Question of terminology for a novel I'm writing.

[LindaHawley]

I'm the author of The Prophecies book series. There is a near-crash of a jet in one of the books, and I have a term I need to clarify, so I came to the pilots to ask the question. :wink2:

Description of the scene:
The passenger jet is coming in for a landing during a bad storm. They are rolling and pitching all over the place as they descend. On approach, the plane is lurching up and down, and just before the wheels touch down, the jet suddenly pitches, starting to turn sideways, one wing up and one wing down, and it begins to twist as though it was going to cartwheel.

Is it a "cartwheel" or a "corkscrew" or is it called something else entirely?

Thank you,
Linda Hawley

 

[Jim Logajan]

The passenger jet is coming in for a landing during a bad storm.

Getting the terminology right isn't going to help if you don't provide a good justification for why the jet doesn't divert to an alternate airport - or simply wait till the worst of the storm passes.

An airline pilot would have to have some pretty strong motivation (like crashing for some other reason) to attempt to land in the kind of conditions you describe.

 

[Jim Logajan]

With regard to why a pilot wouldn't divert from an airport in these conditions, I want to share this:
This scene is based upon an experience I had three years ago, flying from Dallas to Seattle. I have described it very like it occurred. After our near-crash on approach, the pilot pulled out (with the jet groaning from the stress), aborting the landing, and we headed to Portland airport, only to turn around and come back and land in Seattle (in a near perfect landing, I might add).

That night on the news, someone at the airport had filmed a plane (just before ours) having a similar experience (yet not as severe). After our plane's near-crash, Seattle airport didn't let any other planes land until the storm had passed.

I see - thanks for the diplomatic correction. Still, the pilots safely aborted the landings. If the pilots were fatigued their reaction time and judgement would be impaired, which could result in the accident you plan to write. The other posts addressed the terminology, so hopefully you've got what you needed (feel free to stick around, though!)

(With regard to a jet fully "cartwheeling" - I personally doubt the wings would have any strength to support any rotation as such. If you are inclined to research a more probable outcome, you could search for "B-52 crash" on Youtube. A bit grisly, but you'll find videos of a B-52 crashing in 1994 pretty much knife-edge into the ground. It simply disintegrated.)