American Airlines flight AA-1696 made an emergency landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, on April 13.
The Boeing 737-800 departed LaGuardia Airport at around about 2:15 p.m. but had to divert to JFK shortly afterwards after a bird flew into its left engine. The flight was en-route to Miami, Florida at the time.
The plane landed safely and none of the 152 people aboard was harmed.
The airline arranged an alternate plane for the passengers.
American Airlines flight AA-2098 had to return and make an emergency landing in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 10th.
The Airbus A321-200 plane took off for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, but had to return shortly afterwards due to reports of smoke and haze in the cabin.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
The airline arranged a replacement plane for the passengers.
A medical helicopter crashed near Apache Junction, Arizona, on December 15.
The helicopter, operated by Air Methods, was flying from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport to Globe when it went down.
There were three crew members aboard at the time; two of them were killed. The deceased were identified as the pilot David Schneider, 51, of Gilbert, and flight nurse Chad Frary, 38, of Mesa.
The third crew member, identified as the paramedic Derek Boehm, 38, of Gilbert, was critically injured.
The FAA and the NTSB are investigating.
What: Airbus 320 en route from LAX to Dulles
Where: LAX
When: Friday, May 15, 2009 2:42 p.m.
Why: The plane developed a hydraulic leak and returned to LAX for an emergency landing. No Injuries were reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s decision on the Colgan Air Flight 407 crash is that the pilot responded inappropriately to the stick shaker, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which the airplane did not recover. The stick shaker only comes into play when the plane is already slow enough to stall. The plane fell 800 feet before crashing pointing northeast, away from the airport
The family of Ellyce Kausner has filed a lawsuit against Bombardier. Bombardier is the manufacturer of the plane involved in the crash. The suit charges that Bombardier was “negligent and careless” in the design of the plane by not providing more efficient internal mechanical warning systems.
Kausner was a 24 year old Jacksonville law student traveling to NY to visit family.
At least 19 other families have filed suits.
At the time of the crash, the automated “stick-pusher,” pushes the control column down in order to send the aircraft into a temporary dive so it can regain speed and recover from a stall but Capt. Renslow yanked back on the controls while adding thrust, manually overriding the stick-pusher.
Colgan Air, Clarence Center, NY, Accident Dockets
Time for Bombardier to step up to the plate. Although this has little to do with the pilot, who had flunked numerous flight tests during his career and was never adequately taught how to respond to the emergency that led to the airplane’s fatal descent. Maybe Ellyce would still be here if the warning systems on the Bombardier were simply better.
When the plane slowed down to a dangerous level, it set off the stall-prevention system, and the pilot performed the opposite of the proper procedure. So there were hiring and training issues involved too. And Captain Renslow had about 109 hours of experience, hardly enough to be pilot.
Even if procedures seem counter-intuitive, shouldn’t the pilot be aware of them?
Barring the inefficiency of an ill-prepared pilot, shouldn’t Bombardier have some kind of way to limit ineffective pilot responses?
When the hiring and training fails, and when the pilot fails, shouldn’t there be some kind of fail-safe within the plane? Even a copy of the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Not Crashing your Bombardier for pilots who flunked their last check write 16 months before and who apparently didn’t read the real manual?
A Copa Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica, at around 10 a.m. on November 30.
The pilot declared emergency after a fuel leak alarm went off, indicating fuel leakage from the aircraft’s left wing.
The plane landed uneventfully and none of the 118 people aboard was harmed.
The aircraft was taken for examination.
All Nippon Airways flight NH-456 had to make an emergency landing at runway 23 of Haneda Airport, Japan, on September 3.
The Airbus A320-200, heading towards Tokyo from Saga, Japan, had to be landed in emergency due to an issue with one of its hydraulic systems.
The plane landed uneventfully.
All 90 people aboard remained unhurt.
