Southwest Airlines flight 3097 had to return and make an emergency landing at Sacramento International Airport, California, on January 9.
The plane took off for John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, but had to return shortly afterwards after it lost power to one of the engines due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. No injuries were reported.
Loganair flight BE-6939 made an emergency landing at Sumburgh Airport in Shetland, Scotland, on March 9th.
The plane was flying from Kirkwall, Scotland, when the first officer became unwell, prompting the crew to declare an emergency.
The plane continued for a safe landing. The first officer was rushed to hospital.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Javier Bravo Muñoz
What: Iberia Airbus A319-100 en route from Madrid to Vienna
Where: Vienna
When: Feb 15th 2012
Why: On approach to Vienna, the plane was struck by lightning.
Pilots landed the plane safely and handed off to maintenance where it will be inspected. Another plane was called in to handle the return flight.
Virgin Atlantic flight VS-106 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland, on July 29th.
The Boeing 787-900 flying from Seattle, Washington, to London, England, had to divert after indications of an engine malfunction.
The plane landed safely.
Everyone aboard remained safe.
According to one report, the piper that crashed on Jan 12 near Paris Texas killed Passengers Michael Dale Bradley, 44, and Michael Endo, 51, and pilot Rob Thompson, 49. After takeoff, the plane lost its rudder and crashed in “foggy and drizzly” conditions between 8:54 and 9:00 a.m., a minute after talking to ATC in Fort Worth.
Witnesses heard the engine backfire several times, and saw black smoke coming from the field where the plane crashed near Glory Texas.
The horizontal stabilizer/rudder separated from the airframe and the report recorded that it was was found “approximately 30 feet behind the main wreckage.”
The report was issued on Jan 22.
On June 18 of 2011, Joe Lindsey was by the Guntersville airport with his family when he saw a plane crash. He drove part of the way to the crash, and rushed through the woods to pull a seven year old boy from the burning wreckage. Lindsey was awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday April 12, with top state officials like Governor Robert Bentley in attendance.
The Medal of Honor is the Alabama Legislature’s highest honor given to law enforcement. Joe Lindsey is with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources—a state game warden—and this is not his first rescue; in 2008, Lindsey rescued a child from a burning van. He does not consider himself a hero, just that he is “a guy who was in the right place at the right time and I had a job to do.”
What: Air France Airbus A319-100 en route from Paris Orly to Toulouse
Where: Toulouse
When: Mar 30th 2009
Who: 115 passengers and 6 crew
Why: In flight, the left engine surged. The crew did not shut it down, but did reduce power; and the plane landed without injury with emergency crews on standby.
