What does a commercial pilot do if they are in the air when a nuclear detonation occurs? - Page 1

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What does a commercial pilot do if they are in the air when a nuclear detonation occurs? (Page 1 of 4)

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:20:55 PM EDT

Started thinking about this...since well...who knows these days.

Lets say you are a pilot...you are a few hundred souls on board....all is well...no turbulence....no drama....passengers are having an uneventful trip.....and then you get the radio chatter....it happened....and its happening. Maybe you see it from the cockpit. What do you do now? You have to land somewhere....where are you going? Is there actually established protocol for this situation? What does the book say to do?

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:21:33 PM EDT

[#1]

Die.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:22:31 PM EDT

[#2]

Fly straight towards is as fast as possible.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:23:02 PM EDT

[#3]

Go to your alternate.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:23:47 PM EDT

[#4]

get on the intercom and say "Oh my God! We're all gonna die"?

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:24:25 PM EDT

[#5]

Fly away and increas altitude would be my gut. The further away from the ground and further from the blast the less the shockwave is gonna be.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:24:54 PM EDT

[#6]

Lands on the nearest treadmill?

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:25:41 PM EDT

[#7]

Turn on the autopilot then go bang a stewardess.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:25:50 PM EDT

[#8]

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:26:02 PM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
Die.

View Quote

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:26:49 PM EDT

[#10]

Steer away from the blast/mushroom cloud. Hope the blast doesnt break the wings off. Try to find a place to land to land as far as possible from DC or US Rocket bases or Sub Pens...

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:27:25 PM EDT

[#11]

I thought about it the other day...i would think this is one of those crazy scenarios that at some point the airlines had to have planned for....definitely back in the day. Id imagine you go land in a desolate place and figure shit out from that point.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:04 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Started thinking about this...since well...who knows these days.

Lets say you are a pilot...you are a few hundred souls on board....all is well...no turbulence....no drama....passengers are having an uneventful trip.....and then you get the radio chatter....it happened....and its happening. Maybe you see it from the cockpit. What do you do now? You have to land somewhere....where are you going? Is there actually established protocol for this situation? What does the book say to do?

View Quote

Land at a small airport away from a base.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:08 PM EDT

[#13]

Pull up to max altitude & play dodge ball.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:13 PM EDT

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
Die.

View Quote

Probably that

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:13 PM EDT

[#15]

Gordon Lightfoot comes to mind.

"Folks, it's been good ta know 'ya's!"

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:20 PM EDT

[#16]

I thought they landed in fields? At least that's what Jericho taught me.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:28:54 PM EDT

[#17]

Furious masturbation.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:29:23 PM EDT

[#18]

We don't really know about EMP, but then - there's that. It could be possible for the EMP related to the detonation to shut down the plane's controls anyway.

Which would equate to a bye bye

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:31:09 PM EDT

[#19]

Pilot 1 : dude Im sorry

Pilot 2 : What do you mean

pilot 1 : I banged your wife

Pilot 2 : you mother f.............

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:31:44 PM EDT

[#20]

Nows a bad time to stop sniffing glue

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:34:04 PM EDT

[#21]

If I'm flying Spirit I would put on my O2 mask and depressurize the plane.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:34:21 PM EDT

[#22]

Something like this

Failed To Load Title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw5rissNj2Q

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:35:29 PM EDT

[#23]

They would never see it, those pilots are asleep the whole time or they are blind, I cannot remember.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:36:42 PM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted:
We don't really know about EMP, but then - there's that. It could be possible for the EMP related to the detonation to shut down the plane's controls anyway.

Which would equate to a bye bye

View Quote

@Solo_

Shit...i didn't even think about that.

But our tube amps will still work

Hell...Im even running Sovtek tubes in a few of them

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:36:44 PM EDT

[#25]

Commercial pilot here. I think if we were in cruise flight it would be pretty survivable. Low altitude, near cities, yeah we’re probably toast. I’m not certain what effect the EMP would have on a modern airliner, but everything these days is fly by wire, so if that gets taken out, we’re toast. That said, when I flew KC135s, we had a nuclear response mission. There was a certain radius that we were briefed might be survivable. I won’t share exactly what that was because I’m not sure if that’s Secret or not, but it’s a lot closer to ground zero than youd think.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:38:51 PM EDT

[#26]

Airplane! (2/10) Movie CLIP - Automatic Pilot (1980) HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbj9uvYL8I

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:39:40 PM EDT

[#27]

If you're within 5-10 miles you're toast. All the electronics in the plane would be fried by the subsequent EMP.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:39:44 PM EDT

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:
Commercial pilot here. I think if we were in cruise flight it would be pretty survivable. Low altitude, near cities, yeah we’re probably toast. I’m not certain what effect the EMP would have on a modern airliner, but everything these days is fly by wire, so if that gets taken out, we’re toast. That said, when I flew KC135s, we had a nuclear response mission. There was a certain radius that we were briefed might be survivable. I won’t share exactly what that was because I’m not sure if that’s Secret or not, but it’s a lot closer to ground zero than youd think.

View Quote

Do you give the Buff's all your gas and then auger in, or did you save enough to recover?? Asking for a friend.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:41:03 PM EDT

[#29]

If I were the pilot in command, we would immediately divert to the airport nearest airport to my hometown that would handle a landing from the aircraft.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:41:12 PM EDT

[#30]

It's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether.

Edit - beat, sort of

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:43:00 PM EDT

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:
Commercial pilot here. I think if we were in cruise flight it would be pretty survivable. Low altitude, near cities, yeah we're probably toast. I'm not certain what effect the EMP would have on a modern airliner, but everything these days is fly by wire, so if that gets taken out, we're toast. That said, when I flew KC135s, we had a nuclear response mission. There was a certain radius that we were briefed might be survivable. I won't share exactly what that was because I'm not sure if that's Secret or not, but it's a lot closer to ground zero than youd think.

View Quote

This is kinda what i figured. Realistically if you were at 40k ft AGL over the ocean when it happened, you wouldn't even know about it unless you heard about it on the radio. And there are plenty of placed to land that wouldn't have been targeted. Just a matter of finding one. That would be one hell of a flight though.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:43:35 PM EDT

[#32]

I’d think you should be fine as long as you steer clear of important military bases. Nobody is throwing strategic nukes at random map dots - there’s a limited number to go around. 30,000 feet is a long way off the ground so unless you’re right over a blast I think you’d be pretty safe.

I’m not sure how EMP resistant a commercial jet is but since they’re mainly big metal shells… I’d say “somewhat resistant”.

Eta: I think finding a known safe landing spot in that chaos would be the hardest part.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:44:39 PM EDT

[#33]

Quote History

Quoted:

@Solo_

Shit...i didn't even think about that.

But our tube amps will still work

Hell...Im even running Sovtek tubes in a few of them

View Quote

Bruh... MY MAN!

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:47:29 PM EDT

[#34]

1.set the ems system to automate.
2. Locate and change the oil condenser level to 50% over minimum.
3. Navigate 180' from brightest area of the flash.
4. Recheck nominal Gauges.
5. Turn radio traffic chatter to passive plus.
6. Deploy defused stabilizers on all surfaces.
7. Transmit test to any receiving ground operations.
8. Begin plot for alternate landing areas. Chart fuel levels.
9 communicate status with passengers.
10. Announce to any available airports you are now committing to the leeroy Jenkins maneuver.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:47:44 PM EDT

[#35]

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:48:37 PM EDT

[#36]

Quote History

Quoted:

@Solo_

Shit...i didn't even think about that.

But our tube amps will still work

Hell...Im even running Sovtek tubes in a few of them

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
We don't really know about EMP, but then - there's that. It could be possible for the EMP related to the detonation to shut down the plane's controls anyway.

Which would equate to a bye bye

@Solo_

Shit...i didn't even think about that.

But our tube amps will still work

Hell...Im even running Sovtek tubes in a few of them

Ha! maybe the 811h will live in the closet if I upgrade to a solid state amp. I replaced the 811As withe 572Bs.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:50:33 PM EDT

[#37]

Quote History

Quoted:

Do you give the Buff's all your gas and then auger in, or did you save enough to recover?? Asking for a friend.

View Quote

Short answer: we plan to survive and recover the aircraft.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:51:13 PM EDT

[#38]

They all have paper face masks on. No problem

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:51:37 PM EDT

[#39]

Watch by dawns early light … not commercial plane but similar scenario

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=llwZGFfpYRA

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:51:58 PM EDT

[#40]

I don't pay much attention to all of the pre-flight speeches, but I think I remember hearing that the seat cushions double as parachutes. Just be sure to jump from one of the doors behind the engines and you should be okay.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:52:31 PM EDT

[#41]

Quote History

Quoted:
If I'm flying Spirit I would put on my O2 mask and depressurize the plane.

View Quote

Attached File

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:54:45 PM EDT

[#42]

Covered in The Survivalist, Book 1. Belly land in the desert and hike someplace to steal a Harley.

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:55:07 PM EDT

[#43]

It might not be a bad time to got to PR

Posted: 3/7/2022 11:57:18 PM EDT

[#44]

Quote History

Quoted:
Die.

View Quote

Posted: 3/8/2022 12:06:26 AM EDT

[#45]

Quote History

Quoted:
Go to your alternate.

View Quote

Direct

Posted: 3/8/2022 12:10:48 AM EDT

[#46]

It just became a dog-eat-dog world. First thing I'll do is see if I have the range to fly it back to any suitable airport nearest my home. Passengers can fend for themselves. I'm going home to take care of my family.