Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Andres Dallimonti
What: Avianca Fokker 100 en route from Cucuta to Bogota Colombia
Where: Bucaramanga
When: Dec 14th
Who: 70 passengers
Why: While en route, the interior of the plane began to smell of a strange chemical odor. The flight diverted to Bucaramanga, where a couple of gallons of a chemical brought by a passenger was discovered. The chemical was removed. No one was injured.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Fabian Gysel
What: Swiss Airlines Airbus A340-300 en route from Zurich Switzerland to Tokyo
Where: Tokyo
When: Jan 7th 2009
Who: 227 passengers
Why: On landing at Narita, the plane’s left gear began smoking, which engaged emergency services. Hydraulics were leaking from the top of the gear strut. Timely repairs were made so that the plane was able to make its return flight.
A Jetstream 32 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Bonaventure Airport, Quebec, Canada, on March 30th.
The aircraft was carrying the late Canadian Parliament member Jean Lapierre’s brother-in-law from Montreal and was on its way to Magdalen Islands, when the crew encountered some problem with the engine, prompting the plane to divert.
The plane landed successfully.
All people onboard remained unhurt.
A Middle East Airlines flight had to divert and make an emergency landing in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 11th.
The plane heading from Beirut, Lebanon, to London, United Kingdom, was diverted after a violent fight broke out between two passengers.
The crew were able to separate the two passengers before the plane landed safely.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Alastair T. Gardiner
What: Flybe de Havilland Dash 8-400 from Birmingham to Aberdeen
Where: Manchester
When: Jan 26th 2010
Who: 30 passengers
Why: While en route, a burning smell was detected. The flight diverted to Manchester where it made a safe landing. Passengers debarked on the runway via stairs.
The burning smell originated in the galley.
A replacement jet was provided.
Qatar Airways flight QR-778 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 19th.
The Boeing 777-300 plane heading from Miami, Florida, to Doha, Qatar, was diverted after the crew noticed smoke on the flight deck.
The plane landed uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained safe.
The Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Singapore Dhaka with 105 passengers and 12 crew aboard diverted to Bangkok when they got an internal flight warning. There were no injuries.
In spite of the cargo fire suppression system, there was a burning smell and a fire.
The plane made a safe landing in Bangkok. The plane taxied to the gate, and passengers disembarked and were provided hotel accommodations, meals and transferred to another airline.
An investigation is underway.
Singapore Airlines’ spokesman, Nicholas Ionides said that “Flight SQ446 operating between Singapore and Dhaka diverted to Bangkok as a result of indications of smoke from the aircraft’s rear cargo hold.”
When Thai authorities clear the Airbus, it will be flown back to Singapore.
But still, it is one of my least favorite things to read (especially while I’m halfway to Singapore) that there has been yet another cargo fire at all, regardless of what kind of plane it is on.
At least I had time to jot down some thoughts.
I hope that the media shines as bright a light on this airbus cargo fire as it has recently on the Dreamliner battery situation. Sure, the Dreamliner is developing new technology and Boeing is responsible for going the distance to keep new developments safe. The Dreamliner battery issue is new. But the fact that Boeing is developing new technologies and new solutions does not provide Airbus and an established plane like a A330-300 a free ticket when it comes to combustion.
Hopefully Airbus is paying attention to all problems and not getting too cocky. It should remember and respect that a plane is still an air-filled bubble hundreds of feet in the air. Until people develop their own wings, random combustion situations like cargo fires on an Airbus A330 are just as potentially hazardous situation–if not more so–than any battery incident that actually occurred on the ground.
Let us please see a fix for this problem.
