How far would a big commercial plane glide if the engine failed?

Question

im deathly afraid of being on a plane and the engine failing. how far would it glide if you were at 30,000 feet? and could it make a emergancy landing if the engine did fail that far up?
p.s. thanks whoever answers this seriously,

Answer 1

A 747 can glide 15 kilometres for every kilometre it loses in height.[3]


British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as the Jakarta incident,[1] was a scheduled British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Auckland, with stops in Bombay, Madras, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Melbourne.

On 24 June 1982, the route was flown by City of Edinburgh, a 747-236B registered G-BDXH. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines, although the reason for the failure was not then apparent to the crew or ground control. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Air...

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Air Transat Flight 236 was an Air Transat route between Toronto, Canada and Lisbon, Portugal flown by Captain Robert Piché and First Officer Dirk DeJager. On August 24, 2001, the flight ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean with 306 people (293 passengers and 13 crew) aboard. The flight crew successfully landed the plane in the Azores with no loss of life.[1]

Most of the passengers on the flight were Canadians visiting Europe and Portuguese immigrants returning to Portugal.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat...

Answer 2

The glide ratio for heavy commercial airplanes is about 5 to 1 (some may be a little better), so an aircraft at 30,000 ft would glide 150, 000 ft (28 miles.) If all power on an aircraft fails an air turbine pops out of the side of the aircraft and start to spin, driven by the ram air of the aircraft moving forward, to provide a minimum level of power so the pilots can still control the aircraft.

Answer 3

I flew several models of commercial jets and this sounds like a MD-80 series (earlier models were DC-9s). Descents are almost always made with all engines at idle power. There is still thrust, but it is minimum for that speed and altitude. The engine near you would not have stopped even if the fuel were completely shut off. The engine will rotate from forward motion like a toy pinwheel at a speed about 25-50% of idle rpm. (If you have a vary rare "flameout" you can get a restart by applying ignition and fuel at the proper time just like at the gate.) The noise you heard was probably from the landing gear and flaps being extended for landing. This is quite noisy on some jets. On most MD-80s the seating is 2 on the left and 3 on the right as you face forward.

Answer 4

Longest Glide By Airliner

Answer 5

that depends on the type of airplane but i no that a A330 had a fuel leak over the atlantic and glided for 65 miles before landing in portugol it was the biggest glide ever an average glide would last for 30 to 40 miles ... best answer please