vagabond

This is from the local KOMO TV station.

Crash landing shuts down runway at Arlington Airport | KOMO News - Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional

1) What is the difference between a crash landing and an emergency landing?

2) Does someone have to be injured for this to be classified a crash landing?

3) Does a landing gear failure always equate to a crash landing? An emergency landing?

4) What is an Alpha jet?

5) If its landing gear failed, did it crash land or emergency land on its belly?

6) Are those bombs hanging from the wings???

I seem to have more questions than the news article has paragraphs!

Toejam

1. An emergency landing is any landing resulting from some emergency or emergency procedure. An emergency landing gets priority in the landing sequence. A crash landing is any landing that results in damage to said aircraft. I was in the jumpseat the other day when this captain almost crash landed a 737-800 at DCA.
2. I do not believe anyone needs to perish, but I could be wrong. I am making this up as I go...
3. A landing gear failure will result in first an emergency landing, and quickly after touchdown, a crash landing, using the definitions above.
4. An Alpha jet is a jet with extra testosterone. It tends to be the leader in jet packs.
5. The emergency landing without landing gear is what they attempted, but since it would be nearly impossible to land an aircraft without landing gear and not do any extra damage, they ended up crash landing.
6. Those are either electronic pods, storage pods, or fuel pods. Anyone landing a jet without any gear and bombs under the wing would be crazy. The same can be said for any fuel pod, so my guess is ecm or storage.

TonyC

I wondered why a pilot would choose to "crash land" an airplane that is equipped with ejection seats. While the outcome of a crash landing is anything but certain, the use of the "nylon letdown" is relatively predictable. The drawback, obviously, is the loss of the airplane.


And that would be the reason to crash land -- to prevent loss of the airplane. If you're the German or French Air Force with a couple hundred of them, it's not that big of a deal. If you're a private enterprise with two or three, it's a huge deal.

And so I found this: Top Aces: Alpha Jet


The difference between "emergency landing" and "crash landing" is, in my estimation, somewhat subjective, and the press seldom has the subjectivity or estimation to make that determination. A myriad of malfuntions or situations could lead to an emergency landing that is uneventful and which would be followed by taxi to parking and shutdown. A landing which ends with less than all the wheels turning and the inability to move the airplane from the runway (or wherever it comes to rest) would most likely be referred to as a crash landing, but it wouldn't have necessarily been an emergency landing. The failure which resulted in the crash could have been unknown to the pilot, or even induced by the pilot during the landing. In the case of the Alpha Jet in question, it appears to have been both an emergency landing (they knew about the gear failure before attempting to land) and a crash landing (once they came to a stop, they were stuck there).


The Alpha Jet has four points on the wings to mount stuff. Some stuff is intended to stay for the duration of the flight (ECM pods, guns, luggage pods), and some stuff is intended to be dropped before landing (bombs). Some stuff could go either way, depending on circumstances (drop tanks/fuel pods). Since the pilots elected to hang on to the pods in the picture, they're certainly harmless -- my guess is ECM pods or luggage pods.


(The Top Aces website lists the following as "stores" for the Alpha Jet:

Jamming Pods
Chaff Pods
ACMI Pods
Threat Simulators
AAG Target Tow
Fuel Tanks
Luggage Pods

They also list Drop Tanks

Take your pick, but no bombs.)






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