Cause

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    Overland Suffers Smoke


    On Feb 8, 2013, an Overland Airways ATR-72 flight OJ1175 from Abuja to Ibadan, Nigeria, suffered engine issues with smoke pouring from one engine. Passengers saw the smoke which started a panic, and they evacuated through the emergency exit.

    There were no injuries reported.

    The passengers remained in Abuja awaiting a replacement plane.

    The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is investigating.

    This picture displays why the passengers were panicked. Words alone don’t do it justice, do they?

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    Pegasus “Sochi Olympics” Hijack Attempt


    On Feb 7 2014, on a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-86J en route from Kharkov to Istanbul, the 45-year-old passenger seated in “2F” hollered “BOMB!” threatened there was a bomb in the baggage compartment and wanted to hijack the plane to go to the Sochi Olympics. His attempt to enter the cockpit was foiled. When pilots entered Turkish airspace, they informed authorities.

    An F-16 Turkish military fighter jet was called to provide an escort.

    The flight landed in Istanbul (on the Asian side of the airport where Pegasus has its hub) where the Ukrainian man was taken into custody.

    There was no bomb. None of the 110 passengers were hurt.

    The passenger was just intoxicated.

    Videos Below

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    AI Tires Blown

    On Feb 2, Air India Flight AI-191, a Boeing 777-337ER, en route from Ahmedabad to Mumbai blew three tires on landing. The crew was able to taxi to the gate with assistance. No injuries to the 260 passengers resulted from the blown tires, and there were no reports of injuries using the emergency exits.

    The AI flight’s eventual destination was the US. Passengers continuing their journey were provided an alternative Boeing 777.

    THere’s no indication if the tires blew do to the runway surface, tire quality, a hard landing or other reason. The incident is under investigation.

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    Disgruntled Ryanair Passengers

    A Rabat to Paris flight is usually two and a half hours long.

    But on a Ryanair flight from Rabat, Morocco, to Paris a passenger became sick and the crew diverted to Madrid. Because of noise restrictions, the crew had to land in Nantes instead of Paris, and had to overnight there.

    Somewhere between Rabat and Nantes, passengers angry at being in the plane for seven hours, took food and drinks and were hostile to the flight crew.

    Personnel in Nantes said the Ryanair passengers were behaving in an “animal and barbaric fashion.” Apparently police were called but nothing was done.

    A hotel was provided in Nantes. The passengers did finally make it to Paris via bus.

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    Viral Video Pilot’s Engagement Cut Short in Cachoeira do Sul


    Last month, Arthur Demetrio must have been full of hope and good news when he took his girlfriend Thays Pereira da Cruz flying, and asked her to marry him by having his parents hold up banners saying “Thays Marry me” in an airfield in Cachoeira do Sul Brazil.

    See the proposal here

    I wish this were the end of the story.

    This Wednesday, Demetrio spoke to his fiancée Thays on the phone.
    Later that day, his Cessna 140 aircraft was flying out of the airfield where he proposed.

    He crashed in Cachoeira do Sul.

    His student Darlan Kabata dos Santos, 31, and he both died. There was almost no warning, though Demetrio had time to tell ATC he was having plane trouble, something about the elevator, which controls the nose of the plane.

    Officials informed his fiancée; she was the first to know. The family is devastated.

    Arthur Demetrio will be buried in Santa Catarina, where he is from.

    The accident is under investigation.

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    Pressure-loss and Smoke at 10,000 Feet

    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.

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    Utility Crew Perish in Cable Connection

    The DBS Helicopters Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III helicopter in Silt, Colorado, that got tangled in power cables doing Holy Cross Energy powerline inspections crashed, killing the pilot and crew.

    The accident occurred at 11:20 a.m. where the shared Holy Cross and Xcel Energy power lines cross Dry Hollow Road about 1.6 miles south of Silt. There were witnesses who saw the accident and attempted to help.

    The poles that were being inspected were fifty feet high, and the helicopter was supposed to be flying thirty feet over that.

    The small fifty-foot debris field is on rough hilly terrain.

    Owner and chief pilot for DBS Helicopters, Doug Sheffer died in the accident. He had 22 years and 8,000 hours of flight time. Larry Shaffer who worked for Holy Cross Energy and Christopher Gaskill who worked for HotShot Infrared Inspections were also fatalities. They were filming the trouble spots along the route, and recording the locations on GPS.

    I do not want to diminish the tragedy of this accident by saying that helicopter accidents such as this are common, but I will say they happen too frequently, even when the pilot has significant experience flying in mountain terrain, and rescue.

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    Helicopter Skids Down German Slope


    On January 26, 2014, a Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht e.V. Eurocopter EC135 P2 flew a medical evacuation of a skiing accident victim.

    The pilot aborted two landings that were too steep, and had landed on the third try on the snow-covered hill near a ski run in Oberwiesenthal.

    The pilot had just left the helicopter when it slid under its own weight thirty meters into the valley, and collided with a post and a vehicle, and sustained damage. There were skiers around as the helicopter slid by but they managed to get out of the way. There were no casualties except for the rotor blade of the helicopter. The investigation is underway.

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    United Express No Lefts Turn Out All Right

    On January 27, 2013, a United Express Jet’s ailerons mid-flight failure fifty miles out forced the pilot of the Shreveport-Denver flight to make an emergency diversion and landing in Wichita.

    The pilot of the Embraer EMB-145XR Flight ? ASQ6099 could not turn left but made a safe landing at Mid-Continent Airport. Kudos to the pilot for figuring out how three lefts make a right (or something to that effect.)

    None of the thirty-nine passengers reported injury.

    Emergency services responded to the scene.

    After the plane taxied to the gate, UE provided transportation alternatives to the passengers.

    We can’t wait to hear what was wrong with the ailerons. Maintenance?

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    Cargo Flight Gear Collapse on Taxi


    A “Toll Priority Logistics Cargo” (out of New Zealand) Boeing 737-300F en route from Brisbane to the Solomon Islands landed at Honiara International Airport on Guadalcanal Island. The right landing gear collapsed on roll out (gear collapse on taxi) on the runway.

    None of the three crew were injured.

    The plane blocked the single runway resulting in closing of the airport. Incoming flights are being diverted to alternate locations. The incident is under investigation.

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    Life Jacket with AirPocket Can Save Lives


    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.

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    Medical Plane Crash Leads to Resignations in Romania


    A medical rescue crew boarded a plane and left Bucharest for Oradea to pick up transplant organs from a patient who just passed away. But they became victims themselves.

    We have seen intensive searches for missing planes all over the globe; but here’s a medical rescue team aboard a BN-2A Islander who suffered tragedy in the accident when an inadequate search for their missing plane failed to reach the plane in time. Pilot Adrian Iovan and student Aurelia Ion died from severe injuries and cold. Authorities failed to find the site in the first six hours. The fallout from that failure has led to the resignation of political officials including Minister of Interior, Radu Stroe, Director General of Romatsa, Aleodor Frâncu and Chief of General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), Ion Burlui. Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta dismissed state secretary Constantin Chiper, who was in charge of the rescue mission, and who should have coordinated the teams better.

    A doctor who survived Radu Zamfir said that he gave the emergency service his exact GPS location provided by a smartphone.

    Pilot Adrian Iovan died of internal bleeding and cold. AURELIA ION was an officer-student in the fifth year at the UMF Carol Davila, Military Medicine Institute in Bucharest and was also doing an internship at Fundeni Hospital.

    A ranger found the wreckage and initiated the rescue. Initially all aboard—four doctors, a nurse and two flight crew—were alive.

    Near Petreasa, Romania the airplane sustained substantial damage but the seven aboard initially survived. Near Poiana Horea, the plane had engine trouble. Pilot ADRIAN IOVAN tried to make an emergency landing, came down on a hillside in deep snow near Fântânele village near a lake.

    Video of Funeral: Romanian plane crash victim and medical student buried at Ghencea Military Cemetery in Bucharest

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    Experimental Crash in Brazil kills Deputy Mayor


    A small plane, an INPAER Explorer#PR-ZAL with three aboard was en route from Campos dos Amarais, Campinas to London but disappeared from radar while talking to ATC in Pirassununga Brazil at about ten on January 23rd. The experimental plane was registered but not certified, and barred from flying over populated areas.

    The Brazilian Air Force, Botucatu and São Manuel police forces were searching with a C-105 Amazonas, a H1 and an Eagle Helicopter, and found the remains of the passengers in dense forest, in a rugged area near Monte Alegre.

    The Squad of Campo Grande rescue team is on the scene.

    Locals who heard the failing engine, a roar and saw a flash of light in the woods notified authorities.

    The remains have been identified as:
    -Alderman and Deputy Mayor of Suzano (SP) Jessé Almeida,
    -Edson Geraldino, identified as owner of the plane.

    The identity of the third party, Rubens Geraldino, has not been confirmed by the family. The passengers (uncle and nephew) were from Mogi das Cruzes, SP, Brazil.

    Video Below

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    Emergency Landing in Baku

    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.

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    No Flaps—Fast Landing

    Delta flight 5104 carrying 47 people from Atlanta to Allentown made an emergency landing at Lehigh Valley International Airport after the Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200 developed problems with its flaps.

    Lehigh Valley International Airport is a regular stop on 5106.

    Air traffic control was notified at 6:35 p.m. and within twenty minutes the flight had made a fast landing without flaps—a fast landing because flaps help the plane slow down.

    No injuries were reported.
    Video Below

    /a>video solutions

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    Emergency Landing at Emerald Airport


    After suffering engine trouble, a Virgin flight for Brisbane returned to Emerald Airport and made an emergency landing.

    No injuries were reported. Emergency services responded to the scene. Passengers were provided overnight accommodations.

    In my experience, this does not happen often to Virgin.

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    Business Jet Crashes


    Sunday a Cessna Citation business jet carrying two pilots and two passengers from Shoreham airport in England to an airfield at Foehren struck a post in foggy conditions, and crashed, in flames when firefighters arrived. The two pilots and two passengers—all German— died at the scene. The wing stuck in (struck?) a pylon to the north-east of the 1200 meter runway. The Rivenich landfill is near the airport.

    The airfield is not equipped for instrument landings. Landings are not recommended with visibility less than 1,800 metros, but visibility was less than 100 meters.

    A passerby witnessed the incident and called it in. Trier Emergency services responded.

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    Emergency Landing in Phoenix


    US Airways Phoenix to Philly developed engine vibration in a left engine and returned to Phoenix.

    The Boeing 757 circled Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for 90 minutes to burn off fuel then in spite of unwanted oscillation, made a safe landing at 10:50 a.m. Passengers were provided other flights.

    The plane and its engine’s bad vibes are being inspected.

    Jan 16: Flight Aware Tracking of Flight AWE714

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    Boeing Looks Into Green Fuel Environmental Strategy

    Boeing Commercial Airplanes Environmental Strategy and Integration is researching a “green” fuel broadly called green diesel—which has half of the carbon emissions of regular fuel—in the hope of weaning commercial planes off of fossil fuels. Green diesel, which is already being produced, is a legitimate alternative to Jet-A fuel which is what is used now.

    Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with alcohol producing fatty acid esters. Refined diesel can be produced that is chemically identical to diesel fuel. Any blending ratio can be used, and no modifications or checks are required for any diesel engine, but what is being considered is using green fuel in a half-and-half blend with Jet A fuel.

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    Turbulence over Atlanta

    On January 10, a Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200 en route from Jacksonville to Atlanta encountered turbulence on approach to Atlanta.

    A flight attendant was injured.

    No other injuries were reported.

    The incident is under investigation.

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    Parachute Flight Comes to Quick Halt


    On Jan 14, 2013, six people—pilot Marcelo Rodríguez, two instructors and three parachutists—were aboard a Cessna 205 during a parachute flight in Punta el Este, Uraguay.

    When the engine lost power, the pilot made a forced landing and flipped. No fatalities were reported. The injured include Uruguayans, two Argentine women and one other. The injured were treated on the scene by mobile emergency units and then transferred to medical centers in Maldonado and Punta del Este.

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    Southwest Flight Lands at Wrong Airport; Pilots Suspended

    The pilots who flew flight 4013 (Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700) and landed at the wrong airport nine miles from the correct airport on Sunday have been suspended. Yes, they landed safely but at the wrong airport. Hello. The PIC and copilot have a combined flight experience of twenty-six years. Guess they weren’t (as the video says) “paying attention.”

    Nothing for the passengers to worry their pretty little heads about.
    Please note the above line is sarcasm.

    Southwest Airlines said:

    “The Southwest Airlines Pilot in command of flight #4013 safely landed at (PLK) Taney County airport this evening. The Boeing 737-700 carried 124 Customers and a crew of five and was operating as a scheduled flight from Chicago Midway to Branson.

    Our ground crew from the Branson airport has arrived at the airport to take care of our Customers and their baggage. The landing was uneventful, and all Customers and Crew are safe.”

    The runway was half as long as normal, the plane stopping three hundred feet short of the drop off at the runway’s end.

    The PIC was cleared to land at Branson, right before it nailed the landing at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport.

    So we’re all waiting for the investigation to hear the answers to why it happened, why the co-pilot didn’t catch the mistake (or maybe he did?), if confusion between Branson and Southwest is a common thing, and all those other questions that come up.

    See Videos Below

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    Another Robinson Crash

    On January 12, 2013, a Sky Clear Aviação Robinson R22 Beta II was in Santa Maria Madalena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on a training flight when it crashed into a forested area. Because he helicopter crashed on top of trees, some of the crash force was dispersed. Both the pilot and student sustain injury. Herbert Campbell, 39, and Gabriel Silva Mataruna Ahmed, 23, were the accident victims. They were conscious when the rescue team arrived but the helicopter is a total loss.

    Emergency responders were the fire brigade of Conceição de Macabu.

    The farm where the accident happened is on the edge of St. Mary Magdalene with Conceição de Macabu, North Fluminense. The Centre for research and prevention of Aeronautical Accidents is investigating.

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    Three Soldiers and Two Civilians Die in Colombian Helicopter Accident

    On JAN 9 2014, a Sociedad Aeronáutica de Santander (SASA) Bell 206L-3 LongRanger
    # HK-4462 en route from Puerto Berrío to Anori was north of Anori, Colombia when it suffered controlled flight into terrain, striking a mountain. No one aboard survived the impact. Three soldiers and two civilians died on the 9th when the helicopter went missing.

    The Seventh Division of the National Army had made a public statement that the aircraft, affiliated with the Aeronautical Society of Santander was “transporting a priest and military personnel assigned to the Fourteenth Brigade”.

    The helicopter crew failed to check in on Thursday afternoon and was located on Friday in rural Anori. Fatalities were two soldiers, one police, one military priest and the pilot.

    Director of the Department of Care andPrevention of Disasters César Hernández confirmed the fatalities.

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    Flight Slides off Runway


    On January 9, 2013, a Jazz Air flight operating as Air Canada Express–flying a de Havilland DHC-8-402Q Dash 8 made a safe landing at John G. Diefenbaker International Airport in Saskatchewan Canada.

    The plane was taxiing when it struck ice, and veered off runway into snow where it was mired, blocking the runway.

    The fifty-six passengers aboard evacuated with the assistance of emergency crews at about 6:30 after waiting about half an hour for a Saskatoon Transit bus from Tarmac to the gate. Weather conditions at the time were reported as heavy fog causing and near zero visibility in Saskatoon. It looks really cold, doesn’t it?

    This image was tweeted: