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I rarely have a problem with my passengers, but on one flight, there was an exception. Some of my first-class passengers called me a liar which, naturally, elicited a response from me. Here is the story.
It was a 6am departure from Seattle flying down the coast to San Diego in a B-757. We departed Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (KSEA) in darkness, but half way to San Diego (KSAN), the sun popped up to the east over the Sierras. Cruising along peacefully at 28,000 feet, and maybe 200 miles north of Los Angeles, I got a call on the interphone from the purser. She told me that some of the passengers on the right side of the first-class cabin were saying out loud that they thought the right engine was not running.
Specifically, they could plainly see the fan on the left engine spinning away, but the one on the right engine was not turning which meant the engine was not running. Naturally, my first officer and I got a good laugh from this as our 757 was cruising along effortlessly at about 300 knots indicated airspeed, and was not yawing towards the supposedly dead engine. I simply told the purser to tell those were concerned that the engine was, indeed, running quite normally. I concluded incorrectly that this would alleviate their concerns. However, I had forgotten that we live in a cynical culture where the news media and Hollywood movie producers have convinced their audiences to trust no one in positions of authority, including airline captains! I had also forgotten that today, everyone is an authority on things they know nothing about, such as airplanes.
The passengers could plainly see the fan on the left engine spinning away, but the one on the right engine was not turning which meant the engine was not running.
My denial of their suspicion that the right engine was not running quickly began to fuel a conspiracy theory among the first-class passengers that there was a serious emergency and it was being hidden from them. Another call from the purser informed me that several passengers on the right side of the cabin were trying to convince the others that the engine had failed, and the captain was lying about it.
I then realized what it was they were seeing. The sun had just come up in the east. We were flying almost due south, so the left side of the airplane was brightly illuminated making the fan in the left intake clearly visible. However, the right engine was in a shadow caused by the fuselage blocking the sun, and the fan in the right engine was not visible.
On the Pratt & Whitney PW3700 engine, there is a large fan in the front of the engine and right behind it is a set of stationary guide vanes. The passengers were seeing the stationary guide vanes on the right engine and mistook them for the fan. I got on the PA and explained all of this to the passengers and thought that would end the conspiracy theory. WRONG!
The passengers were seeing the stationary guide vanes on the right engine and mistook them for the fan.
The interphone chime sounded a few minutes later and it was the purser again. She told me the passengers didn’t believe me! Three of them were using their cell phones to take videos of the left engine and the right engine, and saying out loud that they could plainly see the difference.
No doubt about it, the right engine was not running and the captain was lying about it. I can only assume these video clips were to be released to the news media upon our arrival in San Diego and eventually posted on social media, making them heroes of the social justice crowd.
We were nearing the LAX airport at 18,000 feet and starting to get busy with the descent into SAN. I was getting irritated at the conspiracy theory advocates who were trying to convince all the other passengers that something was dreadfully wrong with the airplane and that they were being lied to it about it by the captain! I made one more PA announcement saying;
“Folks, this is the captain. There is a conspiracy theory among our first-class passengers that the right engine is not running, and that we are trying to hide it from you. The Los Angeles airport is directly ahead of us and if the right engine really had failed, we would have declared and emergency and be diverting to Los Angeles, and those of you listening to air traffic control on Channel 9 would have heard this.
I can assure you that the right engine is indeed running and is spinning at about 15,000 rpm while consuming jet fuel at 3,500 pounds per hour. Both of these are more than circumstantial evidence that the right engine really is running.” I thought that this would squash the conspiracy theory, but again, I misjudged my audience.
B-757 Captain Joel A. Turpin standing in front of the Pratt & Whitney PW3700 engine. Note large fan in front of stationary guide vanes.
Finally, the purser asked if I could send my first officer back to show the passengers that what they were looking at was an illusion created by the sun. Sending him back would be a pain in the rear as we were getting very busy with ATC, but decided to do it anyway. When he got back to the cockpit, he told me he did not think the passengers had bought his explanation.
Our normal after landing procedure was to shut down the right engine and make a single engine taxi to the gate. This was done to save fuel and to allow the rampers to open the cargo doors on the right side sooner. However, after I landed in San Diego, I elected to taxi to the gate with both engines running so that the passengers would not see the right engine shut down.
After parking the gate, I got on the PA and invited those who had called me a liar to watch the fan on the right engine spool down when I cut the fuel to it. By the time we had completed our shutdown and parking checklists, all of the conspirators in the first-class cabin had deplaned.
Later, I asked the purser what their reaction was when they could plainly see the right engine spool down. She said there was a feeling among them that could only be described as “crest fallen.” Instead of being relieved that they had not been in any danger, they were actually disappointed they didn’t have a conspiracy story to sell to the media and, and in the process, become heroes with the social justice crowd.
His professional credentials include 5 years as captain, training officer, and chief pilot for a commuter airline where he flew the DC-3, Beech 18 and Beech 99 in scheduled passenger operations, and 6 years as Director of Training for both FlightSafety International and Simuflite’s King Air Division.
Turpin was hired by United Airlines in 1986, where he flew the Boeing 727, 737, 757 and 767 in both domestic and international operations including 100 oceanic crossings, and 6 equator crossings. Turpin retired in 2015 at age 65, and currently has some 30,000 hours in his log book.
He is currently employed as captain and chief pilot flying the Pilatus PC-12NG for a company in Pennsylvania. Joel has been a current and active flight instructor since 1970 and teaches instrument flying in a variety of single engine airplanes. Turpin also writes technical articles with an emphasis on instrument flying and airplane systems.
In 2016, Joel Turpin earned the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for 50 years of flying accident and violation free, and for his contribution to aviation safety for all of those years.
He currently lives in Punta Gorda, Florida with his wife, who is a United Airlines flight attendant. While Joel has had an amazing career in aviation spanning over six decades, he still considers himself to be just a general aviation pilot who got lucky.
- The Captain is Lying and We can Prove It - September 30, 2024
- The day I had to make a short field landing in a B757 - August 28, 2024
- Fate is STILL the hunter - August 12, 2024
Joel, You should have shut down the left engine after landing and taxied in on just the right one! Or, you could have shut down the left one when you got in the chocks and then told everyone that you would shut down the right engine and they could deplane only after they shut up!