|  |  | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 02:07 | |
| | S plným vědomím toho, že si bohužel řada angličtinářů moc nepočte, dávám k dispozici povídání jedné Delta crew o tom, jak to v okamžiku nedávného zničujícího zemětřesení vypadalo z pohledu dopravního létání pro ty ve vzduchu...Celkem zamrazí....
I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel. It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, ...to say the least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean crossing procedures were familiar.
By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link message advising about the earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so positive).
From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect "indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame on that so I got my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low. It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting diversions to other airports. Air Canada, American, United, etc. all reporting minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for 1.5 to 2.0 hours of holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating the situation.
Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo, a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding, we all had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka, or Nagoya.
With more planes piling in from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel critical ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting for my fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya, fuel
situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was "ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable to handle more flights (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka.
With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal considering we might have to divert a much farther distance. Multiply my situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for
air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space.
By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me flying and making decisions and the relief copilot buried in the air charts trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch in Atlanta. I picked Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of the maelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai, a small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got flooded by a tsunami.
Atlanta dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose airport on the Island of Hokkaido, north of Honshu. Other Delta flights were heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts, check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got
clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see - trying to help company - plane overflies perfectly good divert airport for one farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes wrong.
Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa, all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this:
"Sapparo Control - Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose,
minimum fuel, unable hold."
"Sapparo Control - make that - Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel,
proceeding direct Chitose"
"Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose
approach....etc...."
Enough was enough, I had decided to pre-empt actually running critically low on fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.
As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling, being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end, Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose.
We saw to American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.
Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. - that however, is another interesting story.
By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shook the hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes. |
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 |  | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 06:39 | |
| | Celkem trefný obrat řekl bych...
...out of the maelstrom of the Tokyo region... |
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| | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 07:31 | |
| | Jo,jo, pane.... to je zajímavý čtení. Resort průserů, o kterém se pisálci nezmiňují. Ale fakt bych nechtěl být ATC tokijské oblasti, to bylo to pravý "crowded skies"...  (teď užmůžu napsat smajlík, protože zpětně je jasný, že zrovna tohle japonští ATC i čerství i staří kapitáni zvládli na jedničku) |
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| | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 07:43 | |
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|  | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 09:18 | |
| | | Mazec! Akorat me napadlo jestli chlapec nebude mit nejaky problem z toho ze vyhlasil emergency i kdyz k tomu nebyl duvod a pak to jeste verejne prizna |
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 | | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 10:04 | |
| | Heleď v lítání neexistuje něco jako bezdůvodná emergency...máš problém, mayday. A to platí i pro malý PPLka a ULLka. Seš PIC a mayday je prostě tíseň, ať už je důvod jakýkoliv, i kdyby ses třeba "jen" ztratil. Není se vůbec potřeba ničeho bát, nebo dé stydět, ATC jsou tam hlavně od toho pomoct. Jediný co pak musíš udělat je vyplnit pár papírů, to je všechno. Navíc třeba tady v UK speciálně pro palivové situace nic jiného než mayday neuznávají a jasně je řečeno, že bez deklarovaného emergency nebude letadlu poskytnuta priorita, což vzhledem k objemu provozu celkem chápu a respektuji. Teda v praxi to pochopitelně není tak striktní a místňáci i po hlase z rádia poznají, že ten hold bychom raději blíž k letišti a kratší  , ale tak zní předpis. |
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| |  | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 11:04 | |
| | | U nás je to samé bez vyhlášení nouze nemáš nárok na nic |
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| | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 10:10 | |
| | Par expertu, co meli problem s palivem, a stejne kvuli tomu nevyhlasili stav tisne, tu uz bylo. Jeden kdesi v americe, jeden v cechach u Pardubic (a nasledne u Brna).
Ani jeden nedopadl dobre. |
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| | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 11:02 | |
| | | Kapitán rozhoduje co je emg. a nikdo mu později nedokáže že k tomu neměl důvod. |
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| | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 11:27 | |
| | ... a také viz trippe whisky a diskuse tady o této katastrofě...
Někdy stojí za to psát celé odpoledne blbá hlášení, než rejt nosem do vlčích máků.... |
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| | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 09:24 | |
| | | ufff. Dost neprijemna situacia, ked letiska aj zalozne su zrazu mimo prevadzky ci preplnene. Este ze bola pomerne blizko Korea ci Cina, kde by sa to relativne dalo este posadit, ak by nezostalo miesto. Ale otazka, co v pripade takeho pruseru na Havaji? Neviem si to predstavit. Neviete, maju piloti prichystane palivo aj na vratenie, bez medzi pristania? Ved to je uprostred nicoho. |
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| | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 09:43 | |
| | | No na vraceni urcite ne, to by pak vubec neresili tech "par" NM jen v ramci Japonska, jak se tam pise. Ono nejen ze by to vahove absolutne nesedelo a bylo neekonomicke, ale kdyz ma ero kapacitu cca 70tun paliva a beres si 50tun, tak to neni ani kam dat. Podle mne proste na te Havaji nekde sednou musi, za kazdou cenu. |
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| | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 10:34 | |
| | | Pro místa kde není žádné odpovídající záložní letiště do 60 minut letu (což zrovna řekl bych není problém Havaje) se používá tzv. Isolated Aerodrome Procedure pro plánování paliva. Místo standardního diversion fuel musí mít letadlo palivo pro 2 hodiny holdování v cruise hladině nad letištěm ve standardní cruise konfiguraci, plus standardní final reserve 30 minut holding v 1500ft AGL nad letištěm. Důvodem pro tenhle postup je předpoklad, že cokoliv se na letišti přihodilo, se do těch dvou hodin vyřeší a/nebo se doletí někam zpátky (2 hodiny jsou víceméně standardní ETOPS záložní letiště). |
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| | | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 12:41 | |
| | | Teorie je to hezká, ale praxe už moc ne. Já to používal jenom jednou, když jsme kdysi letěli na Seychelly a Praslin nešel z nějakého důvodu použít jako záloha. Tak letělo jako na osamocené letiště, a nejbližší další použitelné letiště bylo Mogadišo v Somálsku, asi 700NM. Krásná vyhlídka. To bych radši sednul do vody v nějaké lagůně na Sejšelech |
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| | | | | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 12:55 | |
| | | Nojo, to už jsou ty drobné reality checky, na které nepasují žádné definice "adequate" a "suitable" alternate |
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| | | | Zemětřesení v Japonsku - tak trochu jiný pohled 24. 3. 2011 / 14:41 | |
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