A lot of nervous fliers have come under the impression that passenger jets will pretty much fall out of the sky if all the engines fail.
The truth is that large planes can glide about as well as small ones. In fact, sometimes while landing a pilot will put the engines into idle and let the plane simply glide onto the runway.
That’s the reassuring part. What makes gliding to earth more dangerous with a large commercial jet is that it goes faster and builds more momentum as it descends and therefore requires a longer emergency runway than a small plane does.
Finding one of these quickly can be a challenge.
