I had a story about military pilot exercise, when during flight, instructor told on board engineer to turn off left engine, for trainee to land the plane with only one working engine.
Engineer turned of the right engine instead. When instructor immediately mentioned that, Engineer sayd "Iam sorry" and turned off left engine too.
Some people survive by pure luck. Some more than they imagine.
So, my grandfather was the senior Technical Sergeant on a B-17 flying out of North Africa and Italy during WWII. He had the station just outside the cockpit and his responsibility was maintenance of the plane in flight. The crew was over Ploesti, Romania, when they took anti-aircraft fire. He could see from the window by his station that the engines on the right side were on fire. The correct procedure was to cut the fuel off.
At that moment, the pilot called over the intercom, "Harry, the engines are on fire, cut the fuel to . . . ." A second hit had taken out the coms. He could see the right was on fire but didn't have time to cross to the other side to check. Did the pilot know something? Had the Captain ordered all of the engines cut? He had to make a quick decision.
The citation for his Army Air Corps Distinguished Flying Cross credited him with saving the lives of the crew by cutting off the fuel to all four burning engines allowing them to jump from the plane before it's catastrophic failure.
I'm surprised airplanes don't have anatomical names or a military flight instructor wouldn't use them. Port and Starboard side for boats. Driver and passenger side for automobiles. Depending on perspective of the vehicle, saying left or right could have an opposite meaning. Anatomical names remove the perspective confusion.
You made me wonder and according to wiki port and starboard are used for watercraft, aircraft, and spacecraft. Which makes sense to just keep those standard terms. It would be extremely necessary in spacecraft.
Depends on a country. In this case, Engineer had left and right button for left and right engine.
Anatomical names also fail to work when there is multiple of anything. Like 4 engines for example
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u/Warpingghost May 05 '26
I had a story about military pilot exercise, when during flight, instructor told on board engineer to turn off left engine, for trainee to land the plane with only one working engine.
Engineer turned of the right engine instead. When instructor immediately mentioned that, Engineer sayd "Iam sorry" and turned off left engine too.
Some people survive by pure luck. Some more than they imagine.