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Contact photographer Claudio Marangon
What: Aegean Airlines Airbus A320-200 en route from Athens to Milan
Where: Milan
When: Nov 10th 2010
Who: 108 passengers, 6 crew
Why: On touchdown in Milan, the plane generated a brake fault message. The return flight was cancelled, and the plane was pulled from service briefly for repairs.
Turkish Airlines flight TK-617 had to return and make an emergency landing in Istanbul, Turkey, on August 23rd.
The Airbus A330-300 plane took off for Casablanca, Morocco, but had to return shortly afterwards due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Pictured: First Nordstar Boeing
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Contact Photographer
What: Nordstar AKA Taimyr Avia Boeing 737-800 en route from Antalya, Turkey to Moscow
Where: Krasnodar
When: Jul 26th 2009
Who: 173 passengers and 9 crew
Why: When the Boeing’s landing gear would not retract, the flight diverted to Krasnodar Russia where it landed safely.
George’s Point of View
This is a huge 747.
With so many older planes stretching their years of service, we’re going to see an increasing number of emergency landings; and we’re going to have an increasing number of incidents attributed to maintenance.
Hawaiian Airlines flight HA-21 made an emergency landing in Seattle, Washington, on July 24th.
The Airbus A330-200 plane took off for Honolulu, Hawaii, but had to return shortly afterwards after the crew reported an issue with windshield heating.
The plane landed uneventfully. No injuries were reported.
Iberia flight IB-3417 had to reject takeoff at Paris Orly Airport, Orly, France, on May 27th.
The Airbus A320-200, en-route to Madrid, Spain, was cleared for takeoff when the crew reported one of the engines not accelerating properly.
The plane returned to the apron.
All people onboard remained unharmed.
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Contact photographer Simone Bovi
What: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 en route from London to Malmo
Where: Malmo
When: Jan 19th 2012
Why: While en route, the flight through through weather and suffered a lightning strike.
The flight made a safe landing in Malmo.
Damage is slight, reportedly to the wing. Consequently, the return flight was cancelled.
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Contact photographer Jeffrey Schäfer
What: Delta Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Paris to Atlanta
Where: Bangor
When: Apr 27th 2010
Who: 235 passengers and 8 crew
Why: While en route, Derek Stansberry of Apollo, Florida passed a note— “Forgive me, I f—ed up, I’m sorry”—to a flight attendant and muttered that he had explosives in his bag and claimed he had a false passport. (There were no explosives and no fake passport.)
Two federal air marshalls isolated Stansberry in the rear of the plane and insulated him with pillows and blankets in case of an explosion.
(As if that would do any good in case of an explosion! I’m sure the action marshals took was the protocol for such things, however, from a layperson’s position I’m wondering what do they think a blanket can do to muffle a bomb exploding in a plane at 20,000 feet? Keep you warm while you explode? It’s like hiding behind a thimble while being run over with a steamroller, isn’t it?)
The flight diverted to Bangor.
Stansberry, who remained in custody after the rest of the passengers flew on to their destination, is an Air Force veteran who had taken a valium and a sleeping pill prior to the flight.
