An Ethiopian Airlines flight had to divert and make an emergency landing at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, Pakistan, on March 18th.
The plane heading from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Beijing, China, was diverted after a mentally disabled patient attacked and injured his medical attendant.
The authorities said both passengers involved in the fight were Chinese nationals.
The plane landed safely.
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Contact photographer
What: American Airlines Boeing 757-200 from Miami,FL to Boston,MA
Where: Miami
When: Oct 26th 2010
Who: 154 passengers and 6 crew
Why: A half hour after takeoff, the plane developed rapid decompression at 31,000 feet requiring oxygen masks, an emergency descent and a return to Miami.
Maintenance found a one by two foot hole in the hull.
Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance!
Even with AD Directives issued, this was still missed. Was there telltale evidence prior to this event that could have prevented endangering 154 passengers and six crew?
The hole in the hull is not unprecedented. Sixteen months prior to flight AA-1640, Southwest Airlines (SWA) flight 2294, (another Boeing suffering a hole in the hull in July 13, 2009), the FAA has already issued Airworthiness Directive 2010-01-09 mandating inspection requirements. At that time, they ascribed the hull failure to a design fault: Fuselage skin failure due to preexisting fatigue at a chemically milled step.
It’s an easy enough thing to visualize-picture slightly squeezing an empty cola can, then blowing into it; and repeating the process, over and over. In a soda can, it would not take the 20 years this plane has been flying for the stressed areas to develop a crease, and eventually crack.
Not that a soda can is expected to sustain the significant pressures at 10,000+ feet, nor does it have the design flaw of chemical milling, nor is its skin made of single and double bonded layers. If it were, one could theoretically presume and anticipate metal fatigue to occur at the weakest location–the edges of where the metal is double-bonded.
In the Southwest Airlines event, it was observed that the progression of metal fatigue tends to be higher at the borders between chemically milled and non-chemically milled bays.
The inspection requirements in SB 737-53A1301 require inspections to detect cracks in the vulnerable areas (the chem-mill step) to avoid sudden fracture and failure of the fuselage skin panels.
Did this plane undergo “repetitive external non-destructive inspections to detect cracks in the fuselage skin“?
Carriers out there, when there are directives which indicate potential problems, pay attention!
If not for the stellar performance of this flight crew, this plane would have been a statistic.
Thank you, John D King for sending the links.
Rusline flight 7R-424 had to return and make an emergency landing at Lipetsk Airport, Russia, on July 28th.
The Canadair CRJ-200 en-route to Sochi, Russia, had to return due to engine failure. The crew had to shut its engine down mid-air.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
What: United Airways ATR en route from Dhaka to Chittagong
Where: Hazrat Shah Amanat International Airport
When: Feb 20, 2012 8:20pm
Who: 50 aboard
Why: The pilot was en route to Chittagong when the plane developed a problem with one of the engines. On advice from ATC, the pilot was able to land safely ten minutes early.
Examination has not uncovered the engine problem.
A replacement jet has been provided for the return flight.
ATC adviced
Pictured: An Airtran Airways Boeing in Flight
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Jaysen F. Snow
What: AirTran Airways Boeing 717-200 en route from Orlando to Akron
Where: Orlando
When: Oct 4th 2009
Who: 122 on board (117 passengers and 5 crew)
Why: The flight experienced engine problems–fire in the left engine– and made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.
Ground personnel witnessed sparks from the left engine. When passengers debarked by emergency chute, one was injured. Passengers were bussed off the tarmac where they were eventually transferred to a replacement Boeing.
George’s Point of View
Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance!
IndiGo flight 6E 822 made an emergency landing in Bhubaneswar, India, on December 22nd.
The plane heading from Kolkata to Bengaluru, India, was diverted after a 32-year-old male passenger suffered a medical emergency.
The plane landed safely. The patient was rushed to the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar where the doctors later declared him dead.
Twenty-Eight passengers were injured after a landing gear problem in IndiGo flight 6E-176 from Mumbai caused thick smoke emission on landing in New Delhi, India, and prompted an emergency evacuation on August 20.
Air Traffic Control (ATC) observed “dense smoke” coming out of the left-side lower portion of the Airbus A-320 after it landed at IGI Airport at about 3:30 p.m.then alerted the pilots and emergency services at the airport. All 154 people aboard the plane were evacuated using emergency slide-chutes.
Twenty-eight of 148 passengers suffered minor injuries during the slide evacuation, while the 6 crew members escaped unhurt.
Aviation regulator DGCA and the airline have initiated investigations. Preliminary investigations revealed that a heavy friction on the left brake assembly of the landing gear caused the smoke.
