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.[1] The most common cause of engine shutdown is fuel exhaustion or fuel starvation, but there have been other cases in aviation history of 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).
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (September 2010) |
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 | Total passengers and crew |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 April 1953 | Miami Airline (irregular air carrier)[2] | Douglas DC-3 | East of Selleck, Washington | While on approach to Boeing Field, first the left engine failed and was feathered. A few minutes later, the right engine failed. Investigation showed that both engines suffered bearing failures caused by negligent maintenance. | While gliding, the aircraft was unable to clear a mountain at 3,500 feet (1,100 m) above sea level. It crashed into trees and broke up. | 7 | 25 |
30 April 1953 | Aeroflot Flight 35 | Ilyushin Il-12 | Kazan, Russia | Double engine fire | At an altitude of 300 m, both engines caught fire. The crew tried feathering propellers and the captain decided to land the plane on the Volga River. One of the passengers drowned during the evacuation.[3][4] | 1 | 23 |
24 February 1962 | Tarom Ilyushin 18V[5] | Ilyushin Il-18 | Paphos, Cyprus | Fuel filters icing (probable) | En route at 7,000 m (23,000 ft) over the Mediterranean Sea while 70 km (43 mi) from the coast of Cyprus, engine no. 3 lost power, followed by engines no. 1 and 2. Then, at 3,100 m (10,200 ft), 45 km (28 mi) offshore, engine no. 4 also lost power. The plane underwent a belly landing on the ground near Paphos, Cyprus after a 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 | The nose landing gear failed to properly retract after take-off, and the crew was unable to lock the gear in its extended position. The aircraft circled to expend fuel to reduce weight and fire hazards in the event a forced landing were required. The aircraft ran out of fuel and the pilot successfully ditched the plane in the 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 the fuel boost pumps; the flight engineer was sick in the lavatory. The engineer was retrieved by the purser and restored power, arresting the descent toward the 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 | The flight originating from John F. Kennedy International Airport made three landing attempts at Princess Juliana International Airport, but aborted due to bad weather. The captain diverted to St. Croix, short on fuel, and decided to ditch before reaching the 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 inadvertent use of jet fuel in water-injection tanks | After the take-off, both engines failed and the pilots decided to make an emergency landing on a highway – Bundesautobahn 7 (also part of European route E45)– about 4.5 km (3 mi) from Hamburg Airport. During the landing, the aircraft collided with a bridge, causing both wings to shear off, and the 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 | The fourth prototype of the Tu-134 commuter jet was tested near Moscow. Failure of the onboard accumulators caused the fuel pumps to halt and both engines to shut down. Attempts to restart the engines did not succeed and the crew decided to glide to Iksha Reservoir. No casualties occurred during ditching. The plane also experienced just minor damages and was used on the ground for emergency trainings of the cabin crew 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 a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo, the flight engineer failed to switch tanks feeding the engines, resulting in failure of all four engines. The aircraft suffered from Dutch roll; later, the engineer returned and restarted the engines.[8] | 0 | Unknown |
4 April 1977 | Southern Airways Flight 242 | Douglas DC-9 | Georgia, US | Hail and water ingestion | After entering a thunderstorm at 14,000 ft, both engines flamed out. The aircraft performed an emergency landing on a Georgia highway, but struck a gas station and 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 and the aircraft could not successfully land, and ran out of fuel while attempting to locate an alternate airport. A forced landing was made. | 59 | 165 |
19 May 1978 | Aeroflot Flight 6709 Baku – Leningrad | Tupolev Tu-154B | Maksatikha, Kalinin Oblast, Russia | Ran out of fuel due to the improper actions of the crew | The automatic fuel-pumping system was improperly disabled, causing power generators and all three engines to fail midair at an altitude of 9600 m. Attempts to restart the engines and the auxiliary power unit did not succeed, so after 14 minutes of gliding, the crew had to make an emergency landing in a potato field. This type of aircraft is capable of landing on unpaved surfaces, but the landing gear, although extended, was not locked, so collapsed. The aircraft hit the trees and was destroyed; 130 people survived the 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 | The aircraft aborted its first landing attempt due to possible landing-gear failure. The pilot focused on the landing gear problem, and neglected the crew warning of a lack of fuel. The plane ran out of fuel and 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 mistake | Soon after take-off from Tashkent at an altitude of 2200 m, the first engine failed, then the second and third. The aircraft glided to Chimkent airport, the crew managed to restart one engine at an altitude of 900 m and 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 FL 370, all engines failed. After 10 minutes of gliding, four engines were restarted, but one failed again shortly thereafter. The 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 | The crew shut down an engine due to low oil pressure, then the remaining two engines failed due to loss of oil. | After gliding for five minutes, the shut-down engine was successfully restarted. The craft made emergency landing at Miami International Airport; the running engine could not generate enough thrust for the aircraft to taxi to the gate. | 0 | 172 |
23 July 1983 | Air Canada Flight 143 ("Gimli Glider") | Boeing 767-233 | Gimli, Manitoba, Canada | Ran out of fuel as a result of refueling calculation error due to recent conversion to metric and deficient maintenance policies | The aircraft glided to an emergency landing, on a decommissioned runway that had been converted to a drag strip. | 0 | 69 |
19 August 1983 | United Airlines Flight 310[12] | Boeing 767-222 | Over the Arapahoe National Forest west of Denver, Colorado | Both engines flamed out due to fuel system contamination | The crew restarted the engines at 15,000 feet (4,600 m), and 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 | The plane glided to emergency off-airport landing on a levee; it was undamaged in landing and 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 and engine fire. Pilots shut down the wrong engine | When the aircraft was diverted to East Midlands Airport, the vibration returned, forcing the pilots to shut down the remaining engine. The aircraft crashed onto the M1 motorway, skidding up the motorway embankment, 689 yards from the runway threshold. | 47 | 126 |
3 September 1989 | Varig Flight 254 | Boeing 737-200 | São José do Xingu, Amazon jungle, Brazil | Navigation error, fuel exhaustion | The crew entered an incorrect heading into the flight computer (270 instead of 027), taking the plane over a remote area of the Amazon jungle. Attempts to reach an alternative airport were unsuccessful, and the plane ran out of fuel. The pilot made a belly landing in the 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 a cloud of volcanic ash | Engines restarted, landed safely | 0 | 245 |
25 January 1990 | Avianca Flight 52 | Boeing 707-321B | Cove Neck, New York | While low on fuel, the plane was delayed numerous times on approach to JFK Airport due to bad weather. | The plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a hillside on Long Island. | 73 | 158 |
27 December 1991 | Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 | McDonnell Douglas MD-81 | Gottröra, Sweden | Ice sucked into the engines caused dual engine failure | Crash landed in an open field near Gottröra | 0 | 129 |
12 November 1995 | American Airlines Flight 1572 | MD-83 | Hartford, Connecticut | Engines ingested trees. | The aircraft was low on approach, and clipped trees on a ridge-line. One engine failed and the other was severely degraded. The aircraft glided to a runway.[13] | 0 | 78 |
23 November 1996 | Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 | Boeing 767 | Indian Ocean, off Africa | Hijacking, fuel exhaustion | The aircraft was taken over by hijackers who demanded to be flown to Australia. The plane ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean off Comoro Islands; it 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; the crew, however, managed to land the aircraft safely. | 0 | 30 |
12 July 2000 | Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378 | Airbus A310-304 | Vienna, Austria | Ran out of fuel as a result of landing gear failing to retract | Glided for about 20 km (12 mi) before crash landing 500 metres (1,600 ft) short of the runway | 0 | 150 |
27 February 2001 | Loganair Flight 670A | Shorts 360-100 | Firth of Forth, Scotland | Suffered a dual engine failure from an accumulation of large volumes of snow or slush in both engines | Ditched in the Firth of Forth some 100 meters from the shoreline near Granton Harbour | 2 | 2 |
24 August 2001 | Air Transat Flight 236 | Airbus A330-243 | Terceira Island, Azores | Ran out of fuel 120 km (75 mi) from emergency airport as a result of a fuel leak | Emergency landing, the aircraft glided for 20 minutes.[14] | 0 | 306 |
14 January 2002 | Sibir Flight 852 | Tupolev Tu-204 | Omsk, Russia | Ran out of fuel due to the closure of the destination airport in Novosibirsk and strong headwinds en route to the reserve airport in Omsk | The airliner ran out of fuel and the engines failed 15 km away from the airstrip in Omsk around 2000 m altitude. The aircraft glided for four minutes, and the crew managed to extend the gear and to land safely without employing the reverse thrust.[15] | 0 | 119 |
16 January 2002 | Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 | Boeing 737 | Indonesia | Hail and water ingestion | After entering a thunderstorm, both engines flamed out. The aircraft performed a ditching on Bengawan Solo River, Indonesia. One flight attendant was killed, but everyone else survived. | 1 | 60 |
14 October 2004 | Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 | Bombardier CRJ-200 | Jefferson City, Missouri | Dual engine failure outside of flight envelope | During a repositioning flight, the pilots experimented with the performance limits of the aircraft. Both engines failed at high altitude and low speed, and could not be restarted. The plane attempted an emergency landing at Jefferson City Memorial Airport, but crashed 2.5 miles (4.0 km) short of the runway. Both pilots were killed. | 2 | 2 |
6 August 2005 | Tuninter Flight 1153 | ATR 72-202 | Mediterranean Sea | The aircraft had been fitted with the incorrect model of fuel indicator, which led to the incorrect assumption by the flight crew that they had adequate fuel for the flight. | The engines failed about halfway through the flight. The crew unsuccessfully attempted to restart the engines and attempted to ditch the aircraft at sea. The 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, the flight crew continued ascent despite a cabin pressurization warning, and all on board, save for one flight attendant who attempted to control the aircraft, were eventually incapacitated by lack of oxygen. The auto pilot flew the aircraft to Athens, Greece, and entered a holding pattern until both engines flamed out due to fuel exhaustion. Following this, the aircraft descended in a gliding spiral until it struck a hill in Grammatiko, killing all on board. | 121 | 121 |
17 January 2008 | British Airways Flight 38 | Boeing 777-200ER | Heathrow Airport | Loss of thrust on both engines on final approach due to ice blocking poorly designed fuel/oil heat exchangers. | The aircraft glided about 2 miles and landed on the grass approximately 270m short of the threshold of runway 27L. The landing gear collapsed and the plane skidded to a stop on the runway threshold. | 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 | The aircraft glided then successfully ditched in the Hudson River. | 0 | 155 |
4 February 2015 | TransAsia Airways Flight 235 | ATR 72-600 | Keelung River, Taipei, Taiwan | One engine autofeathered due to fault in its control module, with the pilots shutting down the wrong engine. | Crashed into the 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 its destination after a 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 moments after takeoff from Zhukovsky International Airport | Glided and successfully landed in a corn field | 0 | 233 |
2 July 2021 | Transair Flight 810 | Boeing 737-200 Advanced freighter | Māmala Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, United States | Shortly after takeoff, both engines lost power over the course of a few minutes. | Ditched into Māmala Bay while attempting an emergency landing. | 0 | 2 |