Luxair flight LG-4605 made a hard safe landing at London City Airport, London, UK, on November 25.
The de Havilland Dash 8-400, flying from Luxembourg, had a panel missing from one of its engines.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
Congo: Trans Air Congo Crashes into Homes
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What: Trans Air Congo Antonov AN-12 en route from Brazzaville to Pointe Noire
Where: Pointe-Noire
When: Mar 21st 2011
Who: 19 killed, 14 injured.
Why: The crew attempted an emergency landing on the sea but failed; and now consequently attempted to land at their destination.
They were over a residential area and had been cleared to land when the Antonov AN-12 struck the residential neighborhood Mvoumvou. After striking buildings, the plane caught fire.
Although the plane was not permitted to carry passengers, it appears that there were 5 passengers aboard in addition to the 4 Russian crew members. Twenty buildings were destroyed.
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What: Alaska Airlines 737-800 en route from Sacramento to Kahulu
Where: Sacramento
When: 10:20
Who: 169 passengers
Why: After takeoff from Sacramento, a bird was ingested into the plane’s engine, causing engine trouble. The flight returned to Sacramento where it made a safe landing.
Bird strikes frequently cause problems, including the Skywest Boeing 777 strike on April 6 2011, the Gol Boing 373 strike on April 3, and the Air France B773 near Paris on Mar 24.
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What:
Where:
When:
Who: 100 passengers 5 crew
Why:
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What: Air Tran en route from Charlotte to Atlanta
Where:
When:
Who: 115 passengers
Why:
Spartanburg EMS was on the scene, as well as fire departments from Boiling Springs, Greer, Pelham and Tyger River.
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Arm-wrestling Damages from the Mother Country: Brazil vs France
Whether the victims are Brazilian or French, they certainly qualify for compensation. The question is how much. Everyone involved, the airlines, the insurance companies, the lawyers, the families all have different numbers in mind.
Recovery of the black boxes is not the only Air France news.
In the poker game of damage recovery, Air France must have blinked. The Brazilian Court system rejected the latest offer
to the family of the deceased Luciana Clarkson Seba, a 31-year-old Brazilian who died along with her husband and stepparents.
Brazil rejected the appeal and raised compensation from1.2 million reals ($744,000) to 1.4 million reals ($868,000). The decision was unanimous.
Currently French courts are considering manslaughter charges against Airbus. At least Airbus has some good news to temper the bad, since the search has revealed the black boxes. Whether or not the integrity of the boxes has been breached has not yet been revealed. Experts predict both extremes: complete data loss due to the pressure and time and complete data recovery. We tend to believe the data is safe, since these memory devices must pass certification at 3400 G/ 600 psi.
And when that data is recovered, the experts will be examining it, looking at the rest of the gathered evidence, including the wreckage that is being recovered right now, which will have its own tale to tell.
It remains to be seen if the pitot tube theory will be supported by the CDR and FDR; but with all of these various sources coming together, we can anticipate a dimensional inquiry, a coordinated synthesis, and a profound deduction to explicate the enigma that is Air France Flight 447.
Germany-Cause of Light Trainer Crash Unknown, 2 Deaths
What: Flugsportklub Volkswerft Stralsund Evektor-Aerotechnik EV-97 Eurostar training flight
Where: Klein Kedingshagen, near Flugplatz Stralsund Germany
When: May 20, 2011
Who: 2 aboard, 2 fatalities
Why: After a touch and go near Klein Kedingshagen, the sport plane crashed and both died on the scene. Aboard was the 41 year old flight instructor and his 47 year old (beginning) student from Stralsund on Rügen aus Sellin Island. The instructor had been teaching in that plane for three years. This was the student’s third maneuver.
Witnesses say the vehicle lurched and fell out of the sky. Four forensic scientists traveled to the scene.
Evektor-Aerotechnik is a manufacturer located in Kunovice, Czech Republic.
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Excessive movements of a tail-fin part caused an American Airlines crash in New York in 2001.
That is 10 years ago.
A proposal is coming out tomorrow that will give Airbus A300 and A310 four years to make modifications preventing excessive tail fin movements.
What has taken them so long? They knew this was was a design issue shortly after the crash. In 2001. Ten years ago.
Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Model A300–600 and A310 Airplanes
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
Surface defects were visually detected on the rudder of one Airbus A319 and one A321 in-service aeroplane. Investigation has determined that the defects reported on both rudders corresponded to areas that had been reworked in production. The investigation confirmed that the defects were the result of de-bonding between the skin and honeycomb core. Such reworks were also performed on some rudders fitted on A310 and A300–600 aeroplanes. An extended de-bonding, if not detected and corrected, may degrade the structural integrity of the rudder. The loss of the rudder leads to degradation of the handling qualities and reduces the controllability of the aeroplane.
The proposed AD would require actions that are intended to address the unsafe condition…Read More PDF
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Excessive movements of a tail-fin part caused an American Airlines crash in New York in 2001.
That is 10 years ago.
A proposal is coming out tomorrow that will give Airbus A300 and A310 four years to make modifications preventing excessive tail fin movements.
What has taken them so long? They knew this was was a design issue shortly after the crash. In 2001. Ten years ago.
Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Model A300–600 and A310 Airplanes
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
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What: Qantas Boeing 747-400 en route from Bangkok (Thailand) to London Heathrow,EN
Where: Bangkok
When: May 20th 2011
Who: 308 passengers
Why: After takeoff from Bangkok, the engine vibration and temperature increased beyond the norm in one engine and the engine is reported to have salled. That (Rolls Royce) engine was shut down, and the pilots returned to Bangkik to make a safe landing with the remaining three engines. It has not yet been announced if the problem is due to the internal pipe irregularities which were indicated in an airworthiness directive just released, but with problems that go back several years.
By the look of cursory evidence, it appears this could be the same manufacturing defect in an oil pipe, which led to an internal oil leak in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine that failed in a Qantas A380 in 2010 causing a midair explosion, but investigators will have to reveal the details.
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What: Uni Airways de Havilland Dash 8-30 en route from Makung to Tainan
Where: Tainan
When: Jun 28th 2011
Why: The flight was cleared to land on runway 18 L and mistakenly landed on 18R
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What: Airlift AS Eurocopter AS 350B3 Ecureuil
Where: between Dalamot and Busete in Hardanger, Hordalan, Norway
When: July 24, 2011, 21.30
Who: 5 fatalities
Why: About to transporting building materials into the mountains during heavy fog, the Airlift to Dagbladet helicopter crashed and caught on fire. The witnesses were part of a crew that had flown in earlier. A crisis team from Eidfjord and Ullensvang is on the scene.
The chopper was carrying materials for a hytte (holiday cabin) that nine family members were building. All five on board were members of the same family: Tore Bendigtsen Ystanes, age 39 of Bergen; Kjetil Bu, age 27 of Kinsarvik; Karianne Ringkjøb Dahl, age 29 of Bergen; Siv Holtan, age 18 of Bergen and Andreas Søvik Fossmark, age 32 of Vaksdal. Ystanes was the pilot.
The Airlift company had a fleet of 17 helicopters.
Police and fire departments, two air ambulances and at least two Sea King helicopters were engaged after emergency services were called. Three of the deceased were found quickly, and the other two took longer to find. The pilot was also killed in the crash.
The crash occurred in a remote location far (5 hours walk) from a road. It was so remote that the individual who reported the crash had to climb to a mountaintop location where there was phone service coverage. A no-fly zone was established over the accident site during the investigation.
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We don’t usually talk about politics here, but it is hard to completely ignore Obama’s proposal to eliminate a tax break for business-jet owners. (The proposal extends the tax-depreciation schedule for business jets to seven years from five years.)
We believe the consequences of that tax break will not make much money for the government, but it will have repercussions in the aviation industry. Catch phrases have cropped up, terms like “demonizing private aviation” and “engaging in class warfare.” Obama does not seem to be aware of that (to use an old catch-phrase) “trickle down” economics. The tax break is incentive for corporations and private owners to purchase new jets. The proposal does attack aviation, which * employs 1.2 million people and generate $150 billion in economic activity.
*statistics according to General Aviation Manufacturers
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What: Don S. Arsenault’s Robinson R22 Beta
Where: Highway 71, about six miles east of ABIA, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
When: June 27, 2011
Who: pilot Steven Titsworth
Why: The chopper Steven Titsworth was flying Monday when the main rotor blades came off in flight. The chopper crashed near Highway 71, near the airport, killing the pilot. Two witnessed the helicopter fly over the treeline and crash at 12:40 pm. Witnesses also saw wreckage fall into the river, but no wreckage was found there.
NTSB Investigator Arnold Scott is investigating.
The rotor blades were found in wreckage on the shores of the Colorado river and are suspected to be responsible for the crash.
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In George’s Point of View
Southwest Airlines In the News
Southwest just reported that El Paso-Phoenix jet that landed at 9:30 p.m. in Phoenix with one engine did so because of an engine exhaust problem. Good for them for catching it.
This was certainly less of an issue that the April 1 2011 surprise, the fuselage rupture in the roof of the Southwest Phoenex-Sacramento flight. That fifteen year old plane lost pressure (kind of a given, one would think, with a huge hole in the roof) and had to make an emergency landing in Yuma, 150 miles southwest of Phoenix. There were no injuries except to Southwest’s reputation.
On April 4, the FAA sent out a letter mandating operators of specific early Boeing 737 models to conduct initial and repetitive electromagnetic inspections for fatigue damage.
The NTSB is investigating. And all of the onus is not on Southwest–it’s also on Boeing, as they examine that
Southwest is a busy airline operator. The stats of take offs and landing every 24 hours must be staggering. Their 737s are renowned workhorses that don’t tire, but they have to be taking a beating.
Let’s not wait for something terrible to happen. Let’s double on maintenance. Let’s do the footwork to prevent another metal fatigue occurrence to happen again, busting a hole in the fuselage at 36,000 feet.
