Descending 4,300 meters in 7 minutes, large spider-web cracks appeared on the windshield... How to quickly master the rules of airplane escape?

Yesterday (February 19), Juneyao Airlines

From Shanghai Hongqiao to Chengdu Tianfu Airport

Flight HO1231 took off at 19:34

Due to mechanical failure

Temporary change of flight plan

The plane made an emergency landing at Wuhan Tianhe Airport at 21:18 on the same day.

The flight was subsequently cancelled in Wuhan.

Reporters learned that the mechanical failure of Juneyao Airlines flight HO1231 was a crack in the left side windshield of the cockpit. To avoid an emergency, the crew made an emergency descent from a cruising altitude of more than 10,000 meters, with the highest descent rate reaching 4,381 meters in 7 minutes. The passenger plane then made a safe emergency landing at Wuhan Airport.

According to the pictures posted by netizen "Lin Yunxing", a large spider-web-like crack appeared on the left side windshield of the cockpit of the passenger plane, and the crack area occupied more than 90% of the area of ​​the windshield on that side.

▲ A large area of ​​spider-web cracks appeared on the left side windshield of the cockpit of the Juneyao Airlines HO1231 flight involved, and the crack area accounted for more than 90%.

Source see watermark

Public information from the civil aviation industry shows that the aircraft operating Juneyao Airlines flight HO1231 on February 19 was the company's Airbus A320-200 aircraft with the aircraft number B-6572, which was 12.6 years old and had a special "Pudong" paint job on its fuselage.

The flight took off from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport at 19:34 that day and was originally scheduled to land at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport at 22:55.

Flight radar data showed that the aircraft climbed to an altitude of 7,162 meters at 19:47 after takeoff and entered level flight, and climbed to its highest flight altitude of about 10,386 meters at about 20:48. Eight minutes later, at 20:56, the aircraft began to descend abnormally, and in the following seven minutes, it dropped 4,381 meters in altitude.

The flight trajectory of flight HO1231 also confirmed that the flight suddenly changed its flight plan during the cruise process. After leaving the cruise route and circling over Wuhan, it did not perform the "five-side flight" according to the general landing trajectory, but landed directly at Wuhan Tianhe Airport.

Flight HO1231 was subsequently canceled and there are currently no public subsequent flight plans.

At noon today, @Jixiang Airlines released a statement on the incident.

Weibo screenshot

Juneyao Airlines' official data did not disclose the specific reason why flight HO1231 made an emergency landing at Wuhan Airport, but a third-party channel showed it was due to "mechanical failure."

Similar situations have occurred in other airlines. On May 14, 2018, Sichuan Airlines flight 3U8633 flew from Chongqing to Lhasa. The windshield of the flight burst and fell off. The plane finally made an emergency landing in Chengdu thanks to the efforts of Liu Chuanjian, the heroic captain of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The incident of the windshield of Sichuan Airlines flight 3U8633 bursting and falling off in mid-air has become one of the most popular civil aviation topics in recent years.

▲The windshield of a civil aircraft is made of three layers of glass, and cracks in the outer layer generally do not affect flight safety (Image source: Hainan Airlines Weibo)

An airline company once said in a similar accident that the windshield of a civil airliner is generally composed of three layers. The outer layer is a non-structural layer, and the middle and inner layers are structural layers. It is the main load-bearing structure and plays a double-support load-bearing role. Cracks in the outer layer will not have a direct impact on flight safety.

A senior civil aviation industry insider told Upstream News reporters that the cracks in the side windshield of Juneyao Airlines flight HO1231 have not had a substantial impact on the normal operation of the aircraft based on existing data. The crew's decision to descend and make an emergency landing immediately after the cracks appeared was the best option for aircraft safety.

Source: Science Popularization China WeChat Official Account