Air France flight AF-32 made an emergency landing at Paris Orly Airport, France, on February 9th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane took off for John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, but had to turn back after the ground crew noticed pieces of carbon on the departure runway.
The plane landed back safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
A Lufthansa jet had to divert and make an emergency landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, on January 25.
The Airbus A380, flying from Houston, Texas, to Frankfurt, Germany, was diverted after a passenger fell sick on-board.
The plane landed uneventfully.
The passenger was rushed to the hospital while the plane resumed its journey.
Three flights made emergency landings at LaGuardia Airport, New York, after they were separately hit by birds within a period of 4 hours on September 3.
ExpressJet Flight 5400 reported bird strike shortly after 7 a.m., while it was turning to land on Runway 31. In the second incident, ExpressJet Flight 5432 was hit by the birds at about 8:53 a.m. while taxiing to the ramp and after less than 3 hours, the Air Canada 706 reported bird strike at about 11:15 a.m. while it was some 12 miles northeast of the airport.
All three planes made safe emergency landings and no injuries to personnel or damage to property was reported.
The FAA is investigating the incidents.
Ural Airlines flight U6-365 had to return and make an emergency landing in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on December 7th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Yekaterinburg, Russia, but had to turn back after the crew noticed disagreeing airspeeds.
The plane landed back safely. All one hundred and twenty-three passengers and six crew members remained unharmed.
Spirit Airlines flight NK-521 made an emergency landing in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 22nd.
The Airbus A321-200 plane heading from Newark, New Jersey, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was diverted due to a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely. All two hundred and twenty-five people aboard remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Dimitri Steendijk
What: Easyjet Boeing 737-700 en route from Luton England to Budapest
Where: Luton
When: Dec 30th 2009
Who: not available
Why: While en route, the crew reported cockpit smoke. They returned to the airport and made a safe landing. A replacement flight was provided for the passengers within 4 hours.
On August 12, an easyJet Airbus A320-214 en route from Milan-Malpensa Airport to Lisbon took off okay, but pieces of the plane were falling.
The control tower spotted the debris on the runway.
After losing parts of the engine cowling, pilots made a safe, if dramatic landing back at the Milan-Malpensa. None of the 174 passengers and crew sustained injury, though most of them went through an emotional roller coaster, especially when a passenger screamed out that “A piece of the wing has gone flying.”
Pilots circled for twenty minutes before landing; then after landing safely, when pilots put engines into reverse, more stuff fell off the engine. Although fire engines were on standby, standby is all they had to do. Passengers and crew exited via the staircase.
In a genius of understatement, Easyjet confirmed “flight EZY2715 from Milan Malpensa Airport to Lisbon on 12 August returned from airborne shortly after take off due to a technical issue with one of the engines.”
Passengers were provided an alternative flight.
I don’t make a lot of comments, due to my copious free time, but I can’t resist. In the meantime while waiting for the updates, we are considering shipping easyJet some Superglue, or maybe a certified mechanic or two. In the words of mechanics everywhere, lefty loosie, righty tighty. I am no mechanic, but this smells to me like…dare I say it…
Maintenance! Maintenance! Maintenance!
Not to make light of the situation though–airline safety is no joke. We expect there will be public updates about the investigation into this incident.
