| | |

JAL Turbulence over the Atlantic


Japan Airlines – JAL Boeing 777-346/ER
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Robert Noel

What: Japan Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Okinawa to Osaka Itami
Where: Wakayama Prefecture
When: Thursday November 19
Who: 344 passengers and 12 crewmembers; 4 injuries
Why: While en route, the plane encountered air turbulence over the Pacific Ocean. At the time of the turbulence, onboard seatbelt signs were off. Four on board sustained injuries (three students and one teacher returning from a school trip to Okinawa) and were taken to a hospital in Osaka.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • | | | | | | | |

    Compensation after Fifteen Years

    I know I’ve said before how cases take a long time. Sometimes they drag on in unexpected ways. Take for example the LAPA case. On August 31 1999 Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas scheduled Flight 3142 (LV-WRZ) to fly Buenos Aires–Córdoba with a hundred and one persons aboard. The twenty-nine year old Boeing 737-204C failed to get in the air because the flight crew forgot to put the flaps in the appropriate position for flight. Instead of shooting into the air, the plane sped through the perimeter fence, across a street, struck a car and collided with a median and machinery on the road.

    The accident took sixty-five lives, two of them not even on the plane. Forty aboard were injured, seventeen of them seriously. NTSB records say there were 80 fatalities and 21 minor injuries.

    That’s what is widely known. What many do not know is that after the accident, nine families were given the wrong bodies. Those bodies were exhumed, checked, delivered to the correct families, and reburied at the cost of Argentina’s First Chamber of the House. The financial cost associated with all of this was covered. Not the emotional cost.

    Three of those families affected will be compensated 100 thousand dollars plus interest.

    In my heart of hearts, I do believe no amount of money can ever compensate for the wear and tear on the families due to the mix-up, even if at the time, the hasty mistake was well-meaning (or expedited due to politics.) Can you imagine what the families went through, seeing the resting places disturbed, then having to endure new funerals? It must have been like losing them more than once—refreshing the whole misery of loss a multiple of times. I cannot help but wonder about the families who were not compensated. I wonder if it has been so long that there is no one left to pay.

    This can be of no assurance to the families of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. It is further proof that aviation crash cases do take a long time. Tragedy is tragedy. There is no best case scenario in a tragedy.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Co-Pilots to the Rescue

    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.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | |

    Russian Crash kills 88

    NTSB Factual

    DCA08RA097
    On September 14, 2008, at 0510 local time, Aeroflot-Nord flight 821, a Boeing 737-500, Bermuda registered (VP-BKO) and Russian operated, equipped with CFM56 engines, crashed on approach to Perm airport in Perm, Russia. All on board, including 6 crew and 82 passengers, suffered fatal injuries. The initial notification from the Russian government reports that 17 of the 82 passengers were of non-Russian nationality, some of which included U.S. citizens. The flight originated from Moskva- Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO) in Moscow, Russia with an intended destination of Perm Airport (PEE) in Perm, Russia and was conducted as a scheduled passenger flight.

    The accident flight was reportedly lost from radar as it was executing a missed approach, for unknown reasons, at the destination airport. The aircraft collided with the ground in the city and was completely destroyed by impact forces and fire.

    The investigation is being conducted by the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK). The NTSB has launched a team of investigators and will be assisted by Technical Advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing Aircraft. According to the MAK, the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) of France, representing the state of manufacture for the aircraft engines, and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the United Kingdom, representing Bermuda as the state of Registry, will also participate in the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.

    For more information on the accident investigation, contact MAK at mak@mak.ru.

    Update
    Monday Russian forensic scientists began using DNA testing to identify bodies and relatives visited the site; some were taken to the hospital in shock.

    What: Aeroflot Nord Boeing 737-500 Flight 821, en route from Moscow to Perm. The 737 had been leased by Aeroflot from Dublin-based Pinewatch Limited from late July until March 2013.
    Where: Crashed just outside the airport but inside the Perm, Siberia city limits. (conflicting reports say the plane landed in either a swamp or a ravine.) It missed an apartment block.
    When: 3:40 a.m. Sunday
    Who: Eighty-two passengers — including seven children and six crew members. Multiple nationalities were on the flight, including nine from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine, and one each from France, Switzerland, Latvia, the United States, Germany, Turkey, and Italy,
    Why: Bolshoye Savino Airport air traffic control lost communication with pilots at at about 3,600 feet just before landing about 3:10 a.m The crash also disabled a section of Trans-Siberian railway. The weather was described as “mediocre.”

    • Crises centers for relatives were set up in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo-1 airport and in Perm.
    • The airline pledged to pay “compensation on obligatory accident insurance in full, which would make up to two million rubles (some 80,000 dollars) per victim.”
    • In 2007, 33 Russian aviation accidents that left 318 dead, raising concern over Russia’s civil aviation. Experts blame faults in the training of and aging fleets.
    • Transport Minister Igor Levitin will be leading the investigation.
    • A witness said “It was burning while still in the sky and it looked like a falling comet.” The plane hit the ground sharply — at a 30 or 40 degree angle.


    View Larger Map

    Flight record of the downed plane:
    (Detailed records from http://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-b737-25792.htm)
    Boeing 737 – MSN 25792
    Airline Aeroflot-Nord
    Status : Active
    Registration : VP-BKO
    Airline Aeroflot-Nord
    Country : Russia
    Date : 2004 – Codes 5N AUL Callsign : dvina
    Web site : http://www.aeroflot-nord.ru
    General information & flightlog

    Serial number 25792 LN:2353
    Type 737-505
    First flight date 20/08/1992
    Test registration
    Flights recorded

    Operators of the aircraft
    Delivery date | Airline | Registration | Remark
    08/09/1992 Braathens LN-BRW
    24/09/1992 Xiamen Airlines B-2591
    12/03/1993 China Southwest Airlines B-2591
    01/03/2003 Air China B-2591 Stored 03/2008
    29/05/2008 Aeroflot-Nord VP-BKO

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | | |

    Sao Paulo: Swiss International Airlines Airbus Cracks Windshield


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Stefan Sonnenberg

    What: Swiss International Airlines Airbus A340-300 en route from Sao Paulo Brazil to Zurich Switzerland
    Where: Sao Paulo
    When: Jan 17th 2010
    Who: not available
    Why: On takeoff, the flight crew reported they had a cracked windshield. They entered a holding pattern, dumped fuel and landed safely under emergency overweight conditions.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Turbulence crashes Beech in Duval County; 4 fatalities


    Pictured: A Beech B100 King Air
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Andrew Compolo

    What: Mazak Properties twin-turboprop Beech B100 King Air en route from Uvalde to Leesburg, Florida
    Where: on a ranch in Duval County
    When: October 26, 2009 11:42 a.m. Monday
    Who: 4 on board
    Why: The pilot had reported serious turbulence to ATC, and complained of being unable to maintain 25,000 feet. ATC saw the plane was losing altitude.

    A Dept. of Public Safety helicopter sighted the wreckage.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Ryanair Passenger Falls

    What: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 en route from Seville to Barcelona
    Where: Seville
    When: Oct 27th 2010
    Who: 1 passenger
    Why: A boarding passenger fell and fractured his arm. The fall was allegedly caused by the force from another engine’s exhaust.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.