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Contact photographer Paul Carlotti
What: Denim Air Fokker 50 en route from Copenhagen to Strasbourg
Where: Copenhagen
When: Jul 4th 2011
Why: After takeoff from Copenhagen, the #1 engine developed problems with the oil pressure and pilots had to shut it down.
The flight returned to Copenhagen and made a safe landing.
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Contact photographer Michael Van Bosch
What: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 [see example above] en route from the McCarran International Airport en route to Long Island, New York.
Where: McCarran International Airport Las Vegas
When: Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off–at 3:28 p.m.
Who: 118 passengers
Why: The crew of the Southwest Airlines Boeing shut down one engine when it caught on fire; and used the remaining working engine to make the emergency landing safely.
Pictured: A Delta Connection (ASA – Atlantic Southeast Airlines) Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-200ER
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Contact photographer Hartsfield
What: Delta/ Atlantic Southeast Airlines Canadair CRJ-200 from Atlanta to Cleveland
Where: Knoxville
When: Dec 22nd 2009
Who: 50 passengers and 3 crew,
Why: While en route, the plane lost cabin pressure. The flight diverted to Knoxville and landed safely.
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Contact photographer Andras Kisgergely
What: Air Europa Airbus A330-200 en route from Buenos Aires to Madrid
Where: Rio de Janeiro
When: Jan 8th 2011
Why: While en route, one of the plane’s two engines had to be shut down. The pilot diverted to Rio and made a safe landing with only the left engine.
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Contact photographer Karl Nixon
What: Albanian Airlines Boeing 737-300 en route from Tirana’s Mother Theresa International Airport in Albania to Bologna Italy
Where: Bratislava
When: Jan 17th 2010
Who: 110 passengers
Why: After boarding a flight from Tirana Albania to Bologna Italy, passengers were actually flown to Bratislava Slovakia. Disgruntled unpaid crew members flew their paying passengers to Bratislava (instead of Bologna) in protest for not receiving wages, or at least that is what the crew told the passengers.
Albanian Airlines leases the plane from Air Slovakia, and the Czech pilots are employed by Air Slovakia. Air Slovakia denies owing wages, and claims that the diversion was due to technical problems. Albanian Airlines says they knew of nothing technical wrong with the plane (which is also technically grounded in repairs with Bratislavan maintenance.)
Meanwhile, passengers alerted the media as soon as they arrived in Bratislava that the crew reported they had diverted (hijacked? passengernapped?) the plane because of unpaid wages. Passengers were put up in hotel accommodations in Bratislava (I’d have liked to see the accommodations!) and were supposed to have departed Monday. It is not reported whether or not the crew was put up with accommodations in jail.
Is this starting to sound like an episode of Wings, only with everyone in the cast speaking in a Tony Shalhoub version of a Bratislavan accent?
And you can be very proud that not once did I make a snide, uncalled-for reference to “brat” and “slave” and “protesting” “unpaid” pilots. Well. Maybe once. We do believe in pilots getting paid–but we also tend to prefer pilots who take passengers to their expected destinations.
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Contact photographer Manuel Wenger
What: Air Canada Boeing 767-300 en route from Vancouver to Shanghai
Where: Vancouver International Airport
When: August 21, 2010
Who: 166 passengers and 9 crew
Why: Twenty minutes after leaving, the pilot returned to Vancouver after detecting a whistling sound from a cockpit window. The flight entered a holding pattern, then made a safe landing.
Passengers were provided an alternative plane while this plane was scheduled for maintenance.
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Contact photographer KianHong
What: Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Adelaideto Singapore
Where: Denpasar Indonesia
When: May 10th 2010
Why: While en route, the engine made a banging noise. The pilot shut down the affected engine, and tge flight immediately diverted to Denpasar where they made a safe landing.
No mention is made of how (or whether) the passengers got where they were going, nor of what exactly happened to the plane. (Does a plane make a banging noise when it blows a gasket?)
