What: TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A320-200 en route from Victoria to Sao Paulo Congonhas Where: Campinas When: May 27th 2009 Who: 100 passengers Why: On approach to Congonhas, the plane’s communication with air traffic control was interrupted. Because of the interference, the plane diverted to Campinas where it made a safe landing.
Brazil has a history of problems with reception in areas of the Amazon; but in this case, in Sao Paulo, the radio problems caused several flights to be diverted.
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What: TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A330-200 en route from Miami, FL to Sao Paulo Brazil Where: en route to Sao Paulo When: May 21st 2009 Who: not listed Why: While in flight, the flight crew observed a drop of the outside temperature and recorded seeing St. Elmo’s Fire. They lost the air data reference system. Autopilot and autothrust system disconnected, and fly by wire switched to alternate law (and remained in alternate law for the remainder of the flight.)
Rudder travel limiter was deactived and airspeed and altitude indication was lost.
Standby instrumentation allowed data restoration in under ten minutes.
George’s Point of View
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What: Kingfisher en route from Colombo Where: Chennai When: July 19, 2011 Who: 132 passengers, 6 crew Why: While en route, the plane ran out of gas. The pilot was supposed to circle the airport but that was not possible.
The pilot explained his situation and ATC gave him permission to land although the runway was closed for maintenance work. Mintainers were informed of the landing and cleared the runway.
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What: Delta Airlines/Pinnacle Airlines Canadair CRJ-200 en route from Wilkes-Barre,PA to Detroit,MI Where: Elmira When: Jan 19th 2012 Who: 41 passengers and 3 crew Why: After takeoff, the flight developed hydraulic issues.
Pilots diverted to Elmira. However, the hydraulic problem was exacerbated by a flaps problem, leading to an aborted landing and a fly by.
Pilots made a fast but safe landing.
A replacement jet was provided.
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Capt. Lee Collins of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association said pilots are prepared for emergencies in the air. The pilot of a transatlantic flight died over the Atlantic Ocean, but the jet landed safely.
What: Continental Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Brussels Belgium to Newark, NJ Where: en route When: June 18th 2009 Who: 247 passengers and 3 flight crew Why: Four hours into the flight, while over the Atlantic, the captain died. The two first officers took over and landed the plane safely in Newark.
A doctor on board was called to the cockpit, and the on board defibrillator failed to revive the captain who apparently had died of a heart attack.
George’s Point of View
It’s a small world.
Recently I’d been in a conversation with someone about the Colgan flight.
Remember the Colgan flight? The one that crashed in Buffalo? The wings iced over, the captain was ill-trained, and the co-pilot was too inexperienced and too exhausted to know how to respond to the particular emergency. The combination resulted in disaster for everyone on board.
So, I was in this conversation with someone about the Colgan flight, and the question came up about the value of the co-pilot’s experience. The rate of the co-pilot’s pay was released, ($11.00/hr) and that provoked me to write about co-pilots needing “professional” pay. What would happen, we speculated (in this conversation) if the pilot died? The copilot becomes the de facto pilot.
Then, lo and behold, today a pilot dies of a heart attack. Luckily for Continental and everyone on board, there were two co-pilots on hand, and both of them apparently qualified enough to handle the flight. (Apparently so, since they did manage to finish the flight.)
I just wasn’t expecting that speculative question to manifest itself in a headline today.
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What: Spirit Airlines Airbus A319-100 en route from Cartagena Colombia to Ft. Lauderdale Where: Ft. Lauderdale When: May 30th 2010 Who: 90 passengers and 5 crew Why: On landing, while still on the runway, smoke permeated the cabin, forcing evacuation on to the runway. Three passengers were hospitalized due to injuries during the evacuation.
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VietJet flight VJ-861 made an emergency landing in Taipei, Taiwan, on December 24th.
