What: Cenac Marine Services Robinson R44 Raven II Where: Belle Isle area east of Wax Lake, LA When: Jan 19, 2012, 7:30 am Who: 2 aboard Why: A helicopter flying south of Morgan City crashed into a marsky area east of Wax Lake. Fishermen called 911 when they saw the burning wreckage.
The Cenac Marine Services helicopter crashed at 7:30 am, killing the two aboard.
In St. Mary Parish, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has four boats and six agents engaged in search, rescue and recovery. FAA and National Transportation Safety Board investigators will be arriving ASAP.
What: Delta/Pinnacle Airlines Canadair CRJ-200 en route from Detroit to Portland Where: Albany When: Jan 18th 2012 Who: 51 passengers and 3 crew Why: While en route, the plane developed problems with the fuel gauge.
Pilots diverted to Albany where they made a safe landing. The problem took two hours to repair, and the flight resumed.
What: Air Greenland de Havilland Dash 7-100 en route from Ilulissat to Upernavik Where: Ilulissat When: Jan 11th 2012 Who: 27 passengers and 3 crew Why: After takeoff from Ilulissat, smoke developed in the lavatory, cabin and cockpit and the fire detector went off The flight returned to Ilulissat where they made a safe landing.
No smoke or fire was detected in the cabin, but on inspection, the high pressure bleed air on both left engines did not work.
Additionally, unidentified chemical fumes evaporated in to the air conditioning system.
Maintenance believes the problem has been corrected.
What: A JAL Japan Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Tokyo to Sydney Where: Tokyo When: Jan 14th 2012 Who: 260 aboard Why: About twenty minutes after takeoff, a passenger’s armrest caught on fire in business class. After the fire was put out, the pilots dumped fuel, and the flight returned to Tokyo where it made a safe landing.
The fire has been attributed to a passenger’s lighter.
What: Delta Boeing 757 en route from Atlanta to Costa Rica Where: Tampa International Airport When: January 15, 2011 7:34 p.m Who: 2 unruly passengers Why: When Peter and Gabriele Strohmaier of Dusseldorf, Germany demanded champagne and food and refused to sit down, pilots made an emergency stop in Tampa and dropped them off.
What: Luxair Boeing 737-700 en route from Luxembourg to Lanzarote Spain Where: Lanzarote When: Jan 15th 2012 Who: 128 passengers Why: While en route, the plane developed flap problems.
Pilots diverted to Fuerteventura and made a safe landing.
What: Beechcraft A36 Bonanza en route from Pontes e Lacerda to Santa Fé do Sul Where: Caceres, Brazil When: 14-JAN-2012, 8 am Who: 3 aboard, 3 fatalities Why: A plane piloted by Antonio Carlos Lopes do Amaral (Carlos Lopes Antonio Amaral) 57, former president of the Mato Grosso state legislature crashed in Mato Grosso in torrential rain, killing all three aboard. The crash site was a ranch located 12 miles from downtown Caceres, Site Sao Paulo, San Francisco community. Also killed were Vitório Quarentão and João Batista Paulo do Carmo.
Local witnesses heard the engine sputter or fail three times before it went into a tailspin and fell into a marshy area.
The wreckage shattered, and it appears that DNA testing will have to be used.
Amaral has sister in Caceres, businesswoman Maridalva Vignard Amaral, owns a radio station. The family said Amaral’s body and his friend Victor will be transferred to Santa Fe do Sul via plane and taken to counter Pontes e Lacerda.
A team from the Department of Civil Aviation will be arriving in Caceres to start investigating the cause of the accident. Amaral leaves a wife and three children. John was single.
The plane is registered to Air Martins School of Civil Aviation.
What: Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route from New York JFK,NY (USA) to Prague Where: Prague When: Jan 14th 2012 Why: On approach to Prague, the plane developed a flaps problem. Pilots could not correct the problem, and aborted the landing. Still unable to correct, the flight made a fast landing with emergency services on standby.
Apparently the problem was fixed, as the plane only was an hour late on its return flight.
What: GT Gyroplanes Kruza Where: off Willis Road, near Mangalore Airport When: Jan 14, 2012, 12:30 Who: pilot and student aboard, 2 fatalities Why: A local pilot reported that the ultralight crashed, looking as if it came straight down and smashed up. The wreckage was found in a paddock in a field. No one witnessed the crash, but at 10:00 someone witnessed the chopper being buffeted by “gale force” winds.
The flight was discovered after it failed to return to the airport to pick up the next student.
The wreckage is in several pieces. The gyrocopter broke up on impact. It had normally been used for training exercises. The Mangalore airport is in Australia.
What: Iran Air Fokker 100 en route from Dammam Saudi Arabia to Mashad Iran Where: Mashad When: Jan 13th 2012 Why: On landing in Mashad, the tires blew, leaving the plane disabled in the runway for an hour.
No indication if the pilots landed hard, or were landing with a tail wind.
What: PSA Airlines/US Airways Canadair CRJ-200 en route from Nashville,TN to Washington National,DC Where: Charleston When: Jan 12th 2012 Who: 23 passengers and 3 crew Why: While en route, the crew noted cargo smoke and diverted to Charleston.
The flight was cancelled.
After landing, the plane was inspected by emergency services, who found a closed system to be leaking.
What: Cropspray Ltd. Westland (Aérospatiale) SA 341G Gazelle en route from Bath Where: Churchfields Industrial Estate in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK When: Jan 10, 2012 09:40 GMT. Who: 3 aboard Why: When the chopper developed an engine problem, the pilot didn’t have much time to decide what to do..
Businesssman/pilot Andrew Ridings, said in an interview that he only had an instant to choose whether to fall into the river or a tree; he chose a “fuffy” tree, made a 180 degree turn and landed on it 8 feet from the river, and fell through. A local worker cleared a path for emergency services to make a prompt arrival.
Two of the injured were released from the hospital; one remains hospitalized with a back injury.
The The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) is investigating.
Two aboard were taken by Great Western Ambulance Service to Southampton General Hospital and one was taken by ambulance. All three made it safely out of the helicopter, suffering a variety of injuries.
What: American Airlines Boeing 737-800 en route from Chicago to Boston Where: Albany When: Jan 9th 2012, 3 pm Who: 124 passengers and 6 crew Why: While en route, the left engine lost oil pressure.
Pilots shut down the engine and diverted to Albany. They circled, and dumped fuel before making a safe landing. Emergency services were on standby.
Until 2008, the Albany Airport was a regular stop for American Airlines, and hopes soon to be a regular stop again.
A replacement jet was provided. Some passengers rented cars rather than wait.
What: Keystone Air Service Ltd.Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain en route from Winnipeg to Manitoba. Where: North Spirit Lake reserve, Ontario Canada When: Jan 10, 2012, 10:00 a.m. Who: 5 aboard, 4 fatalities Why: The Keystone Air Service two engines propellor driven aircraft went down half a mile from North Spirit Lake’s gravel runway. THe plane crashed on the lake and caught fire 500 metres from the airport. People from a nearby residence rushed to the plane and tried to put out the fire with snow until the snow became saturated with jet fuel. Then they attempted to cut through the ice to get water to douse the flames. There was no firefighting equipment and no rescue resources or emergency equipment, and the runway has no control tower.
Witnesses heard the plane making a “putt putt” noise as it circled.
The cause of the crash has not been pinpointed; the plane had no black box, but locals say there was a blinding white-out blizzard with no visibility when the plane crashed.
Three of the passengers aboard were employees of Aboriginal Strategies, Inc. The pilot was one of the four people were killed. One male survivor is injured. Martha Campbell, Ben Van Hoek, and Colette Eisinger are among the deceased.
The locator beacon went off at 10:30, alerting ATC and the NTSB that the plane went down. NAPS and the Ontario Provincial Police responded. ASI(Aboriginal Strategies, Inc.) is owned by Tataskweyak Cree Nation, of Split Lake. The small (400 member) community is devastated.
What: Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500 en route from Cape Town to Dubai Where: Capetown When: Jan 4 2012 1.55pm Who: 243 passengers Why: After takeoff, the gear did not retract and (as was observed) the gear doors remained open. We presume the pilots did a fly-by that was the source of the visual conformation of the issue at hand.
An hour and a half after takeoff, with emergency crews on standby, the pilots landed back in Capetown (3.20pm), and was towed.
Passengers were provided hotel accommodations. The replacement flight was scheduled for Jan 5, 2012.
<What: Air China Airbus A330-200 en route from Sanya to Beijing Where: Sanya When: Jan 8th 2012 Who: not available Why: After a faulty cargo door refused to close and held up the flight for two hours, once the flight was in the air, the door emitted an unsafe indication.
The flight returned safely to Sanya and made a safe landing. The door problem was reported as a false indication.
In George’s Point of View
One wonders if the delicate electronic indicator mechanism was damaged during attempts to close the door? I can’t help picturing the cargo door being repeatedly slammed. But wHo knows? We haven’t heard if the flight continued, was cancelled or if the jet was replaced.
What: M & W Aviation LLC Cirrus SR22 GTS en route from Kendall-Tamiami Executive to Port au Prince Where: Off the coast of Andros, Bahamas When: Jan 7 2012, 1 pm Who: 2 aboard, no fatalities Why: After the Cirrus engine failed, a father and daughter from Birmingham Alabama on a humanitarian mission deployed the plane’s parachute and ended up in a raft in the sea after their airplane crashed two miles off the coast of the Bahamas.
After their distress call to ATC Miami Center of Aircraft Emergency at around 12: 15 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard sent a HC-144 Ocean Sentry on reconnaissance and located their raft. Richard McGlaughlin, 59, and Elaine McGlaughlin, 25 were retrieved from their inflatable onto a Jayhawk chopper.
What: TAM Bolivia Xian MA-60 en route from Riberalta to Guayaramerin, Bolivia Where: Guayaramerin When: Jan 9th 2012 Who: 16 passengers, 5 crew Why: On landing, the plane’s landing gear would not lower. Pilots had to perform a belly landing in Guayaramerin. (In May 2011, the same plane had had a prior belly landing.)
What: Sky Express Boeing 737-500 en route from Moscow to Chelyabinsk Where: Moscow When: Jan 5th 2012 Who: n/a Why: After takeoff, the flight developed cabin pressurization issues.
A half hour after takeoff, the flight returned to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, and made a safe landing.
What: American Eagle Canadair CRJ-700 en route from Nashville, TN to New York, NY Where: Raleigh Durham When: Jan 3rd 2012 Who: n/a Why: Two phones found in the lavatory prompted the pilot to divert to Raleigh Durham.
A passenger who claimed the phones later was removed from the plane and taken custody by the FBI.
What: Air France Boeing 777-200 en route from Houston,TX to Paris Where: Houston When: Jan 3rd 2012 Who: 228 passengers and 15 crew Why: While en route from Houston, a phone was found aboard. Pilots returned to Houston, where the flight underwent a security check.
The flight landed safely in Paris after a five hour delay.
What: United Boeing 777-200 en route from from Taipai to Tokyo Where: Taipei When: Jan 3rd 2011 Who: 270 aboard Why: After the flight took off, the nose gear doors failed to close.
Pilots circled for an hour and returned to make a safe landing.
What: American Eagle Embraer ERJ-145 en route from Dallas Ft. Worth,TX to Grand Rapids Where: Grand Rapids When: Jan 1st 2012 Who: 46 aboard Why: On approach to Grand Rapids, the Embraer developed problems with the flaps. The pilots had to abort their first and second approach.
Due to braking conditions, pilots diverted to Chicago, and made a fast but otherwise safe landing.
No notation if/how passengers were provided transportation from Chicago to Grand Rapids.
What: Kyrgyzstan/Altyn Air Tupolev 134A-3 en route from Bishkek to Osh Where: Osh Airport, Kyrgyzstan When: 28 DEC 2011 Who: 6 crew, 82 passengers, 25 injured Why: After a hard landing in dense fog, the plane skidded off the runway, collapsing the right main gear, and flipped. As it rolled over, the right wing separated, and the ensuing fire was quickly contained by rescue services standing by. Passengers inside were hanging upside down, suspended by their seatbelts, but had to find a way to evacuate quickly, before the plane had a chance to explode. A fire occurred from a fuel leak in the remaining wing, but it was controlled.
The metar at the time of the landing was:
UAFO 280700Z 02002MPS 0300 R12/0550 FG VV001 00/00 Q1023 R12/19//50 TEMPO 0300 FZFG VV002 RMK QFE691/0922 BASE050M
Wind from 020 degrees at 2 m/sec; visibility 300m; on runway 12, touchdown zone visual range is 550m in fog; vertical visibility 100 m; pressure: 1023 hPa; temperature: 0°C.
Six crew members and nineteen passengers were hospitalized, but there were no fatalities reported. Nine children were aboard. The plane was evacuated.
Because of the incident, the airport (runway) was temporarily closed, and Osh-Bishkek flights are delayed.
Of the 25 reported injured and hospitalized, these have been identified: Rustamov A. b. 1977, Ismatova A. b. 1993, Turgunaliev Charles b.1960; and two injured, Mamatov A., born 1992, and Suyunbaeva A. 2011g.r. who are in a children’s hospital in Osh. The most seriously injured is a 19 year old girl.
What: Air France Airbus A330-200 en route from Paris to New York Where: Paris When: Dec 25th 2011 Who: 187 passengers and 12 crew Why: On takeoff from Paris, the crew detected problems.
The engine anti-icing system indicated a problem, so the pilots returned to Paris two hours after leaving.
An anti-ice system valve was apparently repaired. After two more hours, the flight took off for New York.
What: Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 en route from Cyprus to Athens to Prague, Czech Republic Where: Athens When: Aug. 14, 2005 Who: 121 passengers Why: Before losing radio contract, pilots reported trouble with the air conditioning system. In the flight, cabin pressure failure knocked out the pilots. They made it to Athens, but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Crash video shows fire fighting planes controlling fires, bodies, baggage, airplane spread over a large debris field, the tail and engines relatively intact. At the time of the crash, except for one pilot (who was observed trying to land the plane), everyone aboard was comatose due to lack of oxygen.
In the case, prosecution failed to prove that German pilot Hans-Juergen Merten and his Cypriot co-pilot Charalambos Charalambous didn’t meet the minimum standards
A Cyprus court has acquitted four former airline officials of manslaughter charges.
In George’s Point of View
This court case is just another example of how long aviation cases, including the criminal cases of potentially/allegedly responsible parties, can drag on in court.
