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Contact photographer Bill Shull
What: Mesa Airlines Canadair CRJ-700 en route from Portland to Chicago
Where: South Bend
When: July 22 2011
Who: 57 passengers
Why: Some time after taking off from Portland, the flight developed hydraulic issues. The pilots diverted to South bend, and made a safe landing.
Passengers were provided transport to Chicago via bus.
Qantas flight QF-16 had to return and make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, California, on December 27th.
The Boeing 747-400 plane took off for Brisbane, Australia, but had to turn back due to failure of a weather radar.
The plane landed uneventfully. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Cathay Pacific flight CX-9993 had to return and make an emergency landing in Hong Kong, China, on March 6th.
The Airbus A330-300 plane took off for Zhuhai, China, but had to turn back due to an engine issue.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Ryanair flight FR-3445 had to return and make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport, Manchester, England, UK, on April 1st.
The Boeing 737-800, en-route to Palma, Mallorca, Spain, was mid-air after departure when a bird impacted the aircraft, prompting the crew to stop the climb and return.
The plane’s right hand engine was affected by the bird strike.
All people onboard remained unharmed.
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Contact photographer Joe Buvid
What: Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Seattle to Oakland
Where: Oakland
When: Sept 19, 2011
Who: 126 passengers, 6 crew
Why: While passengers were winging it from Seattle, a handwritten bomb threat note threatening the Oakland flight was found in an airport bookstore in San Francisco International Airport.
The flight landed at Oakland as planned—twenty minutes early, due to some background aviation networking. The fake crisis brought in some real FBI agents and real bomb sniffing dogs who got everyone out of the plane (and screened); and the plane was sent to an isolated location to (fortunately, not) blow up. No bomb was found.
A false report or threat of a bomb or harmful device is punishable by up to four years in prison, a $2,000 fine plus reimbursement of costs to government.
Sent from 37 thousand feet headed to NY
Middle East Airlines flight 213 made an emergency landing at Sofia airport in Bulgaria, on October 9th.
The plane flying from Beirut, Lebanon, to Geneva, Switzerland, was diverted after a passenger suffered heart attack.
The plane landed safely. The patient was rushed to hospital.
The flight resumed shortly afterwards.
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Contact photographer Francisco Muro
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Contact photographer Rudy Chiarello
updated
What: American Eagle Embraer ERJ-140 en route from Lindbergh Field San Diego to Los Angeles
What: LAN Airlines Boeing 767-300 from from Lima Peru to Los Angeles, CA
Where: LAX
When: Jan 19th 2010
Why: At the time of the American Eagle’s arrival to LAX, both jets were flying at the same altitude. The danger was not collision. The danger was wake turbulence. Required separation behind the Boeing is 5 nautical miles.
Trailing behind an aircraft, wake turbulence is made up of multiple force drafts including wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash is jet engine gas output which is turbulent but of short term but wingtip vortices can remain for up to three minutes.
Picture, if you will, invisible speed bumps made of wind that could knock your car off the road trailing the car in front of you. If this were a factor with cars, tailgating would be a completely different thing.
A cockpit voice recorder of the pilots responses will clearly indicate if the plane in the rear of the situation runs into the leading aircraft’s wake. What officials are questioning here are the actions and responses of LAX Air Traffic Control, which placed these two jets close enough to be endangered.
On January 19, maybe Air Traffic Control error put the Eagle jet less than three miles from the 767, but the pilot managed to stay out of the other jet’s wake. LAX denies this is a case of inexperience and maybe they are correct, because the worst case scenario crash did not happen. Maybe it would have happened if the jet following were flying at lower altitude.
What matters is that the flight landed safely and whether it was ATC or the pilot, someone did something right because both flights made it to the ground safely.
