Frontier Airlines flight F9-260 had to return and make an emergency landing in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 30th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Tampa, Florida, but had to turn back after a section of an engine cowling came loose and fell off.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Aerotrans Cargo flight ATG-4419 had to make an emergency landing at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, Germany, on February 26th.
The Boeing 747-400 plane took off for Baku, Azerbaijan, but had to turn back due to vibrations.
The plane landed back safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
It was noticed that the aft cowl of one the engines had partly separated during the flight.
United Airlines flight UA-1175 made an emergency landing in Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 13th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane was flying from San Francisco, California, when a piece of the cowling separated from the right-hand engine.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Jetstar flight JQ-202 returned to Auckland, New Zealand, on October 28th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane, heading to Sydney, Australia, was called back after debris was seen coming out of an engine’s tailpipe.
The incident happened after a ground handler forgot a plastic clipboard onto an engine cowl.
The plane landed back safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
On August 12, an easyJet Airbus A320-214 en route from Milan-Malpensa Airport to Lisbon took off okay, but pieces of the plane were falling.
The control tower spotted the debris on the runway.
After losing parts of the engine cowling, pilots made a safe, if dramatic landing back at the Milan-Malpensa. None of the 174 passengers and crew sustained injury, though most of them went through an emotional roller coaster, especially when a passenger screamed out that “A piece of the wing has gone flying.”
Pilots circled for twenty minutes before landing; then after landing safely, when pilots put engines into reverse, more stuff fell off the engine. Although fire engines were on standby, standby is all they had to do. Passengers and crew exited via the staircase.
In a genius of understatement, Easyjet confirmed “flight EZY2715 from Milan Malpensa Airport to Lisbon on 12 August returned from airborne shortly after take off due to a technical issue with one of the engines.”
Passengers were provided an alternative flight.
I don’t make a lot of comments, due to my copious free time, but I can’t resist. In the meantime while waiting for the updates, we are considering shipping easyJet some Superglue, or maybe a certified mechanic or two. In the words of mechanics everywhere, lefty loosie, righty tighty. I am no mechanic, but this smells to me like…dare I say it…
Maintenance! Maintenance! Maintenance!
Not to make light of the situation though–airline safety is no joke. We expect there will be public updates about the investigation into this incident.