Norwegian Air Shuttle flight NAX7109 made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Ireland, on November 4th.
The plane heading from Barcelona, Spain, to Los Angeles, California, was diverted after a passenger suffered a medical emergency.
The plane landed safely. The patient was transported to University Hospital Limerick.
A United airlines flight had to return and make an emergency landing at Tucson International Airport in Arizona, on February 7th.
The plane, operated by SkyWest Airlines, took off for Los Angeles, California, but had to return shortly afterwards after the cabin filled with smoke.
The plane landed uneventfully. All 73 passengers and 4 crew members were safely evacuated.
The FAA is investigating.
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Contact photographer Vivek Manvi
What: Air India Airbus A319-100 en route from Chennai to Mumbai
Where: Mumbai
When: Mar 19th 2012
Who: 118 aboard
Why: While on approach to Mumbai, the plane developed problems and an engine was shut down.
The Airbus landed safely in Mumbaiwith emergency services on standby. No injuries were reported. No details were provided regarding it the engine locked up, ran hot, leaked or what problem occurred.
The American Airlines Flight 242 from Chicago to Dusseldorf, Germany made an emergency landing at Logan International Airport in Boston on May 25.
According to the airline, the emergency landing was caused by a male passenger’s sudden illness. He was taken off the flight at Logan and transported to a hospital.
The plane later resumed its journey to Dusseldorf after dropping off the sick passenger.
What: Air India Express en route from Cochin-Salalah
Where: Salalah
When: Nov 3, 2011 9:45
Who: 87 passengers
In this event, the pilot of an Air India Express COK-Salalah (Oman) flight, made three attempts to land. A cumulation of numerous small errors threatened passenger safety and defied standard operating procedures and included mis-entering data into the system.
The pilot forced the B737 to land using “autoland” in high cross-winds.
Wind speed on the ground was 25 knot (46 kmph) gusting to 35 knot (65 kmph.) Operating procedure allows landing when winds are no higher than 25 knots. The Boeing FCOM lists 35 knots as the max permissible crosswind landing component on a 45m wide. The pilot would have been correct to divert to another airport. There was adequate fuel to do so (if he had realized the numbers entered into the system were incorrect). Ground conditions were at the top of what Boeing allows and would be a challenge. Instead of diverting to Abu Dhabi, the pilot landed in defiance of safety norms.
The pilot attempted to land twice, and then decided to divert. Having been entered with incorrect data, the FMC (Flight Management Computer) incorrectly concluded there was only six minutes of flight time left. This was incorrect, as the plane had 4.7 tons of fuel, more than enough to reach Abu Dhabi, 75 minutes away.
On the pilot’s third attempt, the pilot autolanded (without having trained for autolanding.) It was a safe, if hard landing, and one that damaged the plane and nearly went off the runway. Two tires burst, and the landing gear was damaged.
Maybe this pilot is a fool, or maybe just careless. The plane did land with no loss of life. You know they always say “the devil is in the details.” I don’t know verifiable particulars. We don’t have available first hand data to analyze, but Air India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation does.
But when we see evidence of problems like this, we wonder if India has gone far enough in raising the bar.
Azul Brazilian Airlines flight AD-6970 had to return and make an emergency landing at Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport, Brazil, on May 31st.
The Airbus A330-200, flying to Sao Paulo Viracopos, Brazil, had to return due to a strong smell of smoke on board.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
Iran Aseman Airlines flight EP-3710 had to return and make an emergency landing at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran, on January 2nd.
The Boeing 737-400 plane took off for Ardabil, Iran, but had to turn back after the crew noticed an issue with the landing gear.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and twenty-seven people aboard remained unharmed.
