| |

Before US Airways Flight 1549–Update

  • US Airways ship number N106US flew on January 13, 2009, and January 15, 2009, with the same flight number of AWE 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas [International] Airport in North Carolina.
  • Multiple passengers said that on a a different day, on the SAME plane, same flight, SAME location the SAME airbus experienced a series of compressor stalls on the right engine, punctuated by some backfires or explosions, with fire coming out of the engine. Although the pilot announced an emergency landing, he then continued on to Charlotte.
  • This was confirmed by one source to be the same Airbus A-320, which is N106US.
  • This prior incident could have also been caused by the engine ingesting a bird or birds. But…was it?
  • This brings up two questions: Could something else have been wrong with the engines on the N106US Airbus? OR can something be done to safeguard the engine intake to prevent the vacuum from sucking birds inside?

What: U.S. Airways passenger Airbus Flight 1549 enroute to Charlotte, N.C. taking off at t 3:26 p.m
Where: Hudson River off New York City
When: Thurs jan 15
Who: 155 on board scrambling onto rescue boat (50 passengers, three flight attendants and two pilots )
Why: Pilot hit a flock of geese after taking off from LaGuardia. (Two bird hits) Four minutes after takeoff passengers report hearing an explosion from the left side of the plane.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • July 17: Tam Day of Remembrance

    George’s Point of View

    Time goes by quickly but not quickly enough when you are dealing with grief and mourning a loved one. Was it only two years ago? In 2007, on July 17, 187 people in Porto Alegre boarded a Tam Airlines Airbus A320. For six of them, it was just another day at work. 187 of them had plans in São Paulo, Brazil. There were also a dozen others already in Sao Paulo who were going about what they thought would be a normal day–but it was the last day of their lives.

    On July 17, people filled out their date books, never knowing it would be for the last time. They made phone calls, packed suitcases, shook their heads over the rising cost of gasoline.

    On July 17, husbands and wives and children parted at their doors or at the airport, said their goodbyes, had hugs and kisses as they went off to work, on business trips or on vacation, never knowing that this kiss, this hug, this goodbye was the final goodbye.

    I know these families. I have sat in rooms with you, listening to your voices break as you recall those you lost. To many people, July 17 may be just a day, but as for you, I have seen on your face tears that will never dry. Those who were lost on that Tam flight will always be remembered on this sad day. President Lula may have ordered four days of mourning, after which the rest of the world moved on; but there are 199 families for whom the days of mourning will never end.

    For you, July 17 will always wear a face.

    What is there to say to those 199 lives that have left holes in the world?

    We remember you. We remember you. We remember you.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | |

    Cessna Crashes in Ocean, No Fatalities

    What: Línea Turística Aereotuy Cessna 208B Grand Caravan en route from to Los Roques to Isla de Margarita Venezuela
    Where: Over the ocean
    When: 26 AUG 2009, 08:10
    Who: 12 passengers and a pilot
    Why: En route, the ditched in the ocean. There were no fatalitis and the passengers were rescued by a fishing boat.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | | |

    Ryanair Flight Returns to East Midlands Airport After Bird Strike

    Ryanair flight FR-1742 had to return and make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport, England, on March 29th.

    The Boeing 737-800 plane took off for Ireland West Airport Knock, Ireland, but had to turn back after it suffered a bird strike that caused damage to the windshield.

    The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    Blackhawk Lawsuit


    Photographer Clark Moody

    Benjamin Franklin-Poor Richard’s Almanac
    For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
    For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
    For want of a horse the rider was lost.
    For want of a rider the message was lost.
    For want of a message the battle was lost.
    For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
    And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

    I’m not a pilot or a helicopter designer. I’m not an aviation engineer, or an aviation mechanic. Not an Aeronautical Scientist, Aerospace Engineer or Aviation Safety Inspector.(Although I do have the resources of 500+ experts in my Anonymous Experts database. I don’t consider myself an expert but I quote the experts.) I’m not even a farrier who pounds nails into horses’ hooves. What I am is a guy who works with people who were in aviation crashes; and I haven’t a clue what a “yaw boost servo” is, but that’s what failed in a Black Hawk crash, injuring two people and killing two. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk was owned by the US Army and crashed in Texas A&M College Station, TX.

    Someone in the Army performed a tedious and detailed technical readiness assessment to make the decision to purchase this Black Hawk in good faith.

    Someone was trusting that Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group had all their ducks in a row, all the T’s crossed, all the i’s dotted. That is to say that all the helicopter designers, aviation engineers, aviation mechanics, Aeronautical Scientists, Aerospace Engineers and Aviation Safety Inspectors (and all the unnamed professionals of the aforementioned companies) who had brainstormed to create this marvel of engineering, then pushed it to its limits and found it to be without flaw. The helicopter was conceived by, designed by and built by companies who have convinced the world that they know helicopters better than anyone else alive. No one knows more than they how important those tests are.

    There were indications of problems long before the flight. I glanced online 2005 notices of the coast guard seeking sources for the servos repair—servos to be used on the Sikorsky H-60 class helicopter. One match does not a conflagration make, but I only looked online for about ten seconds.

    The short story: the crew took off in the helicopter, and then it spun to the left until it wrecked. Can you imagine how helpless the pilot and copilot felt? How helpless the two crew who could do nothing? There was that moment aboard when some of them or all of them realized the helicopter was probably going to kill them.

    So the “yaw boost servo” contributed to the pilots being unable to control the helicopter. The loss of control and crash were due to the failure of a part. It’s that old thing—kingdom lost for want of a nail.

    A couple of people on that helicopter survived. One of them, Matthew J. Smith filed a lawsuit Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group, citing negligence, seeking damage over $100,000. That’s a lot of money for want of a nail. But our armed forces are risking their lives. They need the most reliable equipment—100,000 will not be nearly enough.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    Fatigue for one-Fatigue for all

    George’s Point of View

    Remember that old Herodotus misquote inscribed on the James A Farley Post Office Building: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.“?

    The iconic postman is viewed as being the superman of civil servants, intrepid deliverers, come what may. (For those of you born after 1997, the mythos of the intrepid postal carrier predates the movie. Bless Kevin Costner’s heart)

    That iconoclastic perspective will stand unchallenged by pilots if the FAA goes ahead in its move to impose stringent regulations limiting pilot flight time. The bill includes some $8 billion for airport construction and pilot scheduling limitations designed to lessen the incidence of accidents related to pilot fatigue.

    However the effectiveness of this bill may be challenged by an amendment exempting some pilots (those flying for nonscheduled carriers and charter flights carrying commercial cargo) from the amendments intended “fatigue protection.”

    Are cargo pilots and charter pilots built of sterner stuff? Are they eating their Wheaties and consuming super-charged vitamins? Are they really supermen who are not affected by the debilitating fatigue of lesser men? Is the biology of this select group of pilots different from all other pilots so that they are immune?

    What do you think?

    Maybe, just maybe, this new amendment is designed to sacrifice safety concerns in favor of profit.

    No kidding.

    There is no place for exemptions in this bill.

    However, that said, one hopes common sense will be applied in military situations. Say, for example, it is wartime. Can you see some 2011 era John Wayne pilot watching the second hand on his stopwatch and scrubbing a mission based on a peacetime standard? Is some squad somewhere going to have to stop in mid-mission due to a peacetime regulation? How doubly stupid would it be to give any faction opposing us the foreknowledge of such controlling factors. It’s the 2011 equivalent of the British sending their troops out in formation, to be picked off by guerilla fighting Americans. Are we the stupid ones with targets on our chests now?

    Let pilots flying commercial aviation have their reasonable hours, and leave the heroism and exemptions up to the military.

    And to mailmen too, of course—long may they be by snow, rain, heat and gloom of night, “unstayed.”

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Virgin Islands: 3 Fatalities

    What: AirVentures in Paradise Cessna 17 en route to St. Thomas
    Where: US Virgin Islands
    When: 10/29/2009
    Who: 3 aboard, all killed
    Why: The report says “AIRCRAFT CRASHED AFTER PILOT REQUESTED TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, CHRISTIANSTED, US VIRGIN ISLANDS”

    Dental records are being used to identify the remains.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.