KLM flight KL-691 had to return and make an emergency landing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands, on January 27.
The Boeing 747-400, heading towards Toronto, Ontario, had to dump fuel and return after a bird strike.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
United Airlines flight UA-1175 made an emergency landing in Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 13th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane was flying from San Francisco, California, when a piece of the cowling separated from the right-hand engine.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Manuel Ladinig
What: Qatar Airways Airbus A330-300 en route from Manila Philippines to Doha Qatar
Where: Kuala Lumpur
When: Oct 13 2010
Who: pilot
Why: While en route to Doha, the 42 year old pilot died of a heart attack.
The co-pilot diverted to Kuala Lumpur, where he made a safe landing at 11.30am. A replacement crew completed the journey for the passengers about five hours later.
SunExpress flight XG-1381 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Henri Coanda International Airport, Romania, on April 7th.
The Boeing 737-800 plane heading from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Adana, Turkey, was diverted after the crew received a cargo smoke indication.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and ninety-five passengers and six crew members remained unharmed.
What: United Airlines Boeing 737-700 en route from Houston,TX to Washington DC
Where: Washington
When: Apr 9th 2012 11:15 am
Who: 122 passengers and 5 crew
Why: On landing in Washington, the plane suffered two blown rear tires.
The plane was towed to the terminal.
No injuries were reported.
Fourteen students and chaperones from Mt. Carmel Louisiana were aboard, and were interviewed by a TV station after the rough landing in Washington DC. They said the landing was rough, and praised the pilot for being so calm.
Another group of fourteen joining them flew in on a different plane from Atlanta. They will all be returning to Lafayette on Friday, and they say none of them have developed a fear of flying.
What: BMI Baby jet Flight WW1022en route from from Belfast
Where: Birmingham International Terminal One
When: 19 November 2008 9.30am
Who: 76 passengers and five crew members
Why: The plane declared an emergency landing due to a cracked side window.
I could speculate here about what caused the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, but that is all it would be: speculation. One can look at the type of plane, the weather, and various circumstances, but the truth is that the devil is in the details, and we just don’t know the details. The investigation will turn them up; the investigation can be a long road down a circular path.
It makes it more difficult when there was no distress call. No mayday. Think of this: if something happens and you’re on a plane rapidly losing altitude—or with catastrophic issues which could be anything on a plane from a drunk grandpa to a bomb on board to a bad repair failing, to a sudden system failure due to frozen pitot tubes, what is the first thing that you are going to do if you’re part of the flight crew? That’s right—the first thing will be to fix the issue, and stay in the air. The last thing to do after the crisis is handled is to call ATC and let them know what’s going on.
But because there was no distress call, we can assume that whatever happened happened fast. And now the wildest speculation of all is that the two people with fake passports were terrorists carrying a bomb. Do we need to go down that thought path? There are plenty of things that could have gone wrong although the 777 has a a stellar safety record.
Now too, there is even speculation where the plane went down, apparently. There’s an oil slick approximately where the teams are searching. Maybe they’re right. Maybe under that slick, there’s a beacon to hear.
Still, I keep hoping there’s a raft somewhere full of survivors.
