American Airlines flight AA-383 had to reject take off from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, on October 28th.
The Boeing 767-300 plane was accelerating to take off for Miami, Florida, when it caught fire, prompting the crew to reject take off.
The passengers were evacuated through slides. Eight people, including 7 passengers and 1 crew member, were injured and were taken to hospitals.
It is believed that the fire sparked after failure of right hand engine.
A small plane made an emergency landing at Highway 63 in Jackson County, Mississippi, on November 8.
The single-engine plane was en-route from St. Elmo, Mobile County, when it lost power, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The plane landed safely. The pilot, who was the only one aboard, remained unhurt.
The FAA is investigating.
Mechanical defects that prevented the automatic deployment of speedbrakes, which assist in slowing the plane after landing, and the captain’s failure to monitor and manually deploy them led to an overrun of a passenger jetliner off of a snowy runway in Wyoming. The incident was compounded by an anomaly with the thrust reversers.
On December 29, 2010, at about 11:38 a.m. MST, American Airlines flight 2253, a Boeing 757-200, ran off the departure end of runway 19 during light snow after landing at Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Airport (JAC). The airplane came to rest about 730 feet past the departure end of the runway in deep snow. None of the 179 passengers and six crewmembers were injured; the airplane sustained minor damage. The flight originated from Chicago O’Hare Airport.
“Through this investigation, all of us — the investigator, manufacturer, operator, and pilots, alike — all learned important safety lessons,” Hersman said. “The recommendations we issue today will make valuable contributions to improving aviation safety.”
The investigation found that the pilots, both of whom had flown into JAC on numerous occasions, were familiar with the challenging wintertime landing conditions there and had made thorough preparations for the approach and landing during what they described as an otherwise uneventful flight from Chicago.
The approach to the runway was normal and the airplane touched down about 600 feet beyond the approach threshold. The speedbrakes, which disrupt the airflow over the wings and greatly increase the wheel braking effectiveness, did not automatically deploy as designed. The CVR transcript showed that the captain, acting as the monitoring pilot, failed to identify the non-deployment and erroneously stated “deployed” shortly after touchdown. Immediately after this, the first officer, who was the pilot flying, tried to deploy the thrust reversers; when they did not initially deploy, the captain took over the thrust reverser controls and they deployed about 18 seconds after touchdown. Subsequently, the airplane continued off the departure end of the runway, coming to a stop in deep snow off the end of the paved surface.
American Airlines training and procedures require the pilot monitoring (in this case, the captain) to observe and call out the position of the speedbrake lever after landing; if the speedbrakes do not deploy automatically, the captain is to manually deploy them. Although the pilots could have manually deployed the speedbrakes at any time during the landing roll, neither pilot recognized that the speedbrakes had not automatically deployed because they were both trying to resolve the thrust reverser issue.
The landing performance analysis showed that under similar runway conditions, even without thrust reverser deployment, the airplane would have stopped about 4500 feet down the 6300-foot runway had the speedbrakes been promptly deployed.
The investigation revealed that the speedbrakes did not automatically deploy because of a latent assembly defect in one of the speedbrakes mechanisms. In addition, the NTSB determined that the thrust reversers did not initially deploy because of a rare mechanical/hydraulic interaction that occurred in the thrust reverser system as a result of an unloading event at the precise instant that the first officer commanded their deployment immediately after touchdown.
As a result of the investigation, the NTSB made the following new safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): require that all transport category air carriers develop and incorporate training to address recognition of a situation in which the speedbrakes do not deploy as expected after landing; require all newly type-certificated air transport category airplanes to have an aural, or otherwise unique, alert that warns pilots that the speedbrakes have not deployed during the landing roll; and require Boeing to establish guidance for pilots of all relevant airplanes to follow when an unintended thrust reverser lockout occurs and to provide that guidance to all operators of those airplanes.
Austrian Airlines flight OS-121 had to return and make an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria, on November 11th.
The Airbus A321-100 plane took off for Frankfurt, Germany, but had to return shortly afterwards after the crew failed to retract the landing gear.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Alevik
What: Cargolux Boeing 747-400 freighter en route from Barcelona, to Luxembourg
Where: Luxembourg
When: Jan 21st 2010
Why: While landing in low visibility due to foggy conditions, the Cargolux 747’s tires went through the roof of a maintenance truck whose crew was working on the runway ground lighting. The van’s driver was not hurt; the van was damaged by being landed on by the 747 (no doubt!), and the Boeing’s tires were damaged after going through the van’s roof. No one, however, was hurt, although the maintenance person was hospitalized for shock.
I would be shocked too, if a Boeing landed on my roof while I was working. If it were I who’d been landed on, I’d have to change my name to Chicken Little, because I’d never again trust that the sky wasn’t falling. (I hope this guy is well insured, because even if he’s physically ok, he’s going to need therapy.)
On the other hand, that is why I don’t work on a runway. (And if I did, it would be in Thousand Oaks, California, not Luxembourg.)
One does wonder if the maintenance vehicle was cleared, or precisely who was supposed to be where at that exact moment. Perhaps the maintenance was going on specifically because of the foggy conditions. It does sound like someone was not exactly in the right place at the right time. Or perhaps, someone in HR did not like the maintenance guy very much, and their brother-in-law was in line for that position if it opens up.
Luxembourg is investigating to see what what wrong, and how and why. (Luxembourg is 998.6 sq mi in area. Rhode Island is 1,545 square miles. I know size doesn’t matter, but Luxembourg is still smaller than our smallest state. Bigger than DC though.)
The Administration of Technical Investigations is determining the cause of the accident in order to recommendation measures to avoid a reoccurrence. (See 4 rules below.)
The Directorate of Civil Aviation will conduct an investigation regarding compliance with established procedure. (If the procedure is not to stay out of the path of incoming planes, I recommend changing established procedure.)
The Administration of Air Navigation is doing an internal administrative investigation. I.E. Where will the hammer fall.
Hello. To avoid a plane landing on somebody, follow these simple rules:
Not that aviation is actually that simplistic. It will be months before a legitimate opinion clears the committees. And of course, it is a good day when everyone gets out alive.
Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. It is still headquartered in Chicago and California
Pictured: A Tokyo-bound American AirlinesBoeing 777-223/ER
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Ben Wang
What: American Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Dallas to Tokyo
Where: 43 miles southeast of Narita over the Pacific
When: Monday Oct 26 3:40 p.m.
Who: 228 people aboard
Why: As heavy weather ( Typhoon Lupit’s rain and strong winds) approach Japan’s east coast, the Japanese weather service announced a weather warning.
Several (5 passengers) aboard the Tokyo jet were injured by turbulence. After landing, all 5 were taken to a Tokyo area hospital.
American Airlines flight AA-2270 returned to Tampa, Florida, on January 21st.
The Airbus A321-200 plane took off for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, but had to turn back due to a bird strike.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
