A UPS Airlines Airbus 300, heading from Portland to Spokane, made an emergency landing at the Spokane Airport in Washington on the morning of July 30.
According to Todd Woodard with Spokane International, the pilots thought some tires of the plane had blown during takeoff. They declared an in-flight emergency as a precautionary step.
The plane landed safely and it was discovered that no tires were actually blown.
Contact photographer Allen Zhao
On Jan 25, 2013, a Federal Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F en route from Memphis to Denver landed in Denver and suffered a tail strike.
There were no reported injuries but the hard landing left debris on the runway.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Tim Perkins
What: Southwest Airlines 737 en route from Nashville to Baltimore
Where: Charleston’s Yeager Airport
When: 6:30 p.m Monday July 13
Who: 126 passengers and five crew
Why: While en route, the cabin depressurized when a hole (metal fatigue?) approximately the size of a football appeared in the fuselage. The plane managed to land safely in Charleston West Virginia. The NTSB is investigating.
(News photos don’t look football sized, but it is sure big enough to see plenty of daylight through.)
George’s Point of View
The 737 is a true workhorse, built to land and takeoff almost without too much delay except to load and unload passengers.
I fly Southwest to Las Vegas all the time. It’s a short hop.
I must admit, that every time I fly in one of these planes I have begun to worry about the age and/or the fatigue of the structure. A trip like one from LA to Vegas, most times, is a beating on the passengers and the plane itself. My guess is that 4 out of 5 of these short trips encounter turbulence, sometimes bad turbulence. This beats up the plane. In this case, the plane being beaten up was manufactured in 1994. That’s a lot of years of turbulence abuse. Metal fatigue in these conditions is not surprising, and neither is it completely unexpected. An inspection on this plane last January revealed eight cracks in the frame that required repairs.
I’m just glad it was a BOEING, and that the pilot remained in control of the aircraft. And of course, it’s a good thing that Southwest is now inspecting all of their planes for fatigue. Last year Southwest was fined $7.5 million for overdue inspections. I hope this is not going to be a repeat of last year. All the timely inspections in the world aren’t going to make this plane any younger. Maybe it’s time to put this particular plane out to pasture.
An F-15 fighter jet had to make an emergency landing at Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma, on April 14th.
The plane was one of the two returning from a training session at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Authorities said the pilot decided to divert due to a “minor system malfunction.”
The plane landed uneventfully. No injuries were reported.
Compass Airlines flight CP-6054 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport, Oregon, on February 13th.
The plane heading from Seattle, Washington, to Los Angeles, California, was diverted due to a disruptive passenger. It is believed that the passenger, identified as 21-year-old Douglas B. Smyser, kept walking toward the cockpit and had to be restrained.
The plane landed safely.
Thomson Airways flight BY-6606 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Manchester, England, on April 15th.
The Boeing 757-200 plane heading from Bristol, England, to Las Palmas, Spain, was diverted due to an issue with the flaps.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Air Canada flight RV-1856 made an emergency landing in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 2nd.
The plane took off for Montreal, Canada, but had to turn back due to an indication of failure of an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU).
The plane landed uneventfully. There were 126 people aboard at the time; all of them remained safe.
Click to view Flight Aware