runway rock sends our plane airborne

I just flew back from corn country (the state of Iowa) and was in attendace at my sister's wedding so I haven't made it on to Noobsters in a few days. I'm back!

But if Northwest Airlines had anything to say about it I'd never have made it back to Michigan, period.

My girlfriend and I were sitting in different rows when our plane hit "a rock" in the runway on touchdown here in Michigan. The plane hit it like a boulder. Our DC-9 shot back up into the air after the nosewheels hit the object and sent everything in the cabin flying. All of the window shutters slammed shut from the impact and the lights went out. I had been sleeping and, well, I was wide awake at that point. Fook all that!

The stewardess got on the microphone and told the spooked passengers not to worry about "rocks in the runway". The pilot regained control of the DC-9 and we landed again - safely this time. Despite what I was told you can be damn sure that when an aircraft hits a rock so big that it sends the plane airborne again I'll be worried about it - whether the stewardess advises me to or not!

:ftw:

Yeah a rock doesn't have to be to big if you're going 140MPH.

When I went to Japan last year 2 days in a row they had planes loose nosegears (an EA-6B in Iwakuni and a Jet Blue in the States can't remeber where) I was praying that we weren't going to incident number 3 in 3 days when we were flying back in.

Another thing that is amazing are birdstrikes
http://www.aero-farm.com/safety/birdstrike.jpg

Looks like that plane hit Big Bird dead on the money!

Sure that wasn't a fooking ostrich.

rocks aint shit. we used to hit them in C-130s occassionaly. hot brakes are worse. every once in awhile hydraulic oil will get on the brakes causing them to heat up a whole lot. the brakes will explode, the jet will careen off the runway and sometimes blow up. and meanwhile you thought the landing was smooth.

Yeah, it was no big deal, I guess. But it sure woke me up - and sent the plane back up in the air quite suddenly.

Got a catapult shot off the USS Stennis in a C-2. Feels like Willy Coyote. First you fell like somebody threw you real hard and than you start sinking before the plane gets enough lift to start gaining altitude.

I don't doubt that hitting that rock gave a pucker factor of 7 or so.

Don't they have staff regularly checking the runway throughout the day? I would've thought if they had rocks appearing occasionally on the runway that they'd ensure they had someone continually checking the runway before a batch of planes landed!

They inspect our international runways regularly enough. In fact they have a dude on continual bird watch duty. He cleans out a ton of birds (with his array of firearms) who happen to stray near the runway and the rest are scared off when they see their comrades getting taken out!