I thought it might be nice timing to share my all-time favourite Christmas story.
This is a Christmas story very loosely in the same fashion 'Die Hard' is a 'Christmas film', as in it took place near Christmas time 😂
It's the story of the Gottröra Miracle.
Nobody died ⬇️
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 751 from Stockholm to Warsaw, departed at 8:47am on December 27th, 1991.
The plane was an almost brand new MD-81, basically in turn a 2nd generation DC-9 model.
McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in August, 1997 in a $13 billion deal.
St. Stephen's Day (December 26th, 1991) was bitterly cold in Sweden, as it often is at that time of year.
A mechanic reported to Captain Stefan Rasmussen there was much frost on wings.
De-icing fluid was applied but the captain still wasn't happy and asked for it done again.
Pilots were encouraged to voice concerns on de-icing jobs in the aftermath of the Air Florida Flight 90 disaster.
Boeing 737 that crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River, shortly after takeoff on January 13th, 1982.
74 of the 79 on board died, RIP 🙏
The de-icing crews in Washington used mixtures of heated water & monopropylene glycol on that Boeing 737.
However they unevenly distributed the mixture between left and right side of plane.
Ice accumulated on wing, plane barely got off ground and hit the bridge.
Very sad.
When Captain Rasmussen inspected the wings in Stockholm in 1991, he wasn't thrilled with what he saw.
Asked for the underside of the wings done again.
De-icing crew did it again, assured him a good job done and visually it looked ok.
As you may guess, it was not in fact ok.
Immediately after take-off a bizarre humming noise heard in the cockpit, followed by a bang.
Bangs got louder and more frequent but captain wasn't sure what they were.
First Officer, Ulf Cedermark, was a former Swedish Fighter pilot and knew what it is.
A compressor stall.
A compressor stall is when air is not getting pushed backwards into burn chamber of the engine.
Causes a pressure imbalance and a terrifying sensation of sudden deceleration.
De-icing job was not "all good".
Snow froze into ice which broke off and slammed into right engine.
Only 78 seconds into flight they lost both engines.
In a huge stroke of luck, one of the passengers was a former fighter pilot.
Captain Per Holmberg heard the bangs, knew it's a compressor stall and waltzed into cockpit uninvited (the 90's!) asking:
Want a hand, guys? 🤷♂️
Another stroke of luck is the 2 pilots flying had no ego's.
Instead of being offended by his offer to help or even indignant at his temerity... 😡
They were like "sit right down my friend, we'll take all the help we can get!!" 😂
That was a brilliant decision, one of many 🙂
Hard to understate how lucky this proved.
Captain Per Holmberg had developed his own checklist for double engine failures and calmly went through that.
Per extended flaps, slowed the descent rate.
That enabled Captain Rasmussen to focus out the window on where to try go.
Meanwhile flight attendant Eva Björnemark knew they were in serious trouble but got no response from cockpit as the pilots were too busy.
Eva took it upon herself to prepare passengers for a crash landing.
If Eva hadn't been so alert and professional, people would have died.
This is Eva's account.
"It sounded as if you were tumbling stones in a washing machine. I had never heard that before in the 23 years I had been flying. I knew I had to act very quickly."
Heroic Eva (pictured below in 2021) broke two neck vertebrae in the crash.
As Eva prepared passengers for a crash, pilots were looking for somewhere to land.
Captain Rasmussen spotted a field but Ulf and Per calculated they wouldn't make the field and would instead hit the houses.
Quote:
"right, right, right, right, right, steer right, steer right!”
Pilots avoided the houses but hit the top of the trees in the forest and snapped the right wing off.
Eva shouted "brace, brace, brace" to passengers.
Captain Rasmussen controlled the plane for a tail first landing and the MD-81 broke into 3 pieces on impact.
Owing to the following facts:
-Pilots worked together
-Flight attendants were legends
-All passengers had their seatbelts on and listened to instructions...
Nobody died! 😍
In fact most passengers weren't even injured and walked out, which was a miracle within a miracle.
Newspapers throughout Europe called it a 'Christmas Miracle', below is the headline from the Evening Herald in late 1991.
Although it's superficially an apt headline, beneath the surface of the miracle you find its essence.
Teamwork.
People coming together in a crisis.
The moral of the story resonates with me.
Christmas can be a difficult time, whether due to ill health, loneliness or depression.
Nobody died in that crash because pilots weren't too proud to recognise they need help and to accept it.
Reach out to someone, if you need help ❤️
P.s. If anyone is interested in this from the pilots perspective and what exactly went wrong in tremendous detail:
As always @MenTourPilot made the best video.
It's absolutely fascinating and well worth a watch.
For anyone who prefers reading:
Best aviation blogger is Kyra Dempsey aka Admiral Cloudberg.
I frequently cite @KyraCloudy and direct to her blogs because they're truly exceptional.
"Drama in the Snow: The crash of Scandinavian Airlines flight 751"
admiralcloudberg.medium.com/drama-in-the-s…
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