United Airlines flight UA-466 encountered turbulence in Denver, Colorado, on December 10th.
The Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Salt Lake City, Utah, was descending toward Denver when it encountered turbulence that injured two crew members.
The plane landed safely.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Tim Perkins
What: Southwest Airlines 737 en route from Nashville to Baltimore
Where: Charleston’s Yeager Airport
When: 6:30 p.m Monday July 13
Who: 126 passengers and five crew
Why: While en route, the cabin depressurized when a hole (metal fatigue?) approximately the size of a football appeared in the fuselage. The plane managed to land safely in Charleston West Virginia. The NTSB is investigating.
(News photos don’t look football sized, but it is sure big enough to see plenty of daylight through.)
George’s Point of View
The 737 is a true workhorse, built to land and takeoff almost without too much delay except to load and unload passengers.
I fly Southwest to Las Vegas all the time. It’s a short hop.
I must admit, that every time I fly in one of these planes I have begun to worry about the age and/or the fatigue of the structure. A trip like one from LA to Vegas, most times, is a beating on the passengers and the plane itself. My guess is that 4 out of 5 of these short trips encounter turbulence, sometimes bad turbulence. This beats up the plane. In this case, the plane being beaten up was manufactured in 1994. That’s a lot of years of turbulence abuse. Metal fatigue in these conditions is not surprising, and neither is it completely unexpected. An inspection on this plane last January revealed eight cracks in the frame that required repairs.
I’m just glad it was a BOEING, and that the pilot remained in control of the aircraft. And of course, it’s a good thing that Southwest is now inspecting all of their planes for fatigue. Last year Southwest was fined $7.5 million for overdue inspections. I hope this is not going to be a repeat of last year. All the timely inspections in the world aren’t going to make this plane any younger. Maybe it’s time to put this particular plane out to pasture.
EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — During approach to Laredo, Texas, yesterday, airplane ZA002 lost primary electrical power as a result of an onboard electrical fire. Backup systems, including the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), functioned as expected and allowed the crew to complete a safe landing. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by Boeing.
The pilots executed a safe landing and at all times had positive control of the airplane and all of the information necessary to perform that safe landing.
Initial inspection appears to indicate that a power control panel in the aft electronics bay will need to be replaced on ZA002. We are inspecting the power panel and surrounding area near that panel to determine if other repairs will be necessary.
We have retrieved flight data from the airplane and are analyzing it in Seattle. This process will take several days. We are committed to finding the cause quickly but will not rush the technical team in its efforts.
The team was conducting monitoring of the Nitrogen Generation System at the time of the incident but there is no reason to suspect that the monitoring or earlier testing of that system had anything to do with the incident.
Consistent with our internal processes, until we better understand the cause of the incident on ZA002, we have decided to postpone flight test activities on other airplanes. Ground test activities will be conducted until flight test resumes.
Likewise, we cannot determine the impact of this event on the overall program schedule until we have worked our way through the data. Teams have been working through the night and will continue to work until analysis is complete and a path forward is determined.
Polar Air Cargo flight PO-243 veered off runway after landing at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Kentucky, on October 20th.
The incident happened when the Boeing 747-400 freighter plane was coming from Anchorage, Alaska.
The plane came to stop on soft ground. Everyone aboard remained uninjured.
FlyDubai flight FZ-343 made a safe emergency landing at Faisalabad International Airport, Faisalabad, Pakistan, on July 1st.
The Boeing 737-800, flying from Dubai, UAE, was on approach to Faisalabad’s runway when a bird impacted its nose.
The plane landed safely.
All people onboard remained unharmed.
What: American Airlines Flight 1586 Boeing 737 en route from Los Angeles to Toronto at 11 a.m.
Where: LAX
When: Tuesday Aug 2 2008-12:51 p.m
Who: 130 passengers and five crew
Why: On takeoff, the pilot noticed a a blown tire and immediately requested to return. To burn off fuel, he had to circle the airport until his (safe) 12: 51 landing on the shredded tire.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Frank Robitaille
What: Continental Express/Expressjet Embraer ERJ-145 en route from Indianapolis to Newark
Where: Indianapolis
When: June 1, 2011
Who: 51
Why: While en route, the flight developed an oil pressure problem. At 10,000 feet, the pilot requested a return to the airport due to the engine issue. He shut down the left engine and returned to Indianapolis to make a safe landing.
Passengers were rerouted to alternative flights.
