How to land a Boeing 737 when the pilots are incapacitated

[anon68952647]

If you need to land an A320 the protocol is somewhat different.

[Diana]

Indeed – even 10 years ago LAN Chile was already retiring ex-Lufthansa 737-200 series jets that had the “Auto-Land” function – so any developed-world airline is unlikely to be using aircraft without it. So if the real pilots weren’t confused when they were plugging waypoints into the autopilot, you need to recognize the audible-alert that the glideslope beacon has been detected, and then push the “auto land” button. The airplane will take care of the rest, including applying the brakes once you are down on the runway.

[anon81034786]

Mythbusters tried this a few years ago. Results were ‘plausible’

[spiffomatic]

Not quite. Plenty of currently produced passenger jets do not have autoland capability. On some aircraft it is an option, but like many things it’s also an added expense in maintenance, equipment and training, and it’s useless at many airports. Very few actual landing in the real world are done via autoland for many reasons. Also, it is far from a “one-button” operation, but it does vary quite a bit from one aircraft to another.

[pes2000]

oh …

[shaddack]

Record in the service log of the airplane:

Pilot: “Test flight okay but autoland very rough.”
Mechanic: “Autoland is not installed on this aircraft.”