Contract Air Cargo Freight Convair Damaged in Guatemala Landing

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Contact photographer Peter Tsagaris

What: Trans States Airlines Embraer ERJ-145/United Airlines en route from Chicago to Ottawa
Where: Ottawa International Airport
When: Sep. 04 2011
Who: 44 passengers, 3 crew
Why: On landing in Ottawa, the plane slid, and veered off the side of the runway, with collapsed main gear struts.

On Apr 28th 2011, an Embraer ERJ-145 landed in Moscow with collapsed main gear.

Last year, another plane with the same airline also skidded off the runway into soft ground.

Sunday’s passengers describe coming down from a dark cloud to land in rain.

The landing is under investigation.

I do not know if this runway is incorrectly graded for drainage, or if the ERJ-145 has a special problem with main gear struts or struts in hard landings.

I do know I fly 100,000 miles on United in order to keep my status as a 1K member.

I do not know if the maintenance of the aircraft is as terrible as the typical maintenance of United plane interiors. If so, then we have huge problems. The refurbished planes of two years ago already look worn out. The galleys are grimy looking the toilets are terrible.

I could say bad things about the food, the lav hot water is not hot enough to meet standards required by most states for food workers, (where I have never seen Waterless Hand Sanitizers and for sure, NEVER have seen a food preparer or server wear gloves.)

Is United maintenance absolutely out of control? Maybe this stretches to other airlines, economizing on staff and maintenance due to the times.

I fly Delta, American, Virgin, they have some of the same issues, but, I see these problems in the United flights, no matter which direction I am headed.

Who knows yet if this incident is runway or plane, pilot training or just an old plane that needs better maintenance. But whatever truths the investigation reveals, the fact remains that no one steps up to the plate until something bad happens.