Burbank, twenty minutes from my home!
On Jan 26, 2013, an American Airlines Boeing 738 flight took off from John Wayne Airport en route to Dallas, and suffered a bird strike (or more properly, three of them), and diverted to Los Angeles International Airport where they made a safe landing.
Impact with the birds occurred around 7:30 a.m. (Does that make them early birds?)
They landed safely around 8:00 a.m.
Click if you want to see flight details on Flight Aware
The flight marked the completion of flight tests required for type certification of the 787 Dreamliner with Rolls-Royce engines. The 787 test fleet has flown just over 1,700 flights. The Dreamliner was put through hundreds of stalls to certify it can recover.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Galen Burrows
What: British Airways Boeing 747-400 en route from London to New York
Where: London
When: Oct 2 2010
Who: 296 aboard
Why: The plane took off, spent eleven minutes in the air and returned to make a safe landing in London.
After takeoff, a warning light notified the crew that a door was not firmly closed.
Passengers were rebooked on an alternative flight. The problem in the plane was traced not to an open door but a sequence glitch which occurred when a door handle moved enough to set off an alarm, and was logistically unable to be secured.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Olaf Wagner
What: Germanwings Airbus A319-100 en route from Stuttgart to Heraklion
Where: Stuttgart
When: Jul 25th 2010
Why: After takeoff, the Airbus had a bird strike. The pilots returned to Stuttgart where they made a safe landing. A replacement jet was flown in for passengers. There’s no report of the damage, nor if the incident involved ingestion into the engine, or impact only.
After suffering smoke in the cabin, an Embraer ERJ-145 ExpressJet en route from O’Hare to Ottowa returned to O’Hare.
Pilots made a safe landing at 6:15 pm.
Thirty-eight passengers disembarked safely in Chicago. One was hospitalized at Resurrection Medical Center for breathing problems. The rest of the passengers were provided an alternative flight to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
A small plane crashed into a home near Half Moon Bay Airport in Moss Beach, California, on November 18th.
The single engine Cessna 172 plane, carrying two people, took off from Sacramento and was heading to the Bay Area when it went down.
The passenger was killed in the crash while the pilot sustained serious injuries.
The accident is being investigated.
