United Airlines flight UA-351 made an emergency landing at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, on July 7th.
The Boeing 757-200 plane heading from Boston, Massachusetts, to San Francisco, California, was diverted due to problems with crew oxygen supply.
The plane landed safely.
Fiji Airways flight FJ-430 made an emergency landing in Auckland, New Zealand, on September 15th.
The Boeing 737-700 plane took off for Suva, Fiji, but had to turn back due to an issue with the crew oxygen supply.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard 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.
Air Canada flight AC-84 made an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport in London, United Kingdom, on August 8th.
The Boeing 787-900 plane was flying from Toronto, Canada, to Tel Aviv, Israel, when the crew decided to divert due to a fault in its oxygen system.
The plane landed safely. All 252 people aboard remained unharmed.
United Airlines flight UA-510 had to divert and make an emergency landing at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, on July 2nd.
The Boeing 757-200, flying from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey, had to divert due to oxygen leak.
The plane landed safely.
No injuries were reported.
Delta Airlines flight DL-283 had to divert and make a safe landing at Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan, on February 21.
The Boeing 767-300 en-route from Narita, Japan, to Bangkok, Thailand, was mid-air when the crew reported low pressure of oxygen in the supply system, causing the plane to divert.
The plane landed safely.
All 237 people on board remained safe.
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.
A JetBlue flight had to divert and make an emergency landing at LF Wade International Airport in Bermuda, on August 26th.
The incident happened when the Airbus A320, carrying 94 people, was heading from Boston to Puerto Rico.
According to a Department of Marine and Port Services report, “A 51-year-old female passenger was experiencing oxygen tank problems and required assistance while the aircraft crew reported mechanical problems with the cockpit floor suffering distortion suspected to be caused by heat.”
The plane landed uneventfully and everyone aboard remained unharmed.
The Lifejacket Airpocket Plus (LAP) combined lifejacket and hybrid rebreather is a lifesaver. Imagine a life jacket that lets you breathe air. Genius, right? I’ve seen too many helicopter crashes to and from oil rigs. Some of those fatalities should be preventable. This hybrid life jacket would really come in handy to have on a Super Puma helicopter plunging into the North Sea, or the Gulf of Mexico. I hope I’m never in that situation, but if I am, you can bet I’ll be wearing one, and I’ll have read the directions.
A couple of lives may not have been saved with it simply because of directions.
A rebreather is an apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of exhaled breath to permit the recycling of available oxygen. The hybrid unit is a little something extra.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) believes the instructions on how to use this device need to include the information that the rebreather has an air supply; so if someone is in the middle of drowning, they don’t have to be going down with a last breath of air. The rebreather already has some. It’s not like a scuba diving tank with loads of air, but hey, it’s a way to breathe if you’re submerged in a helicopter and don’t have gills. What if all you need is just enough air to keep you alive to get the seatbelt off, or to swim out of an opening? That’s some precious air, all right.
So kudos to the revised pre-flight briefing material. Even if it is a knee-jerk reaction after another tragic helicopter crash, good idea AAIB.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Tomasz Konopinski
What: British Airways A321 en route from London Heathrow to Glasgow
Where: London
When: Dec 20th 2011
Who: pilot and co-pilot
Why: After takeoff, pilots declared an emergency when they became lightheaded. They returned to Heathrow and made a safe landing. The problem was reported as a technical fault due to fumes or pressure problems in the cockpit. On declaration, pilots called for oxygen which was brought by cabin crew; and oxygen masks were apparently not released for the passengers. The flight made a safe landing. Paramedics were the first aboard, attending to the pilots.
The replacement jet provided for the passengers took them to their destination with a three hour delay,
