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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Good Read - HL 144 (1)


As Holiday season approaches don’t forget to shop a good read for yourself or a gift at our PCN page listing our pilot authors. Most books can be ordered by contacting the author or by checking Amazon.  Here is our page of authors: http://pcn.homestead.com/Authors.html

 

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Date: 10/10/2012 7:52:04 PM


Subject: hopefully a one of a kind flying experience

Mark ;

I am forwarding an event out of my memoirs titled Flight Into Hell in my book "Chronicles of a 20th Century Airline Captain" hopefully it is an event that no one else will experience--no checklist for this one

W.R. La liberte' L-15 International Captain retired-Sept 1997

                  A FLIGHT INTO HELL

It was afternoon, 16:45P.M. Pacific Standard Time on October 17, 1989. We were inbound to San Francisco’s runway 28R this was the second leg of the second rotation of the month, weather had been VFR on both legs from Atl to Lax and then on to Sfo. We had a new 767,you could tell that by the pleasant aroma of fresh leather emanating from the pilot seats , all conditions  had been routine, flight attendants friendly and led by Jan  one of my favorite lead flight attendants .Jan was a seasoned A line and ran a tight ship in the back, she was also married to a Delta Captain and was sympathetic and considerate of the cockpit crew, my First Officer Jack, an amicable ,highly competent pilot who had learned his craft from his father who taught him to fly at  an early age of 14 with a vintage Stearman so by the time he was eligible for military flight school ,he had already achieved civilian  flight instructor status, an enviable childhood by anybody’s standards . Jack liked to bid rotations with me because I had initiated a nonsmoking policy in my cockpit in order to cut down on the fumes that we were exposed to, this was the result of a bad experience with Boeck’s Sarcoidosis , a malady whose symptoms included a dry cough ,chest tightness, lack of breath and possible lung cancer ,an x-ray revealed a dark spot on my left lung ,initially I consulted  a surgeon who wanted to open me up and do exploratory surgery something I determined later probably would have killed me, I opted instead to get a second opinion and went to Mount Sinai Hospital in N.Y where a Dr. Silsback he  inquired as to whether I smoked I indicated I had, but effective today I would rid myself of the habit .Six months later the spot disappeared and I became a non-smoking advocate, the cockpit also served as a sanctuary for flight attendants to take a breathing  break from the smoke being generated in the cabin even though the air was supposed to change every 2 minutes . In spite of my efforts after a rotation, on returning home I always had the stale smell of cigarette smoke on my clothes.

As we continued our approach to 28R even though VFR we were on the ILS, at about 1000’Jack asked me to look at the bay, said he had never noticed anything like it before, the water was spiking up sort of like what you see in wildlife films when alligators are in their courting mode and the males are announcing their presence by rippling the water

We landed on time, passengers disembarked and Jack and I went down to operations to find out if anyone else had reported the strange phenomenon, no one had so Jack went to the restroom while I talked with the operations guy .As we spoke a very low rumble began ,my first thought was that a mechanic was running up an engine ,but then realized that this is something not done at the gate in the next instant the rumble turned into a deafening roar someone yelled earthquake, the room became blurry and I fell to the floor unable to maintain my balance, all the while the room continued to have a three or four dimensional appearance to it.15 seconds later it stopped, it seemed like an eternity. I got up and looked around to make sure we didn’t have any eminent danger of a roof collapse; meanwhile Jack came out of the rest room disheveled and wet from his inopportune dance. I asked him what the hell he was doing in there to cause such a ruckus; he laughed and said now I guess we know what the ripples on the bay were about.

In the meantime, the flight attendants had been in the jet way and to say they had been tossed about would be an understatement, no injuries, but lots of wet underwear.

The airplane I was told bounced around like a rubber ball but not damaged

Jack suggested we should perhaps check local hotels close to the airport so we could get back if necessary, the operation agent checked the local airport Hilton and learned that the water tower had collapsed into the elevator shaft and the building had been declared unsafe. He then called the Canterbury, our usual layover hotel, they indicated that the hotel was checked from top to bottom, was found safe for occupancy, had hot and cold running water, food available and was awaiting our arrival.

 The Canterbury was an older hotel that kind of grew on you because of the hospitality that its personnel exhibited with crewmembers –it also had cast iron tubs a point not to be overlooked under these circumstances and it was close to the wharf area.

In the meantime the flight attendants had gathered and I filled them in on what I knew, as a crew I told them I thought we should stick together, Jan agreed but not knowing what was out there if any wished to stay at the airport they could. I had ops call the cab company to see if we could take a route to the Canterbury that avoided as much as possible overpasses and underpasses

As we made our way to the Canterbury hotel the devastation was truly incredible, brick structures had fallen away and you could see people sitting at a table on the third floor of a badly damaged building, fires, damaged cars ,crushed cars and chaos seemed everywhere, at one intersection a flower child attired in sneakers, jockey shorts and a top hat with a flower  was directing traffic and doing a good job.

As we approached the Canterbury area I noticed many facades had broken loose and fallen to the streets below, cracks in the pavement, broken water lines and natural gas fires seemed everywhere we were greeted by the folks at Canterbury with candles and reassurances that the building was safe, built in 1928, it had withstood a lot through its 71 years.

 I told the crew that I was going to take a shower dress. for tomorrow eat my deli sandwich with about 6 beers, get into the cast iron tub with pillows and try to sleep during the night, Sleeping in the tub was not especially comfortable but if I was unlucky enough to have to go from the sixth floor to the basement it would provide some protection I suggested they do the same.

In the event we had to evacuate, we were to meet in the middle of the street away from the buildings to avoid falling debris, bring flashlights if you had them and we would stick together for safety reasons.

 We had several tremors during the night, a few sporadic gunshots in the alley but nothing of great consequence like the 7.1 on the Richter scale that we had experienced.

I called my wife at midnight her time and miraculously got through to her and learned that flight control had contacted her and told her we had made it to the hotel, but the night was young and we were doing our best, not to worry about things we couldn’t control.

The next day we made our way to the airport, the devastation was mind boggling .I saw a car that had been crushed the only evidence that someone had died in it was an arm hanging out the window with the hand grasping for something, the memory haunts me to this day.

 The third game of the World Series between the Oakland A’s and the Giant’s was in progress at Candler Park was halted and delayed indefinitely; damage was minimal, with some people being struck by falling debris.

The epicenter was located on the San Andreas Fault in the Santa Cruz Mountains at a depth of 11 miles and was the largest earthquake since 1906

As we left San Francisco I could not help but think of how lucky we were to have survived this event. Using “Risk & Asset” management disciplines which have served me well throughout my flying career were probably valuable in minimizing our exposer, but with so many unknown variables, fate seems to have prevailed in our good fortune. Crew cohesiveness has always been paramount in my operation, it worked well here and will always work where people get together in a common goal.
W.R. La Liberte’, L15 International Captain retired Sept 1997

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