All the stories I read are very quiet. I can tell you an exciting story that I experienced 8 years ago. It's a long time ago but it's still in my memory. I still have the newsarticle, the ticket and the plan that the pilot passed around during the flight (to proove it).
Maybe ex-pilots or ex-flight attendants of sobelair on this site remember this rough ride....
SLR 2177 29 July 1996 / Brussels-Funchal
departure time : 0615
type 737-300 / 00-SBZ
captain Hallemans M.
chief cabin attendant Hofman C.
We left very early as you can see. We were travelling with another family that we met the year before in Ibiza. Thanks to my dad we almost missed our flight because he had to go to the tax free shops for some cigarretes
. Luckely we got on board, ready for our holiday on the beautiful Madeira... During the flight everything was normal, we cruised at 9000m with a speed of 800kmh, outside temperature was -45c°.
We passed Paris, Nantes, Santiago and Porto Santo. E.T.A was 0905 local time. Then we began our descent for Funchal, to its small runway (that's now become longer). This airport was famous for it's challenging approach due its small runway and the final approach.
Everything was going smooth just moments before touch down...
Suddenly the plane was shaking. It lost his balance, we were turning heavy from the left to the right. You could feel that we were losing altitude, the plane was dropping roughly. Some people started screaming and some of them had already put their life-vests. Someone who sat on the right side of the plane told us that there was a moment that we almost crashed into the sea with out right wing. At this moment nobody knew for certain what was going on, we all knew it would be a challenging landing but this... 8O .
Finally the pilot ( a hero
) brought the plane on the right spot, touching down in one piece.What had happened now? Afterwards I read in the paper (Het Laatste Nieuws) that one engine failed on final approach. On board of this flight was Patrick Sneyers, known as a Belgian rally pilot, who told this in an article about "The Rally of Madeira". He had heard about the emergency landing on television.
So nobody knew at that moment what was going on, thanks to the pilot(s) I'm able to tell you this story...
