How the power reduction is handled by the pilot has a significant impact on how it feels in the cabin. With no visual reference it can feel like an abrupt level-off or even descent. Grabbing the thrust levers and yanking them back to the climb setting tends to do this, particularly after take-off from a short runway. Subtlety is key here…

Probably less obvious with BA (and other operators from long runways) because the power used for take-off is close or equal to climb power, so no actual thrust reduction takes place, just an acceleration. This matches the lower nose attitude so again, without visual reference you’re not aware that anything has taken place

Plop pants, I think the pilots would have no more of a clue as to what was the cause of the smoke in the cockpit was as any of the passengers. I seriously doubt the aircraft was in immediate risk -I.e about to ‘fall out of the sky’, but clearly smoke in the cockpit is a situation that would cause an aircraft to divert to the nearest airport, more due to the health risk of the passengers rather than any immediate risk of a crash. In that situation the pilots would have followed standard procedures, put the engines into a configuration to eliminate or minimise the smoke coming into the cabin and diverted the aircraft for a safe and controlled landing. Clearly as a passenger this is a disconcerting situation as you don’t know what the problem is or if it’s going to get worse, but in nearly all these cases these are pre-determined scenarios with standard procedures that the pilots follow to deal with the issue and compete the flight safely.

Smoke in the cabin is usually due to an oil leak in the engine, the odour or smoke from which gets into the cabin air supply. Engines can continue to operate in this condition for some time, unfortunately the fumes are not great for people!

The pilots explained that they had a fire in the cockpit. Very surprised with their candid prognosis of imminent danger but that is what they said. That was more than enough detail for me and so I went for a sit down at that point. 🙁
That said, I have tried to find reports of the incident but found nowt.

agent007 – Member

Nothing to do with safety – usually done around 1000 to 1500 feet above ground level to comply with noise abatement procedures of some particular airports located around populated city area.

So many myths that need busting!

Have a look here for some more useful info:

Ask The Captian

I trust my father more than any others. He was on the plane with me on many occasions when that happened. This practice started to appear in the last 10 – 15 or 20 years.

My father used to work for a major airline until he retired.

I think he used to take charge of all, normal prop, turbo prop, jet engine (737 & early Airbus but not 747 as the airport was too short for that in those day) planes to occasional F1-11 (the only person allowed to check them at that time).

No word of a lie. Everytime I fly I make my peace with everyone and religiously check every passenger, any drunks near exits. Anyone who looks trouble, I ask stewardesses if a noise should happen etc etc etc.

On tiny prop planes Im like a kid at Christmas.

Weird.

Just let the fear feeling be there, don’t try and stop it, just accept its there and divert to something present -reading a paper say. The feeling will die down by itself over several exposures, that is unless you consciously try and rid the feeling. Any anxious thoughts that accompany the fear mean nothing, its just your mind trying to explain the feeling.

Are you an analytical type of person? Trust the numbers, you’re about 10 times as likely to be killed per mile on a pushbike as you are on a commercial plane.

Either that, or stop cycling 😉

I’m scared of flying but it’s more about the claustrophobia and lack of control that does it for me. Maybe this story will help. I swear it’s true.

At Malta airport I was waiting on the return flight to gatwick after a particularly drunk couple if days with a mate. In the terminal I spotted an English lad wearing full motorbike leathers including boots and gloves. I thought it was weird but thought no more of it until he sat across the aisle from me on the plane. By this point his jacket was zipped up to the top and his boots were done up as well. As we started taxiing out to the runway he clasped his hands together and started rocking back and forward like a Muslim at prayer. As we got airborne this continued until we eventually leveled off at the cruise. At this point he started relaxing, unzipped the jacket and took his gloves and boots off. Up until this point I assumed it was a weight/luggage issue why he was wearing this but alas, no. The old lady next to him asked him if that was why he was wearing the gear. His reply was, “if the plane crashes on take off or landing my bike leathers will protect me from the fire ball so I can get out the door”. It was then that I forgot all about my fears as I was concentrating so hard on not collapsing with laughter and falling out my chair. True to form, when the pilot announced ten minutes, the gloves and boots were back on and the jacket was zipped back up. I don’t know if the lad was a genius or nutter.

Anyways, buy yersel some bike leathers. It helped him.

Well statistics tells us that the majority of air crashes happen within a 6 mile radius of either the departing or arrival airport, so there might have been method in his madness.