“We’re going down”, said the somewhat panicked Southwest Airlines pilot over the intercom as he noticed the loss of cabin pressure as they were descending towards the Raleigh airport. Even more panicked passengers began calling loved ones and bracing for the worst before the plane made a normal landing.
Southwest later explained, “As the captain was communicating his plan with the flight attendants, he inadvertently activated the PA system in the cabin.”
Yeah, probably wasn’t very funny at the time, eh?
He landed the fucker. Everyone lived. Sully-fucking-Sullenberger if you ask me.
Though Sully’s passengers may not have felt very happy had they been listening in when he told ATC “we’ll be going into the Hudson”. His only communication over the general PA was “brace for impact”.
I’ve been on a flight where they had to rapidly descend like that for a cabin depressurization issue. They didn’t say anything at all until they got below 10,000 feet. People were a little freaked out, and he didn’t say anything leading into it. I can’t imagine what they might have been like with “We’re in trouble, we’re going down” immediately before hand.
Just wish he had done it on purpose.
Then it would just be another normal media headline.
Bawahahaha
Thank the heavens that 99.9999% of airline pilots are not that way about thinking it won’t happen to them.
The general aviation group needs to work on this …
I am an old pilot because I was only bold ( did crazy things ) when nothing else worked and I turned out to be right.
Always helps to be right. 
If you pay attention, airline crew often avoid the word “landing” because it upsets people with flight anxieties. They say “We’ll be in Phoenix…” or “We’ll have you in Omaha…” Sometimes they won’t even say “down” or “on the runway” but take it all the way to comforting “at the gate.”
How is “landing” any more upsetting than “final descent?” Because I hear that one all the time. How many final descents can there be?
Actually, the word “land/landing” is completely avoided (“arrival” is a typical substitute) until ATC says “cleared for landing”. This rule (and for “takeoff” as well) was put into effect after the 1977 Tenerife disaster.
Do they? I’m airline crew and have never had anyone suggest I shouldn’t use particular words. I normally say “arriving” because I assume you want to know when you’ll be getting off the plane, not when the wheels are going to touchdown.
Are you sure about that? May be it is specifically a US thing. I hear things like “expect a late landing clearance” pretty frequently.
According to Wikipedia, after Tenerife, “the phrase “takeoff” is spoken only when the actual takeoff clearance is given. Up until that point, both aircrew and controllers should use the phrase “departure” in its place (e.g. “ready for departure.””
Perhaps I was misremembering that the same rule applies to “landing” – I thought I’d read that somewhere, but I could be wrong.
Aww, he was probably just a Bruce Springsteen fan
“We’re going down, hey, hey-bop-a-dee-down-down!”
According to the article linked by the OP, the pilot didn’t just say “We’re going down” – he said:
"We’re in trouble; we’re going down."
Apparently, there was a loss of cabin pressure, so the captain wisely decided to descend to a lower altitude sooner than he would have normally. Unfortunately, his choice of words wasn’t exactly the most reassuring.
The one that got me was when they quit saying that we were “landing” and replaced it with “we’ll be on the ground”. It really sounded like they were playing legal games to CYA in case they didn’t technically land and just bounced the thing in (This is on US flights)
It always amazes me how a lot of people clap on non-US overseas flights when they land. I know the passengers are saying “good job” but it feels a little bit like they weren’t really sure that the crew would be doing a good job.
Any landing [del]you can walk away from[/del] clap after is a good one.
I got The Clap from a stewardess once. It wasn’t good.
What I heard on the news here was that only part made it over the PA- he said “We’re going down to 10,000 feet.” was the actual quote, but the rest of it wasn’t actually said over the PA, or the passengers freaked out before the rest was said.
(the writeup of the story I watched last week)
When does the sterile cockpit rule come into effect?
Nevermind, Wikipedia tells me that it’s below 10,000 feet. Not that he violated the rule. Or did he?
“We’ll be on the ground. Soon!!!” :eek:
No. The sterile cockpit rule is no unnecessary conversation, there can be lots of talking but it should all be related to flying the aeroplane. Giving instructions to the cabin crew is not breaking the sterile cockpit.