What: Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737 en route to Quito
Where: coastal city of Chiclayo, 770 km (478 miles) north of Lima
When: Mon Aug 10, 2009
Who: Peruvian President Alan Garcia
Why: While en route to a summit meeting, Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s plane’s windshield suffered a crack and had to land.
Pictured: A Tam Airbus landing on the short “airport” runway “surfing” between buildings to land at Congonhas
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Alan Olivieri
What: TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A319-100 en route from Vitoria,ES to Sao Paulo Congonhas,SP
Where: Diverted to Sao Paulo Viracopos Airport
When: Aug 8th 2009
Who: 38 people on board
Why: Hydraulics failed on approach to Sao Paulo so the pilots declared an emergency and diverted to the longer runway at Vircacopos Airport.
George’s Point of View
A good decision here! Better to divert than to have a repeat of the TAM Airlines Flight 3054 (JJ 3054) crash on July 17, 2007. The 35L runway at Congonhas is 6,365 feet long, which is why the Congonhas nickname is “aircraft carrier.” The Viracopos/Campinas International Airport has a 10630 foot runway.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Sergio Domingos
What: jet2.com Boeing 757-200 en route from Tel Aviv Israel to Manchester
Where: Budapest (Hungary)
When: Aug 6th 2009
Who: 238 passengers
Why: Four hours into the flight, the flight developed pressurization problems. The pilot dropped altitude suddenly, described as experiencing turbulence and “plummeting thousands of feet.” Oxygen was deployed. The pilot made assurances, but of course the passengers were terrified.
The flight landed safely when it diverted to Budapest, and passengers were put up in a local hotel until a replacement flight was provided for them.
George’s Point of View
We need a better system to see turbulence in time to avoid it. Until we have it, airline operators are just going to need to accept the cost factor.
Going around turbulence is a fact of aviation, and avoiding turbulence is going to cost extra fuel. Sometimes you have to wonder if our present systems are working when flights are routed through known turbulence in order to avoid the expense of going around it. Those are the kind of foolish economical decisions made by those kinds of marginal airlines that are banned in the EU, and one of the reasons they are known to fall out of the sky.
At least our Jet 2 pilot here, had the skill to handle the situation, and a plane sturdy enough to withstand the pressures long enough to safeguard the lives of those aboard.
What: Air India Airbus A320-200 en route from Ahmedabad to Mumbai India
Where: Mumbai
When: Aug 4th 2009
Who: 137 passengers,
Why: The flight experienced a hydraulics failure on approach to Mumbai but had a safe landing.
Pictured: A Merpati Twin Otter plane
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Vector Grafix
A search plane reported sighting the wreckage of the plane 20 nautical miles from Oksibil on a mountain at 9300 feet.
Update:
Fifteen bodies arrived at Sentani Airport, Jayapura on Thursday afternoon and taken to the Bhayangkara Kotaraja Police Hospital for autopsy. Two of the 12 passengers were babies.
What: Merpati Nusantara Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 en route from Jayapura to Oksibil Indonesia
Where: 20 nautical miles from Oksibil Indonesia
When: Aug 2nd 2009
Who: 13 passengers and 2 crew
Why: Initially the weather was reported to be foggy, but 2 hours after the flight, thunder storms were reported. The tower has not been contacted since 10:35 and although the flight was due at 11:05, it never arrived.
State owned PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines is sent out another twin-otter to search for the missing plane. The search was hampered by continued bad weather.
The flight was lost while passing through the Jayapura to Oksibil route
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Gordon Gebert JR
What: British Airways Boeing 757-200 en route from London Heathrow,EN to Barcelona
Where: Barcelona
When: Aug 2nd 2009
Who: 176 passengers 2 pilots and 5 crew members
Why: When smoke was detected in the cabin en route, the crew declared an emergency. The flight landed safely in Barcelona, and passengers debarked via slides. The examination of the plane as it was checked for fire which delayed the passengers retrieval of baggage, but no actual source of smoke or fire was ever detected.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Frank Kuehne
What: Air Astana Airbus A319-100 en route from Almaty to Pavlodar Kasakhstan
Where: Astana Kasakhstan
When: Aug 1st 2009
Who: 72 passengers and 7 crew
Why: The Air Astana Airbus declared an emergency when they discovered an (unspecified) brake problem. The flight diverted to Astana and made a safe landing.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Bernhard Bauske
What: Air Malta A319 en route from Malta (Mala) to Reggio Calabria
Where: Reggio Calabria
When: Jul 23rd 2009
Why: After the bird strike, the plane landed safely and was towed. Passengers transferred to another plane to complete the trip to Rome
What: Air India Airbus A320-200 from Bhubaneswar to Mumbai
Where: Mumbai International Airport
When: July 25
Who: 91
Why: After hydraulic failure, flight IC-169 landed safely and was towed off the runway.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer K Dennis
What: Easyjet Airbus A319-100 en route from Bristol UK to Venice
Where: Venice
When: Jul 24th 2009
Who: one passenger, two crew members
Why: En route, the flight encountered turbulence.
Turbulence in-flight: wounded on board an A319 in Venice Tessera
Following the signal received by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB, entity of the United Kingdom), which is informed by the airline concerned, the Agency initiated an investigation on the July 24 incident in which the Airbus G-A319 encountered strong turbulence resulting in injuries to two crew members and a passenger.
See the Italian press release
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Farzad Farajpour
What: Aria Air Ilyushin IL-62 en route from Tehran to Mashad. The plane was leased by Aria Air from Kazakhstan
Where: Mashad Iran
When: July 24 2009
Who: 153 aboard. 17 died in the accident.
Why: On landing, the nose gear did not deploy; the main wheels sparked on touchdown.
The dead include the first three rows, the flight crew and the cabin crew. Also, there were 19 injuries reported so far.
Aria Air’s managing director Mehdi Dadpay was among the victims
George’s Point of View
This was the second Iranian airliner crash within 10 days. Iran should put their foot down on all airlines, government owned or not to insure that every single plane that takes off is airworthy.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Vlad Moskvin
What: Transaero Airlines Boeing 737-300 en route from Moscow Domodedovo to St. Petersburg (Russia)
Where: Moscow
When: Jul 20th 2009
Who: 41 passengers and 6 crew
Why: On takeoff, the right wing lost a 60 by 80 centimeter “leading edge fairing”. The flight continued as usual and fortunately landed safely in St. Petersburg.
The part was found on the Domodedova airport runway.
George’s Point of View
I’m sure that all of us have heard of the old saying (paraphrased from De Minimis Maxima ) the mighty oak from tiny acorns grow.
When one considers the question of pieces falling off of a plane, it seems simultaneously a tiny pointless thing and a huge issue. Consider a miniscule hole in the roof of our house is hardly worth considering; perhaps it is even invisible to the naked eye. But look what damage it causes when it rains. Somehow I don’t think “the leading edge” is like a car’s hubcap, mostly for decoration. It’s there to do something, and when that part is gone, that something is undone and will have consequences. Maybe letting in some moisture. Maybe causing corrosion down the road.
As a frequent passenger, I tend to be somewhat fatalistic about plane parts. Look, some engineer put that part there for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is, but if it’s good enough for the plane’s engineer, it is good enough for me, and I’d just as soon not fly without it. So many carriers get bad reputations based on careless maintenance of old planes, and this is just the kind of incident that gets people talking. (Old planes need MORE maintenance as they get older, just like old furniture, old machines, old cars, old people, old EVERYTHING.) Certainly Russia knows that maintenance deferred–especially on an airplane–is a recipe for disaster.
I just hope they replace the part before the little acorn of a problem grows into a great big oak tree of a pending disaster. This may be the first incident in a chain of events that unravels the whole plane.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Tommy Desmet
What: Olympic Airlines Boeing 737-400 en route from Alexandroupolis to Athens
Where: Alexandroupolis’ Democritus Airport
When: Jul 22nd
Who: 60 passengers
Why: The OA took off, and shortly afterwards flew through a flock of birds, several of which were ingested. The plane made an emergency landing back at the airport, after which passengers debarked and switched to other flights.
What: New Plymouth Aero Club Cessna 152 en route from North Shore to New Plymouth.
Where: Waikato, near Te Kuiti New Zealand
When: 21 JUL 2009 1930
Who: 1
Why: Missing plane; circumstances largely unknown.
At 7:30, the plane’s distress beacon was heard, and though the pilot’s last communication indicated an anticipated landing at New Plymouth by 7.50 pm, the plane never arrived at its intended destination. Search was dispached in the vicinity of the beacon 35 miles west of Te Kuiti, but weather (tornados forecast), low cloud cover, and difficult terrain proved an obstacle to the search.
What: KAVOK British Aerospace 3212 Jetstream 32 en route to Venezuela
Where: Metropolitano Airport, Venezuela
When: 19 JUL 2009
Who: 2
Why: On landing at Metropolitano, the plane suffered substantial damage.
What: Beechcraft BE-36 Bonanza en route from Miami to Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais
Where: Venezuela
When: 6 p.m. Brasilia time on July 11
Who: Mauricio Lustosa de Castro, CEO of Magnesita Refratorios SA
Why: Mauricio Lustosa de Castro’s private plane was last heard from in a distress call in Bolivar. Following the distress call a search and rescue began around July 13, though the incident was deemed a fatal crash on July 11.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Ruud Brinks
What: Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400 en route from Hong Kong China to Sapporo Japan
Where: Fukuoka
When: Jul 19th 2009
Who: 398 on board
Why: After smoke filled the cabin, the flight diverted to Fukuoka Japan. The smoke was attributed to an air conditioning leak which was repaired so that the flight was continued less than four hours later.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Sergio Domingos
What: Primera Air Boeing 737-700 en route from Zakinthos Greece to Dublin
Where: Rome Italy
When: Jul 10th 2009
Who: 153 passengers and 6 crew
Why: While en route, the Primera flight requested an emergency landing. It lowered altitude without declaring an emergency, which upset air traffic control. Fighter jets (Eurofighter) were deployed as an escort. The flight landed safely in Rome (after refusing Naples and burning off fuel.)
What: Rossiya Airbus A320-200 en route from Hurghada Egypt to Saint Petersburg Russia
Where: Saint Petersburg
When: Jul 7th 2009
Who: 176 passengers 6 crew
Why: On landing, the airbus had a tail strike, which disabled the plane. Substantial damage occurred to the tail. Russian press released that there were no injuries. The plane was taken out of service for repairs.
Pictured: Merpati Nusantara Airlines Boeing 737-400 registered as PK-MDM. (PK-MDO was the plane in the incident.)
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Biel Gomila
What: Merpati Nusantara Airlines Boeing 737-400 en route from Biak to Ujung Pandang, Indonesia
Where: Biak
When: Jul 6th 2009
Who: 110 passengers and 6 crew
Why: On take off, the left main wheel (rolled or fell? entire wheel or tire?) was lost. After takeoff, the plane burned off fuel and landed safely (even without the wheel), apparently without substantial damage, as the plane reportedly resumed the flight 24 hours later.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Alasdair Mulhern
What: Qantas Airbus A380-800 en route from Singapore to London
Where: London Heathrow
When: Jul 4th 2009
Why: The first approach was aborted due to a nose gear issue. After landing, nose gear steering failed, and the plane was towed. However, repairs were made so that on the return flight, the delay was only about two hours.
Pictured: A Kingfisher Airlines Airbus
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Steve Brimley
What: Guwahati- Kolkata Kingfisher Airbus A320-200 en route from Guwahati to Kolkata
Where: NSC Bose International Airport (Kolkata Airport is also known as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport)
When: Jul 7th 2009
Who: 117 passengers (alternately reported as 170)
Why: 125 km from landing at Kolkata, smoke was reported in the cabin coming from a galley. The plane landed safely and passengers debarked normally.
A newspaper report claims there was a false alarm from a cockpit indicator reporting a fire in the cargo belly. No plane registration number was given for either report, though, so it conceivably could have been sloppy reportage of two separate KingFisher Airbuses at the same airport.
View Geplak in a larger map
Pictured: Indonesian C-130 Hercules licensed as A-1326. The plane in the crash was registered as A-1325.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter de Jong
What: Indonesian Air Force civilian Lockheed L-100-30(P) Hercules, en route from Jakarta to Madiun’s Iswahyudi Airport [WIAR] (Indonesia) (The Lockheed L-100 is the civilian version of a C-130 Hercules)
Where: Magetan, East Java. Geplak 325 miles east of Jakarta.
When: May 19 6:20am local time
Who: 98 passengers (troops and their families) and 11 crew. On May 22nd, aviation authorities reported recovering 101 bodies. 15 survivors were taken to local hospitals. The exact number aboard is unclear. The flight manifest is reportedly inaccurate. (Some overlap with passengers and crew numbers. The reports range from 99 to 113 passengers and 13 or 14 crew members.) Ten children were on board the flight. Two were killed on the ground..
Why: The plane was about to land at Iswahyudi military airbase. Witnesses claim the plane split apart in the air, (one of the wings fell off when the plane was still in the air) and exploded.
The plane skidded through a rice paddy, a stand of trees and into four houses in Geplak. 9 people were in the houses, of whom two are reported dead.
Pictured: One of Shaheen Air’s 12 Boeing 737s
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Steve Brimley
What: Shaheen Airlines Boeing 737-200 en route to Karachi
Where: Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Airport
When: Saturday
Who: not available
Why: A bird strike right after take-off caused the pilots to request an emergency landing. No one was injured, and the flight took off after a delay of four hours.
View from an airbus similar to the one in the incident
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Nitin Sarin
What: Air India Airbus A321-200 en route from Kochi to New Delhi
Where: Nagpur
When: Jul 3rd 2009
Who: 151 passengers and 6 crew
Why: When the engine shut down amid-flight, the plane diverted to Nagpur where it made an emergency landing without any known injuries. Technical details regarding the engine problem have not been released.
