What ‘minor injuries’? It appears the plane is safely stopped on the tarmac. Except for some extra excitement likely no more traumatic than a normal landing. Due to the snow the deceleration forces were likely less than usual.
‘Something went wrong with a Boeing. How can I profit off this?’
My neck hurts!
3 replies
Valid point I did not consider.
Even worse if someone jumps of leading edge of wing, as happened in at least one evacuation of Pacific Western B737.
I forget if that was:
(Newer/larger airliners may have inflating thing outside fuselage that constrains passenger movement.)
Evacuation slides are intended to get passengers off the airplane quickly, so once inflated, they’re both very steep and surprisingly slick, so you’re moving pretty fast by the bottom, and it’s easy for someone to injure themselves, especially if they’re older and/or have mobility issues.
Long ago, at my last ATC facility, SWA had an engine bird strike while taking off. Was just past V1 but made a hasty decision to abort anyhow. Ran off the end of the runway, down a slight hill, came to a stop very near the edge of a very steep drop, sitting at an odd angle. Airstairs could reach it. Only damage was burning tires which the fire dept extinguished immediately. Only way to exit was the slides. Slides were steep because of the way the airplane came to rest. On male passenger, in his haste, caught his foot at the top of the slide, went down forward, and ended up breaking his leg. SWA said because of that and the definition of accident vs incident, this was their first official accident. The airplane was undamaged so no accident by definition there. However, broken leg, passenger injury, accident. As I recall, reversers were not used. Much discussion later about that.
Two percent injury rate – pretty good, well done cabin crew.
You cannot expect people whose last physical exercise was a shambling jog around a school playing field 40 years ago to jump down a 3 metre high (at least) slide, without some hurting themselves.
And what is dismissed as a “twisted knee” by ambulance crews is often reclassified as something requiring surgery and 18 months of pain.
Absolutely correct re fitness and likelyhood of injury. I’m no jock, but my word some you see can barely fit in a seat.
Doc, does your neck hurt or are you simply out of your league here?
Good thing the flight was going to MSP and not MIA. I imagine no one was wearing shorts or flip flops.