Thanks for the pilots insight Derek... and yea, I also found it hard to believe that an advanced aircraft and flight crew as such would have the problems that it did in the first place. In a message dated 4/6/2002 11:36:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time, derekprichard@rogers.com writes: > It's all about best glide airspeed, prevailing winds/direction, current > altitude and how far to the nearest airport. Every airplane is built to > glide, just a question of doing the math, getting the number (ie. NM to > touchdown) and hoping that there is a spot somewhere before that touchdown > point. In the episode, they talking about the pilot banking the plane from > side to side due to lack of control. In reality, I believe he was > performing > slipping manuvers to reduce the excessive airspeed he had and to loose > excessive altitude as he was on a very bad approach. too high.. too fast... > its one of the first manuvers we learn when we fly. opposite rudder and > alerion control. > > I thought they would go into more detail about the mechanics of the > incident. I find it hard to believe that an advanced aircraft (A330) would > run out of gas without > pilot error. Every aircraft system is duplicated in seperate systems. Three > or more fuel tanks. Seperate. Two engines running in the own area, > unconnected. Carlos Borda Carlos' Airliner Images! http://members.aol.com/upsplane/homepage.html http://airliners.net/search/photo.search?emailsearch=upsplane@aol.com <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>