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.

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.”

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.

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.