Can a plane land if the wing falls off?

A pilot managed to land his plane safely after a section of his wing fell off during an aerobatic flight. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the right aileron - the trailing edge of a wing which controls movement - came off when the pilot performed a roll.



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No, a plane cannot fly with only one wing. The wings of an aircraft are essential for providing lift and stability during flight. Without two wings, the plane would not be able to generate enough lift to stay in the air and would quickly crash.

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From a practical point, no, a modern airliner will not lose a wing due to turbulence. Modern airlines are very tough and designed to withstand extreme turbulence. In theory, it might be possible. But to my knowledge, it has not happened to any jet airliner.

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Wings do not break or snap due to turbulence, it can't happen. The wings are incredibly flexible, and there's actually test video somewhere of Boeing performing flexibility tests where the wings are being to extreme angles before there's any sign of failure.

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Pilots with useful vision in only one eye may obtain medical certification upon demonstrating the ability to compensate for the loss of binocular vision and to perform airman duties without compromising aviation safety.

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A rough estimate of the probability of an airplane going down due to an emergency is about 1 in 11 million, meaning it would take us quite a few lifetimes before actually experiencing a plane crash. That's a whopping 0.00001% chance that something will go terribly wrong on your flight.

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And one report said a 15-year-old boy made it through a 2007 journey from Perm, Russia, to Moscow (808 miles) stowed away inside the wing of a Boeing-737, so severely frostbitten by the end that crews couldn't remove his shoes or coat. But alive.

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Commercial pilots will be allowed tattoos in some airlines as long as they are covered. This means if a pilot has a sleeve-type tattoo on their arm, they must wear a long sleeve shirt to cover it. Most major airlines do not allow tattoos that cannot be covered.

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Even smaller private jets require two pilots. Safety risk is significantly higher when a single pilot flies an aircraft, so dual pilot operations are almost always mandatory. With two pilots, the workload is split thereby decreasing stress significantly.

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While pilots can't actually see turbulence, they often know what is coming up, thanks to reports from other planes, weather reports, and radar equipment. However, clear air turbulence (severe turbulence occurring in cloudless areas) can sometimes catch pilots off guard.

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Severe turbulence can cause a plane to drop so suddenly that pilots temporarily lose control. But, again, that's not enough to crash the plane. That's not to say it's never happened.

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