American Airlines flight AA-1157 made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport, Florida, on December 28th.
The Boeing 767-300 flying from Cancun, Mexico, was mid-air when its right-hand pack failed due to an over-temperature. Later, the passengers also felt low cabin pressure and their oxygen masks were deployed.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU-5257 made an emergency landing in Nanchang, China, on December 4th.
The Airbus A321-200 plane heading from Qingdao to Guangzhou, China, was diverted after the passenger oxygen masks were automatically deployed, without any indication of a cabin pressure problem.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Avior Airlines flight 9V-1260 made an emergency landing in Manta, Ecuador, on November 19th.
The Boeing 737-200 plane heading from Barcelona, Venezuela, to Guayaquil, Ecuador, was diverted after an engine started emitting loud bangs and the passenger oxygen masks deployed.
The plane landed uneventfully. All eighty-one passengers and six crew members remained unharmed.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ-345 had to return and make an emergency landing in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 2nd.
The Airbus A380-800 plane took off for Singapore but had to turn back after the crew received an indication of a problem with the crew oxygen masks.
The plane landed safely. There were three hundred and forty-two passengers and twenty-seven crew members aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
Image of A320 InteriorOn January 18, 2016, a TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A320-200 was on a scheduled flight from Brasilia to Aracaju Brazil when the pilots decided to return to Brasilia. They made a safe landing and were in the air ten minutes short of an hour. Incident investigations always take time. So it was a couple weeks later, on Feb 5th when the BEA reported this notice. (Note that the BEA is Le Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation, France’s Governmental aviation authority.) The BEA reported Brazil’s CENIPA notice why the pilots decided to return.
The Airbus was climbing. Cabin crew told the flight crew that passengers and cabin crew were suffering from significant hypoxia. Hypoxia means inadequate oxygenation of the blood, or deficiency in the amount of oxygen delivered to the body tissues. Web MD says this about hypoxia:
“When your body doesn’t have enough oxygen, you could get hypoxemia or hypoxia. These are dangerous conditions. Without oxygen, your brain, liver, and other organs can be damaged just minutes after symptoms start.”
“Hypoxemia (low oxygen in your blood) can cause hypoxia (low oxygen in your tissues) when your blood doesn’t carry enough oxygen to your tissues to meet your body’s needs. The word hypoxia is sometimes used to describe both problems. Symptoms can vary from person to person, the most common hypoxia symptoms are Changes in the color of your skin, ranging from blue to cherry red, Confusion,Cough, Fast heart rate, Rapid breathing, Shortness of breath, Sweating, Wheezing. If you have symptoms of hypoxia, call 911.”
On the Tam flight in question, the flight crew manually released the passenger oxygen masks. After returning to Brasilia, the incident was rated serious. CENIPA is investigating. CENIPA’s acronym is in Portuguese: Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos. CENIPA is a unit of the Brazilian Air Force that investigates aviation accidents and incidents in Brazil.
The flight under investigation was JJ-3538 flown by the Airbus registered as #PR-MAA on a standard flight from Brasilia,DF to Aracaju, SE in Brazil.
BEA reports on BEA2016-0061 Serious incident, Brasilia Federal District, on 18 January 2016, AIRBUS – A320, PR-MAA; click to enlarge image
Ryanair FR8321 had to make an emergency landing in Barcelona, Spain, early on March 19.
The plane was en-route from London Stansted to Valencia, Spain, when a fire extinguisher went off in the cockpit, forcing the pilots to use oxygen masks. The pilots then reported the situation and requested an emergency landing at Barcelona Airport.
The plane landed uneventfully. Passengers remained seated while an engineer replaced the faulty fire extinguisher.
Two US Airways flights made emergency landing at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, North Carolina, on October 11.
In the first incident, flight 745, en-route from New York’s LaGuardia airport to Charlotte, declared emergency during descent shortly before 7 p.m., after the Airbus A320 developed a pressurization issue and oxygen masks got deployed. US Airways spokesman Matt Miller confirmed that the plane landed uneventfully and all 146 passengers and 5 crew members remained unhurt.
Shortly afterwards, US Airways Express flight 5782, operated by Republic Airways, requested emergency landing at the airport. According to Miller, the Charlotte-bound Embraer 175 aircraft was coming from Greensboro, North Carolina, when a hydraulic problem was reported by the crew. The plane landed safely at about 7:45 p.m. and none of the 28 passengers and 4 crew members was injured.
I write a lot of shorthand. Not real secretarial shorthand but the kind that sums up major panicfests into four lines without even an exclamation point. A plane made an emergency landing at such and such a place after it filled with smoke. These people were hurt (or they weren’t), this broke on the plane (or it didn’t) and somebody broke something worse than a nail while exiting via the emergency slide (or they didn’t). I usually don’t have access to a lot of passenger interviews that talk about the terrifying moments between when they found out they were on a plane with issues, and when they were actually safe on the ground, and I mean literally on the ground, probably kissing it for good measure. Well, just because I don’t get a birds-eye view inside a plane showing everyone the human story while the pilots are duking it out in the cockpit for the sake of survival doesn’t mean there aren’t as many passionate plane stories as there are people in the plane. So I do have to apologize once in a while, for my tendency to rattle off the facts. I try to maintain my objectivity most of the time, so some of this news may come across as dull. I feel pretty certain no one aboard the planes feels like its dull.
So on 29-JAN-2014, there was an emergency landing in Delaware after a Mesa Airlines/United Express CRJ 700 (Canadair CL-600-2C10 Regional Jet CRJ-701ER) Dulles-Boston flight got smokey in the cabin, and the oxygen masks dropped down, both pretty good indicators that something was wrong. They made a safe landing though, in New Castle Airport. There was a loss of pressure, and they descended to 10,000 feet before they landed at 9:55.
In fact, here’s someone’s twitter about it, probably a passenger.
A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 en route from London to Singapore diverted to Baku in the first week of January 2013, after developing pressurization problems. The plane made a safe landing with no injuries.
Four hundred sixty seven passengers were aboard the flight, and twenty-seven crew, none of whom were injured. Passengers were provided hotel accommodations pending a replacement aircraft from Singapore.
A faulty door seal was reported to be the cause of the incident. The sound of the leaking air was audible and the flow of air was cold, an beyond the plane’s ability to manage. A replacement door was fitted before the plane flew out. Airbus is participating in the investigation by sending a team to Baku.
Singapore airlines operates 19 A380’s.
A photo tweeted by passenger Steve Murphy showed the oxygen masks deployed during the flight, after it began losing cabin pressure on January 6, 2013.
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: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-500 en route from Houston to Phoenix Where: El Paso Texas When: May 4, 2011, 5 pm Who: 138 aboard Why: While en route, an electrical smell was detected. Oxygen masks were deployed.
The flight diverted to El Paso and made a safe landing. Passengers did not have to use emergency slides. They were provided an alternate flight to Phoenix while the plane was ferried for inspections.
What: City Airline Embraer ERJ-145 en route from Gothenburg to Umea Where: Umea When: Jan 3rd 2011 Who: 18 passengers, 3 crew Why: While en route, the plane lost cabin pressure for an undetermined reason.
Oxygen masks were deployed, and the plane descended to a lower altitude at which they continued to fly until they landed safely at Umea.
There were injuries reported of nose and earbleeds related to the pressure problems.
Content not attributed to or linked to original, is the property of AirFlightDisaster.com; all rights reserved.