LATAM flight LA-705 made a safe emergency landing at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain, on June 29th.
The Boeing 787-800, flying from Frankfurt Airport, Germany, was about to land when the crew noticed fumes in its cabin.
The plane landed safely.
No injuries were reported.
What: PIA Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 737-300 en route from Islamabad to Karachi
Where: Multan Pakistan
When: Sep 27th 2011
Who: 118 passengers
Why: While en route, the one working generator failed. The captain announced to the passengers that they were having technical problems.
The crew diverted to Multan and made a safe landing; the flight landed with subdued lighting. One main generator was completely non-operational.
Passengers were rebooked on an alternative flight.
Condor flight DE-2098 had to return and make an emergency landing in Frankfurt, Germany, on July 30th.
The Boeing 767-300 plane took off for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but had to turn back after the crew failed to retract nose gear.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Air New Zealand flight NZ-677 made an emergency landing in Christchurch, New Zealand, on January 16th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane heading from Auckland to Dunedin, New Zealand, was diverted after the crew received an unsafe gear indication.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and eighteen people aboard remained unharmed.
Southwest Airlines flight WN-330 made an emergency landing in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 29th.
The Boeing 737-700 plane flying from Raleigh–Durham International Airport, North Carolina, was on approach to Baltimore when the crew reported a landing gear issue.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
S7 Airlines flight S7-173 had to reject takeoff from Moscow Domodedovo Airport, Russia, on March 27th.
The Boeing 737-800 plane was accelerating to takeoff for Novosibirsk, Russia, when the crew rejected takeoff due to smoke in the cabin.
The passengers disembarked via emergency slides. No injuries were reported.
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.
