Frontier Airlines flight F9-1977 had to return and make an emergency landing in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 6th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Las Vegas, Nevada, but had to turn back due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
A small plane crashed in Riegelwood, North Carolina, on the night of September 11.
The Cessna 172 was heading from Bolton to Wallace when it went down. North Carolina Wing Civil Air Patrol dispatched two aircrafts that found the wreckage at 1:15 a.m. on September 12.
The pilot, who was the only one aboard, was killed in the crash. He was identified as Gene Pierce, 76, of Duplin County.
The cause of crash is not clear at the moment.
Lufthansa flight LH-1410 made an emergency landing in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 22nd.
The Airbus A320-200 plane flying from Frankfurt, Germany, was on final approach to Belgrade when the crew went around due to unsafe gear.
The plane subsequently landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
KLM flight KL-1705 had to return after taking off from Amsterdam, Netherlands, on September 21st.
The Boeing 737-800 plane was heading to Madrid, Spain, when the crew reported a stuck altimeter and decided to turn back.
The plane landed uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained safe.
The airline arranged a replacement plane for the passengers.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Tim Perkins
What: Southwest Airlines 737 en route from Nashville to Baltimore
Where: Charleston’s Yeager Airport
When: 6:30 p.m Monday July 13
Who: 126 passengers and five crew
Why: While en route, the cabin depressurized when a hole (metal fatigue?) approximately the size of a football appeared in the fuselage. The plane managed to land safely in Charleston West Virginia. The NTSB is investigating.
(News photos don’t look football sized, but it is sure big enough to see plenty of daylight through.)
George’s Point of View
The 737 is a true workhorse, built to land and takeoff almost without too much delay except to load and unload passengers.
I fly Southwest to Las Vegas all the time. It’s a short hop.
I must admit, that every time I fly in one of these planes I have begun to worry about the age and/or the fatigue of the structure. A trip like one from LA to Vegas, most times, is a beating on the passengers and the plane itself. My guess is that 4 out of 5 of these short trips encounter turbulence, sometimes bad turbulence. This beats up the plane. In this case, the plane being beaten up was manufactured in 1994. That’s a lot of years of turbulence abuse. Metal fatigue in these conditions is not surprising, and neither is it completely unexpected. An inspection on this plane last January revealed eight cracks in the frame that required repairs.
I’m just glad it was a BOEING, and that the pilot remained in control of the aircraft. And of course, it’s a good thing that Southwest is now inspecting all of their planes for fatigue. Last year Southwest was fined $7.5 million for overdue inspections. I hope this is not going to be a repeat of last year. All the timely inspections in the world aren’t going to make this plane any younger. Maybe it’s time to put this particular plane out to pasture.
British Airways flight 474 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts on July 8.
The pilot had to divert the plane after a drunk passenger, Darren Halliwell, allegedly hit his wife, Sharon Halliwell, mid-air. The plane was en-route from London Heathrow Airport, UK, to Houston, Texas, at the time.
The plane landed uneventfully.
Authorities confirmed that the 48 year-old company director would have to face 2 and a half-year prison sentence after assaulting his wife.
British Airways has agreed to pay compensation to some of the passengers whose connecting flights were delayed last year when its Airbus A319 aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Heathrow International Airport, London on May 24.
Both the engine doors of Flight BA762 to Oslo blew off and right one caught fire, shortly after taking off from Heathrow. The passengers evacuated through escape slides. One of the two runways remained blocked for more than 3 hours.
BA initially denied any compensation and maintained that the incident was due to exceptional circumstances beyond its control.
However, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch revealed that the retaining latches to hold the engine doors in place were not closed, so this is human error. Therefore, the passengers who were delayed for more than three hours are entitled for compensation between €250 and €600 from the airline, said solicitors Bott & Co.
After the incident, nine other passengers have also filed a lawsuit against aircraft manufacturer Airbus and the engine maker International Aero Engines.
