What: US Airways B767 from Paris to Charlotte Where: Bangor Maine When: May 22, 2012 Who: 179 passengers, 9 crew Why: Around noon, Two F-15 fighter jets scrambled to intercept a US Airways plane where a French woman from Cameroon had handed a note to a flight attendant claiming that she had a surgically implanted bomb. She was traveling alone and had no baggage.
The flight which made a safe landing in Maine.
The flight was interrupted for three hours when passengers were evacuated, and federal customs agents escorted the woman off the plane in handcuffs. The plane was examined and reboarded.
A passenger said the crew initially blamed the unexpected landing on fuel and weather issues.
What: Icelandair Boeing en route from Keflavik to Orlando Where: Reykjavik When: May 18, 2012 Who: 200 passengers Why: After being delayed by a wheel falling off, and burning off fuel for hours on May 19, 2012, the Icelandair flight had to return to Reykjavik, where they made an emergency landing one wheel short and left a trail of smoke. A replacement flight delivered about 200 passengers to Sanford International Airport in Orlando at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday.
What: US Airways Boeing 757-200 en route from Philadelphia,PA to Orlando,FL Where: Orlando When: May 11th 2012 Why: The flight was en route when there was a bird strike impacting the nose. The bird made a “significant” dent in the plane. ATC says “Looks like you guys got punched in the nose, US Air”
What: Qantas Boeing 737-800 en route from Perth to Kalgoorlie Australia Where: Kalgoorlie When: May 13th 2012 Why: The flight was on approach to Kalgoorlie when it was struck by lightning.
Pilots returned to Perth and made a safe landing. A replacement jet was provided for the passengers.
What: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 en route from Eindhoven to Ibiza Where: Paris When: May 15th 2012 Why: The flight was en route over Paris when a problem developed, and the crew diverted to Brussels where they made a safe landing at Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA).
The plane will be examined to determine the nature of the problem. (We an only assume the rocking motion passengers complained of was not turbulence.)
What: Air India Boeing 777 en route from Frankfurt to Chicago Where: Bucharest When: May 12, 2012 10:25 Who: 303 passengers and 17 crew Why: The flight was en route over Romania when a door warning went off, alerting the pilot of a potential problem.
One source reported the problem as a door alarm; another source said there was a cargo smoke indication.
Passengers deplaned via stairs as on examination, no indication of fire or heat was found. Passengers were then provided hotel accommodations.
The pilot informed ATC in Bucharest and shortly later made a safe landing. The cargo door was examined but no problems were found. The issue was chalked up to being a false alarm.
The plane awaited takeoff pending an allocated scheduled landing-time in Chicago.
What: US Airways Boeing 757-200 en route from Dublin to Charlotte Where: Gander When: May 8th 2012 Why: After taking off from Dublin, one of the engines developed a situation not unlike a stuck carburetor.
Pilots troubleshooted (troubleshot?) the problem but then shut down the engine and diverted to diverted to Gander, where they made a safe landing.
The mechanical repair was performed. (The issue was mechanical, not digital.) Meanwhile, a replacement flight was provided to transport the passengers to Charlotte.
What: China Southern Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Guangzhou to Shanghai Where: Guangzhou When: May 10th 2012 Who: 9 injured Why: Twenty minutes after taking off from Guangzhou, the plane encountered clear air turbulence.
Those who weren’t buckled in, including flight attendants, were injured during the turbulence. Injuries included fractures, and other injuries. The extent of the turbulence is being reported as “a pocket of extreme turbulence.”
One passenger blogged “I had a horrible feeling that I was going to die at that moment because I suddenly felt being weightless.”
A flight attendant and her dining cart were tossed in the air.
Pilots continued to Shanghai, where nine injured were transported to hospital facilities.
The plane was grounded for inspection but later released for service.
What: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 en route from Gothenburg Sweden to London Where: Gothenburg When: May 8th 2012 Who: one injury Why: A flight attended closing the door fell out of the plane.
Presumably wind may have been a factor in the door issue.
The injured attendant was taken to the hospital. A number of passengers deplaned, presumably to keep the Ryanair crew/passenger ratio at least one flight attendant for every 50 passengers.
What: SAS Scandinavian Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Tromso to Longyearbyen Where: Tromso When: Apr 30th 2012 Who: 180 aboard Why: On taking off from Tromso, the flight suffered a number of bird strikes. Pilots returned to the airport and made a safe landing.
Passengers were able to leave within an hour and a half.
What: Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Islamabad to Multan Where: Multan When: April 25, 2012 Who: 45 passengers Why: On descent to Multan, the plane indicated an error. On a visual confirmation on flyby, ATC indicated that the wheels were down, but this disagreed with the cockpit alert. The pilot circled to burn fuel, then made a safe landing with emergency services on standby.
The plane was serviced, and continued the next leg of the flight carrying 118 passengers to Karachi.
What: Shaheen Air International Boeing 737-400 en route from Islamabad to Karachi Where: Karachi When: Apr 22nd 2012 Who: 122 passengers and 6 crew Why: On landing in Karachi, the main gear failed, and the gear perforated the wing.
Passengers disembarked on to the runway. No injuries were reported.
If we were to speculate (which we shouldn’t do) we would say this could be either due to a hard or fast landing and/or a mechanical failure.
The first flight of this Boeing 737-4H6 was Sept 21, 1993. On October 28 1993, the plane was delivered to Malaysia Airlines as 9M-MQC. It was stored 09/2011 as N829AR (Bank of Utah) and delivered to Shaheen Air on January 21, 2012.
Update: The investigation team formed to probe into Friday’s plane crash on Monday (April 23) visited the site and collected evidence. What: Bhoja Air Boeing 737-200 en route from Karachi to Islamabad Where: Islamabad When: Apr 20th 2012 Who: 121 passengers and 6 crew Why: The plane (reported as #AP-BKC a 27 year old Boeing) took off from Karachi, impacted the ground 3-6 miles from Islamabad while on approach and burst into flames in a rural location(Hussain Abad village) near Chaklala Air Base. No survivors were found, and ten houses on the ground were affected. The plane lost contact with the control tower minutes before landing. There was no distress call. There are conflicting reports that the plane was on fire and was not on fire before it impacted the ground. Some reports say the plane was struck by lightning. There was a thunderstorm at the time of the accident. The fire/fireball after the crash does not appear to have engulfed the entire debris area, according to photos of the scene.
Debris from the crash is said to cover a large muddy area. The area has not been cordoned off; reporters and others are swarming over the crash site.
This is reported to be the first Bhorja flight on this route. The jet left at 17:00 and was due to arrive at 18:50.
The flight data recorder has been recovered along with 110 bodies (so far.)
The number of people listed as passengers varies from 127 to 130 aboard.
Trans:
METAR for Benazir Bhutto International Airport, issued on the 20th of the month at 13:00 Zulu Time. Wind from 230° at 20 knots (37 km/h). Visibility 4,000 metres (13,000 ft), thunderstorms in area. Clouds few at 2,500 feet (760 m), cumulonimbus clouds present. Broken clouds at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Temperature 25°C, dewpoint 15°C. Altimeter setting 1009.3 hPA / 29.80 inHg
What: Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200 en route from New York to Los Angeles,CA Where: New York When: Apr 19th 2012 Who: 172 passengers and 7 crew Why: After taking off from JFK, the plane had a bird strike. A bird was ingested by a right engine, which caused an engine failure. Pilots informed ATC.
Passengers feared the worst as they saw the birds, heard the impact and smelled the smoke, but the cool headed pilot was able to make a visual landing while flying on one engine.
Matthew Kroll, told reporters”We were taking off and two seconds off the ground, the whole plane shutters and you hear this low growl. Then you smell the smoke in the cabin. People were relatively calm because it happened about three second after take-off. Everyone saw what happened and you could smell it. It was more dead bird than smoke. The pilot came out and said we have to circle back. It took about four minutes and we were back on the runway.”
The bird strike was taped by a passenger and has been incorporated into the reports below:
What: Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 en route from Shanghai to Frankfurt Where: Ufa When: Apr 18th 2012 Who: 311 passengers Why: While en route, the cabin developed smoke which was reported as an unusual odor. Pilots diverted to UFA and made a safe landing. No fire was found. There’s no indication of how Lufthansa is handling passengers, baggage or compensation for inconvenience, but we hear passengers were in for a long wait.
What: Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 en route from Coolangatta/Gold Coast,QL to Melbourne,VI Where: Coolangatta When: Apr 15th 2012 Who: Essendon Football Team Why: The flight was en route when a problem developed with the fuel. Pilots diverted to Brisbane and made a safe landing. Emergency services met the plane on the tarmac. Virgin’s public statement said the problem was a minor maintenance issue.
The football team won against the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night but ended up stranded in Brisbane. The spokesman for Essedon said “There was definitely no emergency. It’s probably been overplayed a bit.”
What: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747-400 en route from Kuala Lumpur to London Where: Kuala Lumpur When: Apr 17th 2012 Who: 351 passengers, 21 crew Why: After taking off from Kuala Lumpur, the engine exploded.
Or at least that’s what passengers felt when they heard a backfire or some other kind of explosion from one engine, and saw sparks and flames.
Pilots dumped fuel and returned to Kuala Lumpur where they made a safe landing.
What: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 en route from Seattle to Saint Louis Where: Omaha When: Apr 14th 2012 Who: 11 injured Why: While en route, the plane lost cabin pressure, oxygen masks deployed, and pilots decided to divert to Omaha where they made a safe landing. However on arrival, eleven passengers needed medical attention. Nine of them were treated at the airport with minor injuries, but continued the flight.
A replacement Southwest jet completed the last leg on Saturday.
What: United Boeing 777-200 en route from San Francisco to London Where: San Francisco When: Apr 12th 2012 Who: 195 passengers aboard Why: After taking off from San Francisco, the left side of the United Boeing 777 was struck by lightning. Passengers described the flash of light and the big bank. Oxygen masks deployed. No one was injured. Weather suspended other flights taking off from that airport until the storm blew through.
Pilots informed ATC, and dumped fuel before returning to land safely. The plane remained on the runway as officials inspected the aircraft. Passengers were put up in local hotels and scheduled to take an alternate flight Friday afternoon.
What: Korean Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Vancouver to Seoul Where: Comox air base When: April 10, 2012 5:30 p.m Who: 149 passengers, 12 crew members Why: After a bomb threat was made in a telephone call to the Korean Airlines Los Angeles office, the flight was diverted to Canada’s Comox air base, which is 70 miles outside Vancouver.
The flight was escorted by U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets. Three hours after the flight took off, it landed in Comex safely.
Officers checked passengers and luggage, Royal Canadian Mounted Police were investigating. Police, fire trucks and B.C. Ambulance paramedics were also on the scene.
What: United Airlines Boeing 737-700 en route from Houston,TX to Washington DC Where: Washington When: Apr 9th 2012 11:15 am Who: 122 passengers and 5 crew Why: On landing in Washington, the plane suffered two blown rear tires.
The plane was towed to the terminal.
No injuries were reported.
Fourteen students and chaperones from Mt. Carmel Louisiana were aboard, and were interviewed by a TV station after the rough landing in Washington DC. They said the landing was rough, and praised the pilot for being so calm.
Another group of fourteen joining them flew in on a different plane from Atlanta. They will all be returning to Lafayette on Friday, and they say none of them have developed a fear of flying.
Enhancement of safety and efficiency are what is on the table between Boeing and Embraer who have signed an agreement to work toward safety, efficiency of aircraft operations and productivity in manufacturing. The passenger benefits that will trickle down will be in the areas of research and technological development in narrow body jets.
They have already made progress in “drop-in” biofuels along with Airbus and the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation on long-term aviation biofuels research.
What: Ryanair Boeing 737-800 en route from Milan, Italy to East Midlands Where: Frankfurt When: Apr 4th 2012 Who: 134 passengers Why: Fifteen minutes after takeoff, while over Lugano Switzerland, the cabin lost pressure, deploying oxygen masks. Pilots made a Mayday announcement heard by passengers on the public address system, and descended to 9000 feet. Passengers were alarmed as they watched the alps approach at a rapid rate. In five minutes, they descended four miles. They diverted to Frankfurt Germany where they made a safe landing at at 12:00 local time.
A replacement jet was provided.
Three passengers were injured and hospitalized with ear problems. A news report said there were ten passengers with minor injuries. Some passengers told reporters they were panicking, but no one was screaming.
Large view Contact photographer Paul Spijkers What: United Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Tampa to Houston Where: Louisiana When: April 4, 2012 Who: 146 passengers and six crew, seven injuries Why: From seven to twelve people aboard United Airlines flight were injured when the plane ran into severe turbulence flying over Lake Charles Louisiana and the same cell that caused the tornadoes sweeping through Texas.
(The number of injured reported varies. Earlier reports indicated seven injuries, three going to the hospital.) Pilots declared emergency in order to have a priority landing in Houston. From three to twelve people were hospitalized on arrival at 8:00 a.m.
What: Japan Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Shanghai Hongqiao to Tokyo Where: Tokyo When: Mar 31st 2012 4:08 pm Who: 296 passengers, 12 crew Why: On approach to Tokyo, the plane was just above the runway when gusty wind made the pilots chose to go around. On the go-around, the tail scraped the runway. In spite of significant damage to the plane, the second approach resulted in a safe landing about thirty minutes later.
The Japan Safety board sent three inspectors on Sunday.
The rear section of the plane’s body sustained scratches, and the pressure bulkhead between the cabin and tail was “slightly misshapen.” No injuries were reported.
