Does this aircraft actually have an opening window in the cockpit?

[Clothahump]

@dstarfire

Oh, also: Curse you, ECG for getting me hooked on yet another youtube channel. If you’re going to give out links like that, at least pick the geeky ones that are barely accessible to non-specialists. Captain Joe is too easy to understand and follow - it’s like Crack for my curiousity nerve.

I love Captain Joe. I’ve also gotten hooked on PilotsEye and VasAviation and ATCTranscripts. I love the cockpit videos of the big jet takeoffs and landings, and I gotta tell you - Lufthansa has some serious Nordic goddesses flying those planes!

[Enola_Straight]

This thread made me think of this infamous photo of the TWA 847 hijacking:
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/hezbollah.jpg

[LSLGuy]

@JerrySTL

The C-9A / DC-9 had a rope that the aircrew threw out the window then climbed down. I wouldn’t want to try that on a C-5!

We also use those windows to reach out clean the outside of the windshields.

Any of the sliding cockpit window airplanes have ropes like that. From the 707 through the 777 (except 747) and all the DC-whatevers as well. Ditto Airbus up through at least the A340. I don’t know after that.

Throw out the rope, then clamber out the window then hand over hand down the rope to the ground. Sounds good. But …
It’s a long way down to the ground from a narrowbody. It’s even farther from a wide body. There was a hijacking of an Airbus A300 Air France Flight 8969 - Wikipedia . When the airplane was stormed by the French counterterrorist commandos the copilot was in the cockpit. He tried to escape out his window and barely got started down the rope when he lost his grip. He crashed to the ramp from 2+ stories up and broke both legs. We got to watch vid of that in training every year. It never failed to elicit a moan from the crowd even though we’d all seen the tape several times before. It might be on youtube for your edification but I’m not going looking for it.

The Lockheed L-1011 had a neat system for its rooftop hatch. Next to the hatch was a set of sorta rapelling gear. You’d grab a big knurled D-ring, get a good grip, then just slide off the top/side of the fuselage. A reel in the fuselage structure would pay out the cable at a controlled rate and you’d just levitate down to the ground assuming you were strong enough to simply hang from the D-ring with two hands for the 10-15 seconds it took. That seemed like something that was actually doable by most crewmembers. Unlike the rope-out-the-window. We’re not all 24 and in excellent physical shape any more.

I have no clue about the 747 or 787, but I sure hope there’s something friendlier than just a real long rope and the hope you can hand-over-hand for 40+ feet down.

[Lord_Feldon]

@LSLGuy

The Lockheed L-1011 had a neat system for its rooftop hatch. Next to the hatch was a set of sorta rapelling gear. You’d grab a big knurled D-ring, get a good grip, then just slide off the top/side of the fuselage. A reel in the fuselage structure would pay out the cable at a controlled rate and you’d just levitate down to the ground assuming you were strong enough to simply hang from the D-ring with two hands for the 10-15 seconds it took.

I think the 747 has these too.

[MikeS]

@Lord_Feldon

I think the 747 has these too.

Yes — and they’ve been successfully used in at least one hijacking, Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi in 1986.