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Contact photographer Dave Sturges
What: PIA Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A310-300 en route from Islamabad to Manchester
Where: Moscow
When: Dec 20th 2009
Who: 189 passengers and 12 crew
Why: While en route, the crew received a fuel pump warning. The flight diverted to Moscow where the plane landed safely. Passengers were provided an alternative plane.
Pictured: Air Canada Jazz De Havilland Canada DHC-8-300 Dash 8
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Contact photographer Marian Musil
What: Air Canada Jazz de Havilland Dash 8-300 en route from Cranbrook,BC to Vancouver,BC (Canada)
Where: Vancouver
When: Oct 20th 2009
Why: While descending to land, a fire in the cockpit ensued. Although the fire was managed, the outer left windshield shattered. The plane landed safely, without reported injury.
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Contact photographer Andrei Mihaila
What: Wizzair Airbus A320-200 en route from Riga to Eindhoven
Where: Eindhoven Netherlands
When: Mar 16th 2012
Who: 174 aboard
Why: After making a safe landing, while on the runway, smoke was observed trailing from an engine. Emergency services responded to the scene.
It is not known if passengers disembarked on the runway, by mobile stairs or slides or if they were taken to the gate.
THe cause of the smoke was attributed to an oil leak.
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Contact Photographer Daniel Werner
What: American Airlines Boeing 757-200 en route from Miami to Boston
Where: Miami
When: Thurs September 17, 2009
Who: 168 passengers and six crew
Why: After take-off, a bomb threat note was found on board. The plane returned to Miami where it was investigated. No bomb or explosives were found.
George’s Point of View
Ladies and Gentlemen of the aviation world, please consider this and bear with me as I traipse off into the world of conjecture.
It is a mere day after someone left a note in the bathroom of the above-mentioned plane, and already that fact has been picked up by all the news services. An unsigned, unattributed note that could have been written by anyone on board, for all we know on toilet paper written in lipstick, by anyone from someone hoping to miss a dental appointment, to employees wanting the flight cancelled so they could go take their fatigued selves home to bed. And the threat made the news.
Even the whisper of bomb threats make the news.
So when I read now, months after the fact that there was an Air France bomb threat on a completely untraceable and unverifiable phone call on May 27 prior to the Air France flight 447 crash, I hear with very skeptical ears.
If you followed the coverage after the crash, you’ll be aware of how many ears were pinned to the ground, listening for every hint of possible news. The media hounds pretty much sniffed out every findable trace of even faintly related information and posted it repeatedly, echoing across the internet and print media like (if you will pardon the cliché) ripples in a pond. So this leaves me two choices of thought regarding how to consider the tidbit of a so-called Air France bomb threat.
1. It’s not true.
2. It’s true but somehow remained unbroadcast in spite of the ravenous appetite for news coverage of everything Air France/Air France flight 447 related.1 is the end of the line for that thought process.
2…well, we can think about a little. If it is true, where has that little nugget of information been? Why hasn’t a bomb threat listed in an obscure Indian blog in June become big news regarding the Air France crash?THis brings me to two more conclusions:
1. it was true and that fact was suppressed.
2. it is a rumor.1. If it is true and the fact was suppressed, then that’s a very bad thing; the only ones who would suppress such a news item would be someone who would be hurt by Air France’s business being damaged, namely Air France.
If it is a rumor, then why would anyone spread such a rumor? Who would profit from the rumor? I only think of maybe two or three possibilities offhand. Any party fearing to be held responsible for the crash could float just such a rumor. OR any unscrupulous journalist, or media glutton with an appetite for attention of any kind. A paranoiac (or a writer) who sees plots or the possibilities of plots, without regard to reality. Or anyone in a competitive travel industry who might get a couple of extra travelers if a few borderline fliers turned their back on the convenience of air travel.
Now I am not saying any of this is true; I am just saying that I am skeptical about the rumors of a threat to a different flight BEFORE the Air France Flight 447 crash coming out as a new development in news months after the crash.
I’m just saying.
Air Seoul flight RS-101 diverted to Naha in Okinawa, Japan, on September 25th.
The Airbus A321-200 plane heading from Guam to Seoul, South Korea, was diverted after the crew needed to shut down one of the engines.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and four people aboard remained unharmed.
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Contact photographer Paul Markman
What: Thomson Airways Boeing 767-300 en route from Cancun (Mexico) to Bristol,EN (UK),
Where: Bristol
When: Oct 3 2010
Why: On Sept 16, the same plane had had another hard landing causing damage.
On this flight, the plane accelerated for reasons unknown during a hard landing on arrival at Bristol. Unspecified damages occurred, no injuries reported.
Pictured: A Manang Air Mil Mi-8MTV-1
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Contact photographer Michael Fritz
What: Manang Air MI-17 helicopter
Where: Rodikot, Humla district in mid-western Nepal
When: 2009-11-15 11:30 a.m. local time
Who: 6 on board. 1 dies, 5 survivors.
Why: While attempting to land at the helipad while transporting grain and food items from Surkhet to a remote mountain village, the helicopter’s rear rotors hit the mountainside and the pilot lost control of the aircraft.
The death is reported to be a Russian engineer Sergei Kovyazo.
The others aboard—copilot Raju Bhandari, accountant Krishna Amatya, overseer Bishnu Bahadur Chaudhary, local resident Lok Bahadur and a Russian pilot—were via helicopter to a Nepalgunj hospital in Nepalgunj.
