What happens if both airplane engines fail at the same time? A pilot explains what happens.

In Spain, many people suffer from aerophobia, or fear of flying. Those who board a plane can panic if some kind of mishap occurs during the flight, such as entering a zone of turbulence. If an unusual failure occurs, such as an engine failure, the situation can be critical for those who hate flying.

Although it 's not common, the reality is that occasionally one of an aircraft's propellers can fail. Even rarer is when both fail simultaneously, something that for most people is synonymous with catastrophe and the possibility of an accident. Pilot Perico Durán took it upon himself to refute this belief on the podcast "Tamátelo con vino" (Take it with wine ), where he explained what happens when both engines suffer a problem.

Simultaneous failure of an aircraft's engines

Problems with an aircraft's engine are uncommon, as demonstrated by the data provided by Perico Durán himself: "150 engines fail worldwide each year on 40 million flights," he states, so the probability of an error is quite low... "but it does happen." However, the captain reassures the passengers, as this does not in any way imply that the plane is going to plummet.

The pilot explains that if both engines fail, the plane can continue gliding for quite some time: "From 40,000 feet, a plane could fly from Madrid to Toledo and back without engines," he says on the podcast. He also states that all aircraft manufacturers must "prove that their plane is capable of taking off with the number of engines it has, minus one."

In the tests carried out before the plane can carry passengers, "they turn off one engine and take off with only one" to ensure that if a failure occurs mid-flight, the plane can remain in the air without major problems. He admits that the fact that these failures occur "is not pleasant," but emphasizes that "it's not the emergency people might think," and that there won't be an accident.

If it is already exceptional for one propeller to fail, it is even more unusual for both to fail simultaneously, although there are examples throughout history, such as US Airways Flight 1549, better known as 'The Miracle on the Hudson', in which there were no fatalities: "Both engines failed on the Hudson plane and everyone was saved."