Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Luigi Maccio – SpotIT
What: Lufthansa Airbus A320-200 en route from Ekaterinburg Russia to Frankfurt Germany
Where: Perm
When: Oct 25th 2011
Who: 116 passengers and 6 crew
Why: While en route, smoke appeared in the cabin of the Airbus.
The pilots reported the smoke to ATC and diverted to Perm.
They made a safe landing. Passengers waited while a replacement flight was provided.
British Airways flight BA-446 had to make an emergency landing in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on January 8th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane flying from Heathrow Airport, England, was on final approach to Amsterdam when the crew reported a gear problem and went around.
The plane subsequently landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Antonis Panayotatos
What: American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 en route from Chicago to Dallas
Where: Chicago
When: Mar 11 2010
Who: 140 aboard
Why: After takeoff, the MD-82 flew through a flock of birds. Several birdstrikes occurred in the right engine. The flight was cleared to return and landed safely a little while later. No injuries occurred.
I’m not claiming that bird strikes only happen in certain seasons. Birds live near airports and share the airspace. It’s going to happen.
I’m just saying that some of the bird strikes can be predicted according to migratory patterns. Unfortunately, I don’t think this can be predicted in any useful way, at least not yet, but predicted in the sense that when you’re driving down the expressway and see a cloud of birds migrating, you know it is bird strike season again.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Jim Groom
What: Thomas Cook Boeing 757-200 en route from Turin to Birmingham International
Where: Turin
When: Feb 21 2010
Who: 231 passengers
Why: While en route, the plane developed a fuel leak, substantial enough for passengers to see it pouring out of a wing. Although the captain announced a possible bird strike, a fuel leak had been detected in the plane in an earlier flight. The flight had to turn back, and circled Turin for half an hour before making an applause-filled landing.
The fuel leak was judged to be a bad valve, which was replaced prior to being ferried back to Birmingham.
One wonders if the ferry flight was actually the incident involved here:
https://airflightdisaster.com/?p=8707
Avianca flight AV-9398 had to return and make an emergency landing at El Dorado International Airport, Bogota, Colombia, on December 11.
The Airbus A318-100, en-route to Pasto, Colombia, had to return after one of its engines failed. The engine had to be shutdown mid-air.
The plane landed safely.
All 99 people aboard remained unhurt.
Air France flight AF-1025 made an emergency landing in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 1st.
The Airbus A319-100 plane took off for Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, but had to turn back after the crew reported a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely. There were 131 passengers and 5 crew members aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
American Airlines flight AA-759 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport, London, on June 12th.
The Airbus A330-300 flying from Athens, Greece, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had to divert due to electrical odor.
The plane landed safely.
Everyone aboard remained unhurt.
