Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Tiago Palla
What: Hifly Airbus A310-300 en route from Lisbon to Berlin
Where: Lisbon
When: Dec 15th 2009
Who: not available
Why: After takeoff, the plane developed a non-disclosed technical problem and returned to the airport. A replacement flight transported the passengers four hours later.
IndiGo Airlines flight 6E-248 had to reject take off from Mumbai, India, on January 21st.
The Airbus A320-200 plane was accelerating to take off for Delhi, India, when one of the engines emitted sparks and a loud bang, forcing the crew to reject take off.
The plane safely returned to the apron. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Pictured: A Thai Army GAF N-22B Nomad. No Philippine photos available.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Tek
What: Philippine Air Force GAF N22B Nomad en route from Awang Airport in Cotabato City to Zamboanga
Where: Virgo Subdivision in Rosary Heights 9.
When: January 28, 2010
Who: 8 fatalities including Maj. Gen. Butch Lacso, Two pilots and five crewmen and one fatality on the ground
Why: After takeoff, the plane suffered an engine failure. The pilot was attempting an emergency landing when the plane crashed in Cotabato City, a residential area outside Manila.
Finnair flight AY-617 had to return and make an emergency landing in Helsinki, Finland, on January 23rd.
The Airbus A321-200 plane took off for Ivalo, Finland, but had to turn back after the first officer fell ill.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and eighty-six passengers aboard remained unharmed.
What: Qantas Airbus A330-300 en route from Hong Kong China to Perth Australia
Where: Perth
When: Jun 22nd 2009
Who: 206 passengers and 13 crew
Why: A Qantas Airbus (like the one in the Air France crash) was off Borneo when it encountered turbulence that made it lose 800 feet in altitude, and injured a dozen passengers and one crew member aboard. Passengers reported that the turbulence sent crew, passengers and carts flying.
Although web reportsby word of mouth include statements that crystals formed on the Airbus instruments, there’s no credible source collaborating the allegation; the crew reported the turbulence as a purely meteorological event. Lightning flashes were seen but the plane did NOT fly through a thunderstorm.
George’s Point of View
Is this the boy who cried wolf? Or a case of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire?”
Click to view large photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Frank Robitaille
What: Continental Airlines Flight 3407, Bombardier Q400 turboprop operated by regional carrier Colgan Air en route from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo Niagara International Airport
Where: Clarence Center, New York.
When: Thursday Feb 12 struck a house at 10: 10 pm. Two homes were affected.
Who: 44 passengers and four crew members, 1 off-duty pilot, 1 person on the ground, all fatalities. The passenger manifest has not officially been released.
Why: The New Jersey-to-Buffalo flight was cleared to land on a runway pointing to the southwest. But the plane crashed with its nose pointed to the northeast. Seconds after two automatic warnings to the pilots that the plane was not moving fast enough to stay aloft, the twin turboprop aircraft went through a “severe pitch and roll” after positioning its flaps for a landing. It did not dive into the house, as initially thought, but landed flat on the house. Icing is emerging as the possible cause for why flight 3047 fell from the sky. The flight data recorder has been collected and is currently being examined.
It’s difficult for me to comprehend why we cancelled earlier searches. I’m certain we do not have any new technology now that we didn’t already have 2 years ago. The subs used have been gradually fine-tuned, but not significantly in the past two years.
It is common knowledge now that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute team, running a couple of AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Remus 6000’s were barely a week into the fourth search when they discovered the location of pieces of the wreckage of the fallen Airbus, flight 447 in an area thought of as an underwater “Himalayas”. Mike Purcell, Senior Engineer of the Woods Hole team, has attributed the discovery to the ability of the Remus being able to submerge to 6000 meters (which means being able to follow the underwater mountain range cliffs, ravines, and slopes); and to the decision to start close to the last known position of the plane.
I do wonder why this was the fourth search; there should have been only one— a single search that continued until the wreckage was found.
Maybe there is no correct time to be critical, and if I am critical, it is not of the search team who did a splendid, if not all but impossible job, in finding the wreckage. It is entirely the human effort that made the difference, because although the AUVs are autonomous, they are not truly intelligent. They had to be daily programmed, and with three units running, this means three times the (sonar) data had to be daily downloaded, processed and analyzed. The team learned how to deal with managing the challenging demersal topography, and reading the visual output which were sonar abstractions that look like etch-a-sketch scribbles. The expert on board analysts had 15 years of experience in interpreting this data.
For the search team, I have only praise.
My point of criticism is for the decision makers, and it is founded on behalf of concern for the families.
We are hearing how well preserved the remains were, due to the temperature and water pressure. We are hearing about how only some of the remains were retrieved.
Why only some?
All the bereaved families should have the right to retrieve their loved ones. All of the families should have the right to place their loved ones in a known and tangible resting place.
It is a chilling callousness on behalf of the planners to advise their team to knowingly leave behind even so much as a single hair, if that hair was known to be that of one of the victims. The decision betrays a chilling callousness; an act of deliberate abandonment. It reminds me of those all fallen into a “deep place…where the sun is silent”, in Dante’s hell. “Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.”
And now, we’re back to where we started, only worse. Many bodies were not recovered. Are they lost forever?
I can all but guarantee you that the future holds some grisly Titanic/Disney-esque treasure-seeking macarbre (or sugared) revisitation of the tragic ground, private touring expeditions seeking out the latitude and longitude, with camera, wallet, and catching net in hand. Movie rights and treasure hunters-a marriage made in hell, or Hollywood.
This is no Dante’s tale. For the bereaved families there will be no poetic justice. They will live knowing forever that their loved ones were found…came this close to being returned…and left behind, if not in the nine circles of hell, then across the oceans in that “deep place…where the sun is silent” and all hope abandoned.
