Hi mates,
well it was enough to fly a flight with crash detection and made an unfortunate movement on my desk and I got into real trouble !
I was on my way home to the sunny Portugal onboard a Boeing 747-400, I was almost about to start descending from FL350 @ M0.85 I was browsing through my papers on the desk and made a deadly moment. I pushed a quick button on the joystick, that was programmed to flaps. Flaps started to extend and co-pilot said immediately, they are damaged...I thought I will be lucky, and only the leading edge flaps were damaged, because I pushed immediately F5. But no.
I decided to continue landing -what else could I do
-, and I was close to final approach when realized I do not have flaps at all. I tried to keep the speed at 180 kts and keep the glideslope but could not, it was too fast. Then I made a deadly movement again, I released spoilers and thought I will add more thrust and land this way. But the plane stalled at 160 kts and I crashed it...
For anyone else come to a similar emergency situation, I tried this landing on a training flight and I could successfully put it down. First of all, if you realized the same problem, use all the fuels remained so the plane can be very light, and search for an airport with at least 10000' long runway to land. On the final approach keep 180 kts speed and -1300...1500 fpm descending rate according to the ILS. Close to the treshold, you can slow down to no more than 160 kts and make a smooth touchdown, then release all brakes you have to stop the beast. It is not impossible but very hard manouver.
Good luck for a similar emergency situation.
