What does a commercial pilot do if they are in the air when a nuclear detonation occurs? - Page 2

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What does a commercial pilot do if they are in the air when a nuclear detonation occurs? (Page 2 of 4)

Posted: 3/8/2022 12:22:09 AM EDT

[#1]

I have thought about that. How much fuel do I have?

Posted: 3/8/2022 1:50:04 AM EDT

[#2]

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

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

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

The reason I ask.. I was nuking Russia with B-52's in a Command Modern Operations scenario. I refueled the Buffs over Alaska and sent them on their way. I recovered the 135's in Alaska. And forgot about them. The Buffs wrought havoc but all ran out of fuel in Siberia on the return trip. Hmmm, no surprise but I was saddened as they had done well. So I tried again. But I refueled the 135's on the ground in Alaska and sent them in after the Buff's. The surviving Buff's hit the 135's over Siberia. And made it home. I found that interesting, but it's just a game so don't flame me if that was BS.

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:15:59 AM EDT

[#3]

Step 1 declare an emergency. That gives the PIC emergency authority to do whatever he wants.

In reality, 87% would simply do what ATC or Dispatch told them to.

You wouldn’t know for sure it was a nuke. Could be giant meteor 2022.

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:22:55 AM EDT

[#4]

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Furious masturbation.

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That's hot!

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:29:14 AM EDT

[#5]

Do a barel roll, inverted dive, then buzz the tower

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:37:00 AM EDT

[#6]

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Quoted:
Do a barel roll, inverted dive, then buzz the tower

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Any of you pilots that may be in the air when a nuclear blast occurs, don't listen to this guy. He is completely wrong! Jokes like this can get people KILLED!

On page one i listed a step by step procedure.
You guys are lucky i found this guys post in time.

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:42:42 AM EDT

[#7]

Plane will lose all function, results of blast EMP......he'll be trying to fly a brick

Posted: 3/8/2022 4:56:16 AM EDT

[#8]

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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

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Maddog for the win! Fuck your fly-by-wire shit lol

(Hopefully it’s a VFR day though since the FMS etc. is still vulnerable)

Posted: 3/8/2022 5:01:16 AM EDT

[#9]

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Quoted:
Plane will lose all function, results of blast EMP......he'll be trying to fly a brick

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This is almost certainly disinformation. However, it’s never been tested in a full scale, real world scenario.

Posted: 3/8/2022 5:02:06 AM EDT

[#10]

Land.

Posted: 3/8/2022 5:12:43 AM EDT

[#11]

Get in the intercom.
“Uhhhhjhhhhhhhhh. This is your pilot speaking, Mary can you call the cockpit please”

“Captain. It’s Mary. What’s up.”

“I need you and a few bottle of scotch up here. And you better not be wearing underwear”.

Posted: 3/8/2022 5:37:08 AM EDT

[#12]

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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.

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it's less noisy if you jump out from in front of the engines.

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:04:31 AM EDT

[#13]

Belly land that bitch on the water as close as possible to a secluded tropical island. Once ashore I would start to discretely kill off the other males and establish my all female kingdom.

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:16:19 AM EDT

[#14]

First the pilot unbuckles their seat belt.
Second they stand up.
Third they remove all sharp objects from their person.
Fourth, they bend down and place their head between their knees.
Filth, they kiss their ass goodbye.

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:18:23 AM EDT

[#15]

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

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Okay.

So what’s the plan if you are flying Spirit and a nuke goes off?

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:21:08 AM EDT

[#16]

Could my plane have a all female college cheerleading team aboard? And my plane is small enough that I could possibly land it on an abandoned island somewhere off the coast?

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:22:27 AM EDT

[#17]

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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.

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On this note, I miss when we got professional servers delivered and their cases were intentional faraday cages.

That shit was lit.

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:23:29 AM EDT

[#18]

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

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Posted: 3/8/2022 6:27:34 AM EDT

[#19]

SKY KING THIS IS SKY MASTER....

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:28:21 AM EDT

[#20]

Grab the stewardess' ass and go into evasive maneuvers.

Posted: 3/8/2022 6:54:54 AM EDT

[#21]

Turn away from it and find somewhere else to land.

Posted: 3/8/2022 7:26:34 AM EDT

[#22]

You crash, as the EMP shuts down all electronics, your controls cease to work, and you are already blind from seeing the flash.

The good news? It's quick, but that is not really good news.

Posted: 3/8/2022 7:31:19 AM EDT

[#23]

If I were the pilot, I’d start inventory of my “pretty good time in Vegas” survival kit.

“Five prophylactics, two pair nylon hose…”

Posted: 3/8/2022 7:41:56 AM EDT

[#24]

Attached File

Posted: 3/8/2022 8:01:59 AM EDT

[#25]

Like others have mentioned, if close enough to the burst, the EMP will most likely take out anything with microchips….

Fly by wire like an Airbus with side stick controllers…yeah, you’re fucked.

Some older plane that still relies on like hydraulically boosted controls, you might have a chance.

But I would imagine that only works as long as whatever hydraulic pump or pumps are still working.

That is also assuming the throttle controls are not fly by wire. You could have an issue where the “throttles” get stuck, either full throttle, balls to the wall, or idle, or somewhere in between.

Things are so automated now…I am guessing…with automated “fuel management systems” that I bet some microchipped computer could go haywire and shut off a fuel pump…or heck, even start closing whatever valves from whatever fuel tank(s). The end result being your engines are starved for fuel, which forces the engines to quit, which now puts you at the controls of a 47 ton glider.

And if the engines quit, you then might not have hydraulics to actually move the control surfaces.

Try starting the APU/EPU then.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:02:17 AM EDT

[#26]

survivable, look at the enola gay.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:06:20 AM EDT

[#27]

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:11:14 AM EDT

[#28]

On Caprica a lot of us died when the nukes went off.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:11:49 AM EDT

[#29]

Head into the wind.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:13:30 AM EDT

[#30]

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Gordon Lightfoot comes to mind.

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

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"Fellas"

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:16:46 AM EDT

[#31]

They wear an eyepatch so they will still have a good eye once the blast blinds them. They only do it in the cockpit so they don't scare the public.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:16:48 AM EDT

[#32]

Have you not played Battlefield 4 yet?

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:19:49 AM EDT

[#33]

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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.

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Your FO might suddenly decide he's got an equal voice in the cockpit hierarchy and you might not have an easy time buffaloing him into forsaking his own family in his hometown while you take it upon yourself to strand him and everyone else where you live.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:21:03 AM EDT

[#34]

Share your food with the copilot.

Kharn

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:21:53 AM EDT

[#35]

They log onto Arfcom and say, "What the fuck Eddie!?!".

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:23:56 AM EDT

[#36]

Same thing he or she would do if they where on the ground, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:24:04 AM EDT

[#37]

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Quoted:
Have you not played Battlefield 4 yet?

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That's where I learned my ACOG would stop working after an EMP event.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:24:55 AM EDT

[#38]

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Quoted:
Share your food with the copilot.

Kharn

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It's too late to fatten him up. Should have thought about that earlier.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:29:45 AM EDT

[#39]

Jettison passengers, keep the hotties, hit a small muni airport with a buffet at the fbo, borrow the fuel truck, and go to central america or easter island with your new plane?

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:32:09 AM EDT

[#40]

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

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You forgot about the twin Detonics in a shoulder holster.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:36:01 AM EDT

[#41]

remember commercial flights have minimal fuel on board.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:38:42 AM EDT

[#42]

Quote History

Quoted:
Jettison passengers, keep the hotties, hit a small muni airport with a buffet at the fbo, borrow the fuel truck, and go to central america or easter island with your new plane?

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Where is that button at?

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:48:28 AM EDT

[#43]

I think that there would be multiple factors involved that would determine if the pilot could land the plane/crash the plane where passengers and crew survive or not. I think that there would be a difference between a ground detonation and an air borne detonation. Air borne would obviously affect a larger area. What kind of plane. I am by far no expert, but could some types of planes be better equiped to tolerate an EMP? Where the plane is at as others have said. Near a major city center or in a more rural area. Altitude I would think would matter. If it were a high altitude nuclear detonation or multiple high altitude detonations, then the EMP effect would be larger.
It would be a scary thing for sure.

Posted: 3/8/2022 9:56:37 AM EDT

[#44]

Attached File

Posted: 3/8/2022 10:11:58 AM EDT

[#45]

Quote History

Quoted:
I think that there would be multiple factors involved that would determine if the pilot could land the plane/crash the plane where passengers and crew survive or not. I think that there would be a difference between a ground detonation and an air borne detonation. Air borne would obviously affect a larger area. What kind of plane. I am by far no expert, but could some types of planes be better equiped to tolerate an EMP? Where the plane is at as others have said. Near a major city center or in a more rural area. Altitude I would think would matter. If it were a high altitude nuclear detonation or multiple high altitude detonations, then the EMP effect would be larger.
It would be a scary thing for sure.

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It's not unusual for airplanes to take lightning strikes. Their electronics are grounded and shielded for such events which would help in other high energy events.

Posted: 3/8/2022 10:12:30 AM EDT

[#46]

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?

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During 9/11 were they told to land immediately or finish their flight? I'd imagine that people would be dropped off at the nearest airport that wasn't radioactive.

Posted: 3/8/2022 10:14:39 AM EDT

[#47]

Quote History

Quoted:
Like others have mentioned, if close enough to the burst, the EMP will most likely take out anything with microchips….

Fly by wire like an Airbus with side stick controllers…yeah, you’re fucked.

Some older plane that still relies on like hydraulically boosted controls, you might have a chance.

But I would imagine that only works as long as whatever hydraulic pump or pumps are still working.

That is also assuming the throttle controls are not fly by wire. You could have an issue where the “throttles” get stuck, either full throttle, balls to the wall, or idle, or somewhere in between.

Things are so automated now…I am guessing…with automated “fuel management systems” that I bet some microchipped computer could go haywire and shut off a fuel pump…or heck, even start closing whatever valves from whatever fuel tank(s). The end result being your engines are starved for fuel, which forces the engines to quit, which now puts you at the controls of a 47 ton glider.

And if the engines quit, you then might not have hydraulics to actually move the control surfaces.

Try starting the APU/EPU then.

View Quote

You do realize the airplane is surrounded by metallic aluminum? Just like most cars the overwhelming number of them will survive emp (cars >95%) shockwave is the big threat for a near ground burst.