American Airlines flight AA-94 had to return and make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, on August 30th.
The Boeing 767-300 plane took off for Madrid, Spain, but had to turn back due to issues with navigation display and a possible fuel leak.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Thomson Airways flight BY-6606 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Manchester, England, on April 15th.
The Boeing 757-200 plane heading from Bristol, England, to Las Palmas, Spain, was diverted due to an issue with the flaps.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
What: Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-800 en route from Atlanta to Oregon
Where: Atlanta International Airport
When: July 22 2010
Who: 160 passengers and 6 crew
Why: On takeoff, the Delta jet blew a tire. The pilots returned to Atlanta and made a safe landing after circling in a holding pattern for an hour to burn off fuel. Passengers disembarked safely and were booked on alternative flights.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Alan Lebeda
What: Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 737-800 en route from Alicante to Stockholm
Where: Alicante
When: Apr 2nd 2010
Who: 106 passengers
Why: After takeoff, passengers smelled smoke, and one of the indicators detected fire in a wheel well. The plane returned to Alicante, and made a safe landing. During emergency evacuation, four passengers were injured. Passengers were provided hotel accommodations and Boeing brought in another plane to transport them.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Mick Bajcar
What: American Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route from New York JFK airport to Switzerland
Where: Halifax Nova Scotia
When: June 9 2009 Tuesday night 8:20 p.m (45 minutes after takeoff)
Who: 206 on board: 194 passengers and 12 crew
Why: After takeoff, smoke was detected in the cabin. The flight requested an emergency landing in Halifax. The cause of the smoke was determined to be an electrical fire in the plane’s bathroom ceiling fan which had caught fire after overheating
A replacement jet was arranged to take the passengers to Zurich.
Pictured: N281FL formerly known as C-GKFH Purolator Courier (Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter) Boeing 727-225(F) in its former life
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Frank Robitaille
What: Gulf & Caribbean Air Boeing 727-200 en route from Memphis,TN to Hamilton, Ontario
Where: Cincinnati
When: Dec 13th 2009
Who: 3 crew members
Why: While en route, engine 3 developed an oil pressure problem, most likely due to a leak. The right engine (3) was shut down and the plane diverted to Cincinnati where it made a safe landing.
After landing, apparently maintenance discovered no oil IN the engine, but quite a lot ON it. Not finding a current photo of this plane in Gulf & Caribbean Air colors, we have delved into history and (if we have made no errors) resurrected a photo of this plane in its former life with the photographer’s permission. If there’s a mistake, it’s ours.
Woodland Hills, CA — (ReleaseWire) — 07/07/2016 –No one is saying that aircraft tracking doesn’t need an overhaul. It does. Examination of plane crash events demands it.
Aviation experts have been asking for pinger battery improvements since a month after the crash of Air France 447 on 1 June 2009, when the pinger battery ran down in July. Air France 447 was not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years after it was lost. Debris from the accident was recovered in the interim, but if the pinger had been louder, or the battery designed to last longer, then there’s a good chance that the plane would have been discovered sooner. One of the outcomes of this terrible event was a determination to design a pinger system with longer lasting batteries. EASA amended requirements for flight recorders and underwater locating devices in its 2013-26 amendment(RMT.0400 & RMT.0401 (OPS.090(A) & OPS.090(B)) — 20.12.2013) but implementing these requirements takes a prohibitively long time.
Aviation experts have been asking for better tracking technology since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, to Beijing Capital International Airport in China. Because this plane departed from its planned route, finding where it came down has been a unique challenge. Inmarsat’s satellite communications network concluded that the flight continued until at least 08:19 and flew south into the southern Indian Ocean. Triangulation of Inmarsat’s satellite communications has been the only credible source searchers depend on to develop the search area.
Aviation experts have been suggesting the blackbox be water-activated (or have water-activated duplicates) with flotation of some kind so the blackbox can be found faster. More recently, aviation experts have wondered about EgyptAir Flight 804 which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May 2016. It was known fairly precisely where it came down, and yet salvage and rescue units were unable to be on the scene in time to help any survivors—if survivors there had been. We will never know because no one was there. And while tracking the location of the blackbox fell within the thirty day battery limit, if the technology had more power, it could have been located sooner. Finding the wreckage sooner means less money spent on the search, and a shorter time for the families agonizing over their losses.
So here is what is new: Inmarsat provides SwiftBroadband service for plane’s inflight Wi-Fi on many aircraft. Immarsat is developing a streaming system described as a “blackbox in the cloud.” This streaming system they are working on will allow crucial data to be streamed off a plane on the occasion of specified trigger events like a course deviation or disappearance from radar.
One only need consider a few factors to realize that a cloud-based system is a crucial development that current technology can easily handle. We need only to look at the cost of the search for a missing plane. According to France and Brazil, those two countries spent more than $40 million over two years to recover the black boxes from Air France Flight 447. Bloomberg reported the recovery cost of Air France 447 was $100 million. According to the South China Post, the cost of the (as yet unfound) MH370 will be as much as ten times more than AF447. Like the expense of MH370’s search, the cost of finding EgyptAir Flight 804 is still ongoing.
Even when Inmarsat’s streaming system will be available, the aviation industry is going to be resistant, mostly because it is going to be costly. Is this a cost that we must afford? I think it is.
Let me know your thoughts on this crucial topic at https://twitter.com/GeorgeHatcher
