IndiGo flight 6E-1707 had to return and make an emergency landing in Chennai, India, on November 16th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane took off for Doha, Qatar, but had to turn back due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and thirty-four passengers and seven crew members remained unharmed.
Cathay Pacific flight CX-755 made a safe landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand, on August 14.
The Airbus A330-300 flying from Hong Kong, China, was about to land when the crew noticed smoke appearing in its cockpit.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
Saurya Airlines flight S1-721 made an emergency landing in Biratnagar, Nepal, on September 17th.
The plane was flying from Kathmandu when it developed engine vibrations due to a bird strike.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
American Airlines flight AA-4672 made an emergency landing in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1st.
The plane heading from Charlotte, North Carolina, to New Orleans, Louisiana, was diverted due to the loss of cabin pressure.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
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.
A 1993 Mooney M20M aircraft made a controlled emergency landing at Central Jersey Regional Airport, Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, on September 19.
The Pennsylvania-bound plane was taking off from the airport when its left wing touched a chain link fence adjacent to the runway, causing damage and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.
The plane landed safely. The pilot Ross Cole and his passenger Pamela Cole remained uninjured.
The incident is being investigated.
Pictured: An Air Transat Airbus A310-308
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Tsagaris
What: Canadian Air Transat Airbus A310-300
Where: Tom Jobim International Airport, Rio de Janeiro
When: Dec 13, 2009
Who: Maintenance
Why: During a maintenance check, the plane jumped “chocks,” crossed the tarmac, crashed into two light poles, trees and a power box next to Tom Jobim International Airport maintenance hangar.
Damage was limited to the leading edge slats of both wings, and engine nose cowls.
The plane was undergoing tests by the Tap Maintenance and Engineering.
Do you think it passed?
Is this like the infamous “operation was a success but the patient died?” At least there were no reported injuries.
