A US military plane had to make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Ireland, on the morning of February 28.
Authorities said the crew of Hercules C-130 turbo-prop aircraft sought permission for an emergency landing due to fault in one of the engines.
The plane landed uneventfully and no one aboard was harmed.
The Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Singapore Dhaka with 105 passengers and 12 crew aboard diverted to Bangkok when they got an internal flight warning. There were no injuries.
In spite of the cargo fire suppression system, there was a burning smell and a fire.
The plane made a safe landing in Bangkok. The plane taxied to the gate, and passengers disembarked and were provided hotel accommodations, meals and transferred to another airline.
An investigation is underway.
Singapore Airlines’ spokesman, Nicholas Ionides said that “Flight SQ446 operating between Singapore and Dhaka diverted to Bangkok as a result of indications of smoke from the aircraft’s rear cargo hold.”
When Thai authorities clear the Airbus, it will be flown back to Singapore.
But still, it is one of my least favorite things to read (especially while I’m halfway to Singapore) that there has been yet another cargo fire at all, regardless of what kind of plane it is on.
At least I had time to jot down some thoughts.
I hope that the media shines as bright a light on this airbus cargo fire as it has recently on the Dreamliner battery situation. Sure, the Dreamliner is developing new technology and Boeing is responsible for going the distance to keep new developments safe. The Dreamliner battery issue is new. But the fact that Boeing is developing new technologies and new solutions does not provide Airbus and an established plane like a A330-300 a free ticket when it comes to combustion.
Hopefully Airbus is paying attention to all problems and not getting too cocky. It should remember and respect that a plane is still an air-filled bubble hundreds of feet in the air. Until people develop their own wings, random combustion situations like cargo fires on an Airbus A330 are just as potentially hazardous situation–if not more so–than any battery incident that actually occurred on the ground.
Let us please see a fix for this problem.
British Airways flight BA-233 had to return and make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport, England, on August 6th.
The Airways Boeing 787-900 plane took off for Moscow, Russia, but had to turn back due to a generator problem.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer George Canciani
What: Lufthansa A346 en route from Newark, NJ to Munich
Where: Newark NJ
When: Jul 19th 2009
Why: Near Boston, the plane developed electrical problems; and the crew decided to return to Newark. The passengers debarked and were only delayed two and a half hours before being permitted to continue their flight.
Swiss International Airlines flight LX-289 had to return and make an emergency landing in Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 14th.
The Airbus A340-300 plane took off for Zurich, Switzerland, but had to turn back due to a hydraulic issue.
The plane landed safely. All two hundred and thirty-one people aboard remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Szabo Gabor
What: Egyptair Airbus A320-200 en route from Cairo to Nairobi
Where: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi
When: June 6, 2012, 3.36am
Who: 143 aboard
Why: While landing at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the plane veered off the runway on to soft ground, shutting down the airport and causing delays for the rest of the day. Passengers were evacuated with no injuries reported. Flights were diverted to Mombasa and Entebbe.
Passengers disembarked on the soft ground and were ported to the gate.
Yakutia Airlines flight R3-497 made an emergency landing in Yakutsk, Russia, on January 5th.
The plane took off for Blagoveshchensk, Russia, but had to return shortly afterwards due to indication of an open door.
The plane landed safely. There were 50 people aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
