American Eagle flight 3382 made an emergency landing at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 25th.
The plane took off for Dallas, Texas, but had to turn back due to indication of a possible mechanical issue.
The plane landed safely. All seventy passengers and four crew members remained unharmed.
American Airlines flight AA-730 had to return and make an emergency landing in Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 1st.
The Airbus A330-300 plane took off for Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom, but had to return shortly afterwards due to engine vibrations.
The plane landed back uneventfully. All 229 people aboard remained safe.
Azul Brazilian Airlines flight AD-9277 made an emergency landing in Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil, on January 15th.
The plane flying from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was descending toward Vitoria da Conquista when the crew declared an emergency due to smoke on-board.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All sixty-nine passengers and five crew members remained unharmed.
Air Baltic flight BT-619 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 13th.
The Boeing 737-300 plane heading from Riga, Latvia, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, was diverted after the crew discovered fire on board.
Swedish armed forces dispatched a fighter jet to inspect the plane from the outside. It did not find any traces of fire or smoke.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
United Airlines flight UA-870 had to return and make an emergency landing in Sydney, Australia, on April 17th.
The Boeing 787-900 plane took off for San Francisco, California, but had to return shortly afterwards due to an unusual odor in the cabin.
The plane landed safely. There were 238 passengers aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
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.
A Hawker Beechcraft BE35 plane crashed onto Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tracks at the crossing between Hicksville and Bethpage stations on Long Island, New York, on August 16.
The plane was heading from Francis S. Gabreski Ariport, Westhampton Beach to Morristown when the pilot reported difficulty in maintaining altitude. Authorities said he was attempting to make an emergency landing at Republic Airport, Farmingdale but could not make it to there.
The pilot was killed in the crash while his only passenger, identified as Carl Giordano, 55, of New Vernon, New Jersey, sustained injuries. He was taken to Nassau County University Medical Center.
The FAA and the NTSB are investigating.
