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What is an Emergency?

An emergency is a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment. It is a sudden or unexpected abnormal situation. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation.

What is an emergency landing?

An emergency landing is made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.

Causes of emergency landing

Emergency landing may cause by three general factors and they can be represented by three ‘M’s.

(a)Man: Captain’s, pilot’s, air Traffic Controller’s or passengers’ mistakes or hijackers on board, etc.

(b)Machine: Mechanical failure or pressurization failure, Engine’s disturbance, Fuel tank’s leakage, etc.

(c)Media (act of God): Lightning strike, heavy rains or fog, bird hit case etc.

Types of emergency landings

All sorts of landings fall into two broad categories; planned landing or unplanned landing. There are also some sub-categories; such as:

* Forced landing, the aircraft is forced to make a landing due to technical problems, medical problems or weather conditions. Landing as soon as possible is a priority, no matter where. A forced landing may be necessary even if the aircraft is still flyable. This can arise to either facilitate emergency medical or police assistance or get the aircraft on the ground before a major system failure occurs which would force a crash landing or ditch situation.

* Precautionary landing may result from a planned landing at a location about which information is limited, from unanticipated changes during the flight, or from abnormal or even emergency situations. The sooner a pilot locates and inspects a potential landing site, the less the chance of additional limitations is imposed by worsening aircraft conditions, deteriorating weather, or other factors.

* Crash landing (land landing) is caused by the failure of or damage to vital systems such as engines, hydraulics, or landing gear, and so a landing must be attempted where a runway is needed but none is available. The pilot is essentially trying to get the aircraft on the ground in a way which minimizes the possibility of injury or death to the people aboard.

* Ditching (water landing) is the same as a crash landing only on water. After the disabled aircraft makes contact with the surface of the water, the aircraft will typically sink if it is not designed to float.

If there is a suitable landing spot within the aircraft's gliding or autorotation distance, an unplanned landing will often result in no injuries or significant damage to the aircraft, since powered aircraft generally use little or no power when they are landing. Light aircraft can often land safely on fields, roads, or gravel river banks; but medium and heavy aircraft generally require long, prepared runway surfaces because of their heavier weight and higher landing speeds. Glider pilots routinely land away from their base and so most cross-country pilots are in current practice.

In case of planned landing, cabin crew get some time (10 to 1 5 minutes) to plan and prepare the cabin and passengers for emergency landing. But in unplanned emergency cabin crew get no time for that.

In case of emergency situation, cabin crew chief will ask captain following two questions:

1) What type of emergency landing?

2) How much time will we get to prepare the cabin and passengers for emergency landing?

But when communication between cabin crew & cockpit crew/captain totally fails, aircraft becomes disintegrated, fire occurs inside the cabin, in case of water landing & some unexpected situation cabin crew do not need to wait for captain’s response. All cabin crew manage the unexpected situation promptly with their own judgment. In case of unplanned emergency landing, cabin crew should evacuate passengers within 90 seconds (maximum).