even read it. but how did this flight end up in such a dire situation? after failing to land at st. martin s juliana airport in bad weather, captain dewitt decides to divert. first to the nearby island of st. thomas. then to st. croix when he finds out it s even closer. but as the plane is climbing away from the airport in a torrential downpour, there s a problem. my navigator said to me, balsey, my god, look at the fuel gauges. because of the wind, the turbulence and the conditions, the airplane was rocking back and forth as it was climbing. the fuel totalizer was spinning. i told him not to worry about it because i considered it was probably you know, being low on fuel to begin with, the turbulence and sloshing up and down in the tanks might cause this. but at 6,500 feet warning lights indicating low fuel pressure illuminate and captain dewitt knows just how grave this situation has become. he talks to the controller, how far are we from st. thomas?
rest of the fuselage which bodes well for a water landing. so there s a lot of things to consider with the water landing. too much to talk about 50 feet over the water at night. now, mitch, i mean, you made it quite clear you re actually doing a powered all landing here. i think in the real scenario it would likely to be the two engines have flamed out because it s run out of fuel potentially. how would that differ making the glide approach versus the approach you just described with power. i tell you what, if it was me flying the airplane i m going to be looking at the fuel gauges. i don t know what these pilots were doing. i d be looking at the fuel gauges. if i saw the fuel dropping to a level below which i couldn t make a successful landing at an airport, i would be doing a powered approach. because i know i m not going into an airport now. i have to ditch. when you have power, engine power, i m talking about, you have a lot more options. you can control your rate of descent. f
then to st. croix when he finds out it s even closer. but as the plane is climbing away from the airport in a torrential downpour, there s a problem. my navigator said to me, balsey, my god, look at the fuel gauges. because of the wind, the turbulence and the conditions, the airplane was rocking back and forth as it was climbing. the fuel totalizer was spinning. i told him not to worry about it because i considered it was probably you know, being low on fuel to begin with, the turbulence and sloshing up and down in the tanks might cause this. but at 6,500 feet warning lights indicating low fuel pressure illuminate and captain dewitt knows just how grave this situation has become. he talks to the controller, how far are we from st. thomas? i ve got five minutes of fuel, i m not going to make st. thomas. i briefed the crew that we would keep going to st. croix but we were going to set up for a possible ditching. it s dark. it s overcast. it s raining.
vibrating so that i couldn t even read it. but how did this flight end up in such a dire situation? after failing to land at st. martin s airport in bad weather, captain dewitt decides to divert first to the near by island of st. thomas and then to st. croix when he finds out it s even closer. but as the plane is climbing away from the airport in a torrential downpour, there s a problem. my navigator said to me, my god, look at the fuel gauges. because of the wind and the turbulence and conditions, the airplane was rocking back and forth as it was climbing. it was spinning. i told him not to worry about it, because it was probably being low on fuel to begin with, and the turbulence is sloshing with the tanks might cause this. captain dewitt knows how grave the situation has become. he talks to the controller, how far are we away from st. thomas? i ve got five minutes of fuel. we re not going to make it to
martin s airport in bad weather, captain dewitt decides to divert first to the near by island of st. thomas and then to st. croix when he finds out it s even closer. but as the plane is climbing away from the airport in a torrential downpour, there s a problem. my navigator said to me, my god, look at the fuel gauges. because of the wind and the turbulence and conditions, the airplane was rocking back and forth as it was climbing. it was spinning. i told him not to worry about it, because it was probably being low on fuel to begin with, and the turbulence is sloshing with the tanks might cause this. captain dewitt knows how grave the situation has become. he talks to the controller, how far are we away from st. thomas? i ve got five minutes of fuel. we re not going to make it to st. thomas.