EasyJet flight EZY5455 had to make an emergency landing at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany, on April 11.
The plane was heading from London Gatwick Airport to Paphos, Cyprus, when the pilot reported smoky odor in the cockpit and declared emergency.
The Airbus A320 made a safe emergency landing in Cologne. All 169 passengers and 6 crew members aboard remained unharmed.
The airline arranged an alternate aircraft for the passengers.
Allegiant Air flight 8503 had to make an emergency landing at Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois, on April 8.
The plane took off from South Bend, Indiana and was heading to Wendover, Utah when the pilot reported an oil filter malfunction. FAA spokesperson Tony Molinaro confirmed that the plane made an uneventful emergency landing as a precaution.
The plane was a charter for the Resorts at Wendover and was carrying around 115 people at the time.
The passengers were accommodated in local hotels and were transported back to South Bend next day.
Jet Airways flight S2 4121 made an emergency landing at Raipur airport in Chhattisgarh, India, on April 8.
The Mumbai-Raipur-Bhopal-Mumbai plane was forced to land in emergency after the pilot reported a snag due to flat nose tire.
The plane landed safely and was immediately grounded. All 160 passengers remained unhurt.
The next flight to Bhopal was cancelled.
Japan Airlines flight 521 made an emergency landing at Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan, on April 8.
The twin-engine Boeing 777 was heading from Haneda to Hokkaido when the pilot reported a suspected engine fault and sought permission to land back.
Authorities said the aircraft’s right engine had to be shut down midair before it made a safe emergency landing.
All 228 passengers and 11 crew members remained unhurt.
Turkish Airlines flight TK1530 made an emergency landing at Nuremberg Airport, Germany, on April 8.
The Airbus 321 was heading from Düsseldorf to Istanbul when its windshield began to crack. The pilots then immediately reported the situation and requested an emergency landing at the nearest airport.
The plane landed uneventfully and everyone aboard remained unhurt.
The aircraft was taken for repair.
An Air India flight had to return and make an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, on April 5.
The airline confirmed the incident saying, “the flight had taken off for Mumbai at around 1650 hours (US time) and landed back at Newark (US) after being airborne for about two hours due to violent vibrations in one of the engines of the Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.”
There were more than 250 people aboard at the time; all of them remained safe.
Republic Airlines flight 3880 had to make an emergency landing at Bradley International Airport in Hartford County, Connecticut, on April 2.
The plane, heading from Newark, New Jersey, to Burlington, Vermont, had to be diverted after the pilot reported engine problems.
The plane landed uneventfully and all 71 passengers and 4 crew members remained unhurt.
The aircraft was taken for inspection while the airline arranged alternate transport for passengers.
Germanwings flight 3882 made an emergency landing at Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy, on April 3.
According to the airline, the flight, en-route from Hanover, Germany, to Rome, was diverted because, “two people, a passenger and a member of the crew, were struck by strong nausea and needed medical treatment.”
The plane, carrying 149 people, landed uneventfully. Medical attention was provided to the sick passenger and crew member.
The flight resumed shortly afterwards.
Germanwings Flight 4U 814 had to divert and make an unscheduled landing at Stuttgart Airport, Germany, on April 4.
The airline said the Airbus A319, en-route from Cologne, Germany, to Venice, Italy, had to be diverted after the pilot reported suspected oil leakage and shut down one of the engines. “This is a standard safety procedure. It was not an emergency landing,” the statement said.
The plane landed safely and all 123 passengers and 5 crew members remained safe.
The aircraft was taken for inspection while an alternate plane was arranged for the passengers.
United Airlines flight 1188 had to turn back and make an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport, California, on April 1.
Authorities said the Boeing 757-300 aircraft was en-route to Boston, Massachusetts, when the pilots sought permission to return due to a sick flight attendant.
The plane landed back uneventfully and the ill flight attendant was rushed to a nearby hospital.
United Airlines Flight 5064 had to return and make an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport, California, on April 1.
The plane, bound for Calgary, Canada, had to turn back some 30 minutes into the flight after the crew reported smoky odor in the cabin.
The plane landed uneventfully and everyone aboard remained safe.
The flight was being operated by SkyWest Airlines.
Press release from the BEA and the Commission d’Enquêtes Accidents et Incidents de l’Aviation civile (Mali)
Following the publication of the Interim Report on 20 September 2014 in Bamako (Mali), investigative work has continued, based on the analysis of the accident flight parameters. Progress made in this work has led the Republic of Mali Commission of Inquiry and the BEA to communicate jointly the following information.
On 24 July 2014, the MD-83 registered EC-LTV was performing scheduled night flight AH 5017 from Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to Algiers (Algeria). Takeoff occurred at 01h15, the climb towards the cruise altitude took place without any significant events, and the crew made several heading changes in order to fly around a storm cell. The autopilot and the autothrottle were engaged. The aeroplane reached the cruise altitude of 31,000 ft, that’s to say about 9,500 m. The autopilot then switched to the mode that maintains the altitude and the autothrottle to the mode that maintains the speed (Mach).
About two minutes after levelling off at an altitude of 31,000 ft, calculations performed by the manufacturer and validated by the investigation team indicate that the recorded EPR , the main parameter for engine power management, became erroneous on the right engine and then about 55 seconds later on the left engine. This was likely due to icing of the pressure sensors located on the engine nose cones. If the engine anti-ice protection system is activated, these pressure sensors are heated by hot air.
Analysis of the available data indicates that the crew likely did not activate the system during climb and cruise.
As a result of the icing of the pressure sensors, the erroneous information transmitted to the autothrottle meant that the latter limited the thrust delivered by the engines. Under these conditions, the thrust was insufficient to maintain cruise speed and the aeroplane slowed down. The autopilot then commanded an increase in the aeroplane’s pitch attitude in order to maintain the altitude in spite of this loss of speed.
This explains how, from the beginning of the error in measuring the EPR values, the aeroplane’s speed dropped from 290 kt to 200 kt in about 5 minutes and 35 seconds and the angle of attack increased until the aeroplane stalled.
About 20 seconds after the beginning of the aeroplane stall, the autopilot was disengaged. The aeroplane rolled suddenly to the left until it reached a bank angle of 140°, and a nose-down pitch
of 80°
The recorded parameters indicate that there were no stall recovery manœuvres by
the crew.
However, in the moments following the aeroplane stall, the flight control surfaces remained deflected nose-up and in a right roll.
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS
At least two similar events occurred, in June 2002 and in June 2014, with no serious consequences.
The event in June 2002 was the subject of an NTSB investigation report. On 4 June 2002, the McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registered N823NK performing Spirit Airlines flight 970, suffered a loss of thrust on both engines, in cruise at an altitude of 33,000 ft, that is about 10,000 m. The two pressure sensors, located on the engine nose bullets, were blocked by ice crystals, leading to incorrect indications and over-estimation of the EPR. The crew noticed the drop in speed and the precursor indications of a stall just before disengagement of the autopilot and putting the aeroplane into a descent. They had not activated the engine anti-ice systems. This event occurred during the day, outside the clouds.
On 8 June 2014, the MD83 registered EC-JUG belonging to Swiftair, which was performing a passenger transport flight at flight level FL 330, suffered a drop in speed while it was flying during the daytime above the cloud layer. The crew detected the problem, put the aeroplane into a descent and activated the engine anti-ice systems without reaching a stall situation, then continued the flight.
This background, as well as the data on the accident to flight AH5017, was shared with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and through EASA with the American authorities (FAA); they should serve as the basis for future publication of corrective measures aimed at assisting crews in identifying and responding to similar situations to those encountered at the time of this accident.
NEXT STEPS
The investigative work is continuing, in particular on the analysis of:
the flight parameters to complete the scenario described above,
possible crew reactions, despite the absence of Cockpit Voice Recorder data from the accident flight, which remain unusable to this day,
the training and follow-up of Swiftair crews,
previous events and the follow-up undertaken.
The publication of the final report is planned before the end of December 2015.
Download Interim below:
https://airflightdisaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ec-v140724.e1.en_.pdf
Pasadena, CA — (ReleaseWire) — 04/02/2015 — As an advocate (not a lawyer) of fair compensation for the victims of plane crashes, I have been closely following the story behind the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 and the now notorious 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz. As is always the case, a team of expert investigators will dig out the facts to determine the most likely scenario behind the crash. That careful investigation will take a year at the very least. In this Germanwings accident, the one factor that stands out already is the role played by the pilot’s state of mind in what appears now to be his deliberate collision course with the French Alps. It is now common knowledge that the plane disintegrated on impact with the Massif des Trois-Évêchés. Imagine how horrified the families were when the transcript of the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) was quickly leaked by tabloids. Journalists have been shouldering each other out of the way to get to the front of the line, “scooping” each with another “leaked” nugget. A girlfriend’s interview. A medical report here. A video there. TV commentators and newspapers from CNN and the venerable New York Times to the most scurrilous tabloids are spouting “the facts” faster than investigators can have gotten to the information. Tweeting the news as I do results in loads of source-checking, and plenty of on-going head-scratching moments while weeding out wild supposition masquerading as news in sources one would normally consider impeccable. When one source says “the plane is blue,” another says “the plane is red.” Sometimes I can determine which is the truth, but sometimes I have to leave it to readers to puzzle out.
I have been working Wrongful Death cases for some forty-seven years now. I am a consultant to attorneys across the globe who represent the families of Wrongful Death victims. Each investigation is exactly the same in terms of the emotional impact of the accident. Devastating. Whether the case may or may not end up in court, whether or not the accident catches the media’s attention, every aspect is always impossibly difficult for the families. Some accidents seem similar because they share a factor, whether it be similar weather conditions, mechanical difficulties, or a particular flaw in a particular model of plane.
Some aviation accidents personify extremes. Consider that while there is always some degree of speculation as to an accident’s cause, MH370 brought as many conspiracy theorists out of the woodwork in this past twelve months as Amelia Earhart’s disappearance has in the past 87 years. Everything seems plausible when people are desperate for an explanation. Because in this age of cell phones and satellites, there is simply no explanation for a plane to vanish, MH370 has become the “poster child” for speculation. I expect MH370 will continue to spawn new theories and will endure as a mystery until, at some point, the wreckage will be found and examined.
If I were comparing MH370 and Germanwings 9525, I could write a whole piece examining the conflict of government transparency vs. individual confidentiality, but that was not my intent today. I was just thinking of aviation safety, and how 9/11 became the catalyst for upgraded multifaceted flight deck security. One outcome of 9/11 is the impregnable, indestructible cockpit door, the brain child of countless engineering hours, security and scientific research. Passengers since 9/11 have flown safe in the knowledge that no intruder could again gain entry to the cockpit and overpower the pilot thanks to redundant enhanced security precautions and a door designed to keep the dangerous people out. Now there’s a cockpit voice recording that appears to show that same safe cockpit door is the barrier that kept the PIC from being able to save everyone aboard. Captain Patrick Sondenheimer died trying to get that door open.
The impregnable cockpit door, the terrible irony of Germanwings Flight 9525.
A division of Wrongful Death Consultants, Air Crash Consultants was established to network between lawyers and their clients, bridging the gaps, especially in regard to International clients, freeing and enabling the lawyer to concentrate on higher priority commitments. Air Crash Consultant services might also be designated as an umbrella, because the company’s functions encompass a variety of problem-solving areas in support of the lawyer-client relationship as needed. Services are not limited to finding experts, developing translation teams, client support, document handling, drafting demand letters, client interviews, etc. Visit the company websites at”
http://aircrashconsultants.com
http://wrongfuldeathnews.com
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Jet Airways flight 9W 541 had to make an emergency landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, on March 31.
Authorities said the pilot requested an emergency landing after a bird hit the aircraft. According to an airline spokesperson, “The captain of Jet Airways flight 9W 541 from Dubai to Mumbai reported a bird hit while landing. A thorough inspection of the aircraft was carried out and no damage was reported.”
There were 110 passengers aboard at the time; all of them remained unhurt.
The incident temporarily closed the runway due to which, 4 flights were asked to abort landing while 5 other incoming flights, including 4 Indigo flights and 1 Jet Airways flight, were diverted to other airports.
Security measures were taken by aviation designers after 911 to ensure a safe cockpit door in the A320,resulting in a door designed to stop intruders and protect the pilot within.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, flight crews no longer have keys to open the cockpit door. The door remains locked during flight. When entry is requested on the outside keypad, a buzzer goes off. The pilot can toggle the switch and unlock the door.
The CVR now seems to indicate that copilot Andreas Lubitz locked out the Pilot In Command, Captain Patrick Sondenheimer. There is audio record of him attempting to get through the invincible door.
A U.S. Airways flight had to return and make an emergency landing at Baltimore–Washington International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 29.
According to airport spokesperson Jonathan Green, the plane, heading to phoenix, had to return after a bird hit its windshield.
The plane landed back uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained unhurt.
Turkish Airlines flight 15 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Casablanca, Morocco, on March 30.
The Boeing 777 was en-route from Istanbul, Turkey, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, when the crew received a note on which ‘bomb’ was written. The crew then reported the situation and sought permission for an emergency landing.
The plane landed uneventfully and was thoroughly searched for any explosives. However, the airline confirmed that nothing was found.
All 256 passengers aboard remained unharmed.
An Emirates flight made an emergency stop at Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England, on March 29.
According to an airport spokesperson, the flight, heading from JFK International Airport in New York to Dubai, was diverted due to a medical emergency.
The plane safely landed at 10:51 p.m.
The nature of medical emergency is not clear at the moment.
Turkish Airlines flight TK-52 had to return and make an emergency landing at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29.
The flight took off for Tokyo, Japan, at around 1:30 a.m, however, just minutes into the flight, the crew received a message indicating possible C-4 explosive on-board. The pilot immediately reported the situation and requested an emergency return.
The plane landed safely and everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Police teams thoroughly searched the aircraft but no explosive material was found.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight BG 0085 had to make an emergency landing at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 28.
The Airbus 310 was coming from Singapore when the pilot reported a fire warning from one of its engines and requested an emergency landing.
The plane landed safely and none of the 210 passengers aboard was harmed.
Authorities said it was a false alarm and no evidence of fire was found.
Air Canada flight 624 crash landed at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, located in Nova Scotia, Canada, on March 29.
The plane took off from Toronto and was attempting to landing at Halifax International Airport during a snow storm when it skidded off the runway.
There were 133 passengers and 5 crew members aboard at the time. The airline confirmed that 23 people were taken to hospital and that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
It is believed that the aircraft clipped a power line, resulting in power outage at the airport. However, the airport officials did not confirm this.
The cause of accident is under investigation.
U.S. Airways Flight 5568 made an emergency landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston, Texas, on March 27.
Emergency was declared aboard the plane after it developed some engine issues. The flight, operated by Mesa Airlines, was en-route from Charlotte to Austin at the time.
The plane safely landed shortly after 6 p.m. None of the 83 people aboard was harmed.
An American Airlines official Matt Miller said, “Our mechanics are trying to determine if the plane is flyable and can continue to Austin.”
A US Airways express flight made an emergency landing at Burlington International Airport, Vermont, on March 26.
The plane was heading from Philadelphia to Montreal when the pilot reported a windshield crack and requested an emergency landing. According to Burlington airport operations foreman Doug Wood, “The crack was reportedly getting larger and working its way down the windshield, so the pilots elected to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible and have it inspected before they did lose the windshield.”
The plane landed uneventfully and all 50 passengers aboard remained safe.
The airline said passengers will be transported to Montreal via bus.
A Vueling flight had to return and make an emergency landing at El Prat airport in Barcelona, Spain, on March 26.
The Airbus A320 took off for Munich, Germany, at around 6 a.m. However, just minutes later, the captain reported a burning smell on board and requested an emergency landing.
The plane landed back uneventfully. All 137 passengers aboard remained safe.
The airline accommodated the passengers in an alternate flight.
A Pakistan International Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 24.
Authorities said the plane, flying from Madina, Saudi Arabia, had to declare an emergency after its wheels jammed.
The plane landed safely and was towed to the terminal. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
