American Airlines flight AA-749 suffered a bird strike near Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 16th.
The incident happened when the Airbus A330-200 plane flying from Madrid, Spain, was on final approach to Charlotte.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Aurigny flight GR-627 had to return and make an emergency landing at London Stansted Airport, England, on March 27th.
The plane took off for Guernsey, Channel Islands, but had to turn back due to a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed
Air Berlin flight AB-7391 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Cologne Bonn Airport, Germany, on May 10th.
The Airbus A330-200 flying from Dusseldorf, Germany, to San Francisco, California, diverted due to an unusual odor on board.
The plane landed safely.
All 184 people aboard remained unhurt.
What: Egyptair Airbus A320-200 en route from Cairo to Kuwait
Where: Egypt
When: Dec 3, 2012
Who: 90 aboard
Why: We have avoided this report for as long as possible, but finally decided to get it out of the way, since our mailboxes and emails are FULL of reports of:
“Snake on a plane forces emergency landing”
“Cobra Forces EgyptAir Flight to Make Emergency Landing”
“Flight Crew Finds reptile”
“Real Life Snake on a plane”
“Egyptian Cobra Bites Akram Abdul Latfi, Egypt Air Passenger”
“Cobra upgraded to First Class on Flight**”
Here’s the story: Akram Abdul Latif who was aboard this Egyptair flight was bitten by a snake. Actual snake on a plane, not the terrible movie. The Jordan Times says the snake was a cobra and that Latif owns a reptile shop where he was taking it. The snake had gotten out and the pet shop owner was bitten in the hand while trying to return the snake to the carry-on (as so many are theoretically and realistically bitten while trying to get anything back in the bag.)
The flight was diverted to Al Bahr Al Ahmar where first aid was administered to the man, and apparently none to the snake, who died. Actually, the snake did not die; it apparently was with Latif when he was refusing medical treatment. Some of the reports infer Latif was allowed to bring the snake to his shop in Kuwait. Without a crystal ball, I can’t say whether or not reports will be full of “Kuwait Reptile Store Owner Jailed for Smuggling” but according to “Newsfix” the cobra was corralled and confiscated by the cops. No one indicates if the snake was returned to Latif, or if a snake license, fine or a “snake coralling fee” was levied.
One can not help but picture the plane landing, a bouncer tossing Latif, his bag and beast out on their respective keisters*, the plane closing up and zipping down the runway before Latif can get back on.
* For the sake of the paragraph, we are endowing both the snake and the bag with honorary keisters, as they are not provided their own by nature.
** Honors for the best title of an article about the snake on a plane
*** The snake photo is clipped from the youtube video
**** No snakes were harmed in the writing of this article
*****[insert your own] Etc.
A US Airways Express jet made an emergency landing at Dayton International Airport in Ohio, on April 13.
The plane was en-route from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Milwaukee when the pilot requested an emergency landing due to a maintenance light indicator.
The plane landed uneventfully. There were 74 passengers and 4 crew members aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
The flight was operated by a U.S. Airways subsidiary PSA Airlines.
Jin Air flight LJ-211 made an emergency landing in Osaka, Japan, on June 13th.
The plane, flying from Seoul, South Korea, declared emergency due to a hydraulic failure that affected normal gear extension.
The plane landed safely. There were 165 passengers and 6 crew members aboard at the time; all of them remained unhurt.
Icelandair flight FI-554 made an emergency landing in Brussels. Belgium, on March 10th.
The pilot of Boeing 757-200 plane, flying from Keflavik, Iceland, declared emergency due to a problem with the flaps.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unhurt.
