Hop! Airlines flight AF-7478 made an emergency landing at Paris Orly Airport, France, on March 23rd.
The plane took off for Quimper, France, but had to return shortly afterwards due to a fuel metering issue.
The plane landed safely. All 60 passengers and 4 crew members remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Matthew I. Smith
What: TAM Linhas Aereas Airbus A330-200 en route from Sao Paulo Brazil to Buenos Aires Argentina
Where: Sao Paulo
When: Dec 1st 2009
Who: 169 passengers
Why: After takeoff, the plane experienced hydraulics failure. The crew decided to return to the airport. The Airbus landed safely, although it had to be towed from runway 09L.
IndiGo flight 6E 573 had to make an emergency landing in Kolkata, India, on November 9th.
The plane took off for Guwahati, India, but had to turn back after the crew noticed smoke on-board.
The plane landed safely. All seventy-six people aboard remained unharmed.
Thomas Cook Airlines flight MT-1591 made an emergency landing in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 25th.
The Airbus A321-200 plane flying from Ibiza, Spain, was descending toward Glasgow when the crew reported a possible blown tire.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
The Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Singapore Dhaka with 105 passengers and 12 crew aboard diverted to Bangkok when they got an internal flight warning. There were no injuries.
In spite of the cargo fire suppression system, there was a burning smell and a fire.
The plane made a safe landing in Bangkok. The plane taxied to the gate, and passengers disembarked and were provided hotel accommodations, meals and transferred to another airline.
An investigation is underway.
Singapore Airlines’ spokesman, Nicholas Ionides said that “Flight SQ446 operating between Singapore and Dhaka diverted to Bangkok as a result of indications of smoke from the aircraft’s rear cargo hold.”
When Thai authorities clear the Airbus, it will be flown back to Singapore.
But still, it is one of my least favorite things to read (especially while I’m halfway to Singapore) that there has been yet another cargo fire at all, regardless of what kind of plane it is on.
At least I had time to jot down some thoughts.
I hope that the media shines as bright a light on this airbus cargo fire as it has recently on the Dreamliner battery situation. Sure, the Dreamliner is developing new technology and Boeing is responsible for going the distance to keep new developments safe. The Dreamliner battery issue is new. But the fact that Boeing is developing new technologies and new solutions does not provide Airbus and an established plane like a A330-300 a free ticket when it comes to combustion.
Hopefully Airbus is paying attention to all problems and not getting too cocky. It should remember and respect that a plane is still an air-filled bubble hundreds of feet in the air. Until people develop their own wings, random combustion situations like cargo fires on an Airbus A330 are just as potentially hazardous situation–if not more so–than any battery incident that actually occurred on the ground.
Let us please see a fix for this problem.
Finnair flight AY-1472 had to return and make an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria, on January 11th.
The plane took off for Helsinki, Finland, but had to turn back due to a cabin pressurization problem.
The plane landed back safely. All passengers and crew members remained safe.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Thomas Piskol
What: Horizon Airlines CRJ700 Bombardier en route from Portland to Los Angeles
Where: Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport
When: August 14, 2009 9:30 AM (Departing at 11:05 AM)
Who: 60 passengers, 4 crew
Why: The official report said that the flight crew declared an emergency because of smoke in the cabin. Horizon Air says that cabin temperatures were too high and smoke never appeared in the cabin–that the plane landed for the comfort of the passengers, who debarked from the plane into the terminal as the plane was being worked on.
No explanation has been offered regarding the discrepancy of the explanations: (smoke vs no smoke.) With no further information, one can speculate that the incident may be akin to a home fire alarm going off due to the alarm alerting to ions in the air when the dryer is running.
The customer service, of course, contrasts with the recent Continental plane grounded overnight at a closed airport, where the passengers were held in the plane until the terminal opened at 6: 30 am.
