Airblue Airbus A321-200 narrowly escaped accident when one of its tires burst upon landing at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 4th.
The aircraft was coming from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when one of the tires burst during landing. The plane tilted toward its side and the right hand engine touched the ground.
There were 230 passengers aboard the flight PA-271 at the time; all of them remained safe.
Pictured-A TAM Airbus A320-232 over Sao Paulo
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Bruno Pereira
What: Tam Linhas Aereas Airbus A320-200 en route from Rio de Janeiro Salvador Brazil
Where: Rio de Janeiro
When: Nov 30th 2009
Who: not available
Why: On takeoff, the plane struck a bird, evidenced by a “bang” emitting from an engine, which followed by engine issues. The plane landed safely and passengers were rerouted.
Danish Air Transport flight DX-349 made an emergency landing in Bratislava, Slovakia, on May 21st.
The Airbus A320-200 plane heading from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to Billund, Denmark, was diverted due to a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and fifty-two passengers and six crew members remained safe.
Southwest Airlines flight 484 made an emergency landing at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Maryland, on February 22nd.
The plane, en-route to T.F. Green Airport, Rhode Island, had to turn back due to a possible bird strike.
The plane landed uneventfully. All 135 passengers and 5 crew members remained safe.
The airline arranged a replacement plane for the passengers.
Nepal Airlines flight RA-409 had to return and make a precautionary landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal, on July 7th.
The Airbus A320-200 was en-route to Hong Kong, China, when one of its engines ingested a bird, prompting the plane to return.
The plane landed safely. All 59 people onboard remained unharmed.
The passengers were accommodated in a replacement plane.
George’s Point of View
As opposed to Boeing, where the pilot always has the upper hand over the machine, the basic tenet of Airbus philosophy is machine knows best. That must be the case, because when all else fails, here comes the Airbus autopilot and the pilot can’t do anything. We’ve seen this bite pilots in the *** in a number of circumstances, but the first one that comes to mind, for me, is the big TAM crash in Sao Paulo. Not being a pilot, I’ve had to ask airbus pilots about this, and believe me, I’ve heard some horror stories that would curl your hair. Maybe that’s what is at the root of my negativity toward the Airbus. The other would be their tendency to crash and kill a lot of people at one time.
Anyway, Airbus recently started production of the A320 series in China. They just did a maiden flight on the first plane. I like China very much but I don’t know about getting on China-made planes. It is bad enough that they are Airbus.
Condor flight DE-2314 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Chania International Airport, Greece, on July 3rd.
The Boeing 767-300, flying from Germany, to Mauritius, had to divert after the crew reported a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
