“What Happens When Your Plane Goes Silent at 30,000 Feet? The Startling Truth Revealed!”

Ever sat back and thought about what would happen if your plane suddenly decided to play an unscheduled game of “chasing clouds” at 30,000 feet? I mean, picture it: the engines cut out, and the silence of the sky hits like a ton of bricks. Sure, it sounds like a scene straight out of a suspense thriller, but what if I told you it’s less of a horror story and more of a “I-can-handle-this” moment for pilots? Enter Captain Steve, an experienced aviator who’s made it his mission to clear the air about engine failures—on social media, no less! He breaks down the science (and the slight panic) in a way that would make even the most anxious flyer think twice before hitting that emergency landing button in their imagination. So buckle up as we explore what Captain Steve has to say about the mechanics and reality behind a flight losing power. Spoiler alert: your fears may be more dramatic than the reality! LEARN MORE.

An experienced pilot has explained what will happen to your flight if the engines stop working and it loses power at 30,000 feet.

It is a situation that screams worse nightmare – but ultimately is one that can happen, with the aftermath of such an incident potentially being devastating.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom, so says one pilot who regularly posts insights in to what life is like to fly aeroplanes for a living.

Posting videos on TikTok, the pilot – known as Captain Steve on the social media platform – took viewers on an explainer of what would happen if you end up in a serious situation where your plane becomes powerless thousands of feet up in the skies of planet Earth.

Most commercial planes have two engines, with most aircraft able to fly with just the one engine intact.

But what is both were to go?

“What if a commercial jet were to lose both engines, would it still fly? The answer is yes,” Captain Steve explains.

“It has about a three to one glide ratio. At 30,000 feet I’m going to fly about another 90 miles.”

What happens if a plane’s engines fail? (Getty Stock Images)

So while it’s not an instantaneous drop, the plane would fall pretty quickly, with 90 miles being just less than half the distance between Manchester and London.

The situation is completely different, though, if there was a total electrical and hydraulics failure on the aircraft.

In such a situation, nothing is working for the pilots to guide the plane back to the ground.

“Well, there’s a last resort,” Steve explains, “called the ‘ram air turbine’.”

You might have seen this on the side of a plane, with a warning sign on the plane to keep clear of where this device is kept.

Example of a ram air turbine when deployed (Wikimedia Commons)

Steve says: “If I lose all power on the airplane, nothing else works, this thing drops out automatically at the back of the airplane.”

The ram air turbine ‘looks like an Evinrude engine on your old Boston Whaler’, Steve explains, which for non-Americans is a standard small boat engine that sits in the water.

“It’s got a little propeller on the front of it and it starts spinning like crazy,” Steve adds.

“It works and gives me hydraulics and electric so that I can run the radios, I can lower the landing gear, and I can manoeuvre the airplane safely to a landing.”

So while it is still pretty dire straights, it’s not all over if your plane does lose power.

Your pilot will use the intense training they’ve had to deal with such an event to try and land the plane in a spot away from built up areas, with the ram air turbine doing wonders in helping the plane glide to a safe spot.