need 2 questions answered to cure fear of flying ?

[ajpepe72]

I have a very bad fear of flying which has got a bit better this year after flying twice in the past month. my main fear is engine failure and dropping out of the sky !
However i have been told that if need be a modern jet (747/airbus) can actually fly using only one engine and that even if both engines did fail the jet would not just fall from the sky but could actually make a controlled descent almost like gliding down, which i find a bit difficult to believe.
I had'nt flown on a plane for about ten years and when i first flew after this period i swore id never get on a plane again,even though the flight was fine any little bit of turbulance would give me convulsions and very bad language. having flown twice this month though i seemed much better but would still like these questions answered.
many thanks.

[Falcon]

If the engines fail the aircraft will not fall out the sky. Lift keeps working over the wings and the aircraft will glide. Air transat lost power on both engines and glided to a safe landing. Modern jet engines are so reliable that one failure is almost unheard of. Passenger aircraft will fly perfectly well if they loose an engine. Last year a BA 747 lost one engine and flew across the Atlantic.

[cshollingsworth]

I saw that on a news documentary here. Didn't they kind of get their wrists slapped for doing that? I heard that if that would have happened in the US, the pilots would never have been allowed to have continued on their flight, they would have been required to have came back and landed. Didn't know...

[Falcon]

Good point well said and my answer does need qualifying. I spoke with friends who have flown the 747 for BA and he cleared this up for me. There are two kinds of engine shut down. If the engine flames out the engine can be secured by the crew and at their discretion restarted. If a fan blade comes loose or it catches fire the shut down is different and the engine can't be re-lit. Providing the former happens and the crew have checked no other system is adversely affected they can continue. They did.
Lets look at the US crew, they have to land. They have just got airborne with 9 hours worth of fuel to get then to London so they are massively overweight. They have to either burn the fuel or dump it. Some pilots decide that they might as well burn the fuel in a straight line than fly in circles for hours on end.
The BA crew were not rapped on the knuckles because they did nothing wrong but the event did open up some good questions.