was a pure stroke of luck that they saw a landing strip near the town of yzma it was an old airport that had been abandoned for a long time and closed for any aircraft except helicopters no radio no air-traffic control nothing was left there except one man Airport supervisor Sergei sotnik off all in all what happened in the next few minutes can only be described as a miracle you see despite the abandonment of the airport sotnik off of his own well kept the runway in a good condition for all those years he cut down the emerging brush swept away garbage and even drew the runway marking when it failed that's why the pilots of the enforcement plane were able to notice it in the first place and you could only imagine their surprise at this finding because this Airport was not even on the maps anymore however the length of the runway in yzma was only four thousand three hundred forty-seven feet well this airplane needs six thousand five hundred sixty feet to land safely moreover the speed which the aircraft was going down was much greater than safety instructions allowed 236 miles per hour against the safe 168 that was because the flaps could only be controlled via electrical switches all odds were against the cabin crew of the plane but now the at least had a chance they didn't need to land in the forest any longer risking the lives of everyone on board so they used the sudden opportunity to their advantage it took the airplane three attempts at landing before it finally hit the runway the first two ended in the pilots returning the aircraft for another circuit they assessed all the risks and were very careful in their actions as it was later noted in the official investigation this carefulness might have saved dozens of lives before the last attempt at landing all passengers and the cabin crew were transferred to the front of the plane to be ready for an emergency evacuation and there was still no panic as the crew recalls everyone was calm and serious absolutely understanding that something big was going on and their lives were at stake people were waiting patiently in their seats and didn't make a sound finally the pilots committed and brought the plane down on the runway the landing gear almost went ablaze from the friction but still didn't help the plane to stop before the runway ended the aircraft ran through all of it and rammed into the forest going another 520 feet before stopping completely the trees damaged the plane but also slowed down its advance which was part of the miracle the machine came to a screeching bumping halt the emergency escape slides were dispatched and all 72 passengers along with all nine crew members safely went down to the ground none of them were even slightly injured so against all odds with none of the plane's electrical systems working with no proper runway to land on with a speed that should have crashed the aircraft into the forest and without even the means to tell anyone they were having an emergency the heroic pilot still landed the plane and saved everyone's lives the lucky passengers and crew were transported by helicopters to nearby odka from where they went on to Moscow by another plane and only one family decided they'd had enough air travel for a lifetime and took a train instead but whatever the passengers chose all of them signed a collective letter to the government to grant decorations to the cabin crew they all agreed that the professionalism they showed on board prevented the tragedy on October 8th 2010 a month after the event Sergei Noga Slav and his co-pilot Andrzej lamin off were made heroes of the Russian Federation while the rest of the cabin crew received the orders of courage not forgotten was another hero without whose diligence and dedication the safe landing of flight 516 would have been impossible Sergei Sotnikov the supervisor of the yzma Airport received his decorations in February 2012 but what happened to the airplane after it delivered its passengers and crew to safety at first the government wanted to put it out of use and dismantle it the arguments were that even if the aircraft were repaired after all the damage it received it would be unable to take off from the runway in yzma it was still too short for such a big and heavy airplane however it was later decided that the plane could be rescued after all and indeed in March 2011 after all the immediately necessary repairs were finished the airline owning the plane managed to fly it to another station where it could be repaired completely after that the aircraft continued performing flights for another 7 years it received its own nickname yzma and in September 2018 it flew for the last time part of its old crew from 2010 was on board while the former captain met his old friend on the ground that was how after almost 30 years of service the heroic airplane said its goodbyes wow do you know of any other amazing stories of miracles in the air sound off in the comments below if you learned something new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but hey don't go anywhere just yet we have over 2000 cool videos for you to check out all you have to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy stay on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 1,494,431

Rating: 4.8528318 out of 5

Keywords: critical situations, airplane, airports, onboard, traveling by plane, flight rules, air travel, emergency landings, aircraft accidents, plane crashes, surviving the crash, amazing airplane landings, Russia, Siberia, Russian pilots, Russian aviation, civil aviation

Id: lhlfw9IVygs

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2019