Pictured: A Oneworld (Qantas) Airbus A330-203
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Songyuan Andy Zheng
What: Qantas Airbus 330 en route from Sydney to Shanghai
Where: Sydney
When: ebruary 18, 2010
Who: 197 passengers
Why: After takeoff, the Qantas Airbus landing gear failed to retract, leading it to circle for 2 hours burning off fuel until it was light enough to land. Passengers were provided an alternative Airbus.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Vladimir Voronov
What: Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route from New York to Rome
Where: Halifax
When: Jun 10 2010
Who: 214 aboard
Why: While en route over the Atlantic, smoke was found on board. The flight diverted to Halifax where they made a safe landing. A replacement jet was provided. There’s no indication (yet) as to the cause of the smoke.
Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 en route from Yemen’s capital Sanaa to the Comoros Islands crashed on the second pass to land at the ill-equipped airport during heavy weather.
Westlake Village, California (Press Release) July 8, 2009 — A lawyer has contacted George Hatcher to dispatch a team of his consultant staff to work on the Yemenia Air crash. The latest development in this recent aviation disaster is that the thirteen bodies found by fishermen 500 miles away from the Comoros Islands may be victims who have drifted from the Yemenia Airbus crash. On its second pass at attempting a landing at the airport during a fearsome storm off the Comoros, the Yemenia Airlines Airbus flew into the ocean, killing 141 passengers and 11 crew members. This is the second Airbus lost at sea in a single month, and the crash points to an ominous trend toward a lessening of safety in aviation. Bahia’s survival and thirteen hour ordeal clutching at floating debris while suffering a broken collarbone, and too weak to climb into the rescue boat is one that clutches at our heartstrings, especially when we find out that her mother died in the crash. Bahia was flown back to her family in Marseilles. But that is not the end of the story.
Almost half of the dead were French citizens; and French citizens are up in arms over Yemenia Air. Having failed required criteria, the Airbus involved in the incident was under scrutiny, and not allowed to fly in French airspace; but the plane was allowed to regularly fly to Comoros, a poor island society with an ill-equipped airport. There is culpability to be assigned here, though it is all speculation until the black boxes are found. A 40 year veteran of litigation investigation and evaluation (including aviation,) George Hatcher explains that he was contacted by a lawyer working, “on behalf of some families, and we have dispatched a team there to assist.”
The thirteen bodies that were just found washed ashore on “Mafia Island,” some 500 miles from the site of the crash. A wing with “Airbus” scribed on it, and a plane seat were found in close proximity to the bodies. However, the black boxes have NOT been found yet; and the vast distance that the wreckage traveled bodes ill for the prospects of finding them.
There is already a group organized to protest the substandard plane accommodations. Spokesperson Farid Solihi of the protest group “SOS voyage aux Comores” has been an outspoken detractor of intolerable conditions aboard flights to and from Comoros. Hopefully the Hatcher team will be able to make contact with Solihi or some other “SOS voyage aux Comores” member.
About George Hatcher
George Hatcher is an independent generalist, a consultant dedicated to the support of the victims of aviation incidents or accidents. Known internationally, Hatcher works with well known lawyers, and develops crack teams to help support litigation, communication, and safety initiatives. To read further about the company, visit http://aircrashconsultants.com
Contact: george@georgehatcher.com
Aviation Consultants
Eurowings flight EW-152 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Paris Orly Airport, Orly, France, on March 25.
The Boeing 767-300, flying from Cologne, Germany to Bridgetown, Barbados, was mid-air above France when the crew reported a technical problem with the APU (Auxiliary Power Units), prompting the plane to divert.
The plane landed uneventfully.
All people onboard remained safe.
Flybe flight BE321 had to make an emergency landing in Newcastle, UK, on November 11.
The pilot declared emergency after a passenger became sick midair. The flight was on its way from Birmingham to Aberdeen at the time.
The plane landed uneventfully and the patient was given immediate medical assistance.
The plane again departed for Aberdeen after some time.
A commercial flight made an emergency landing at Billings Logan International Airport in Montana, on May 7th.
The Star Alliance Boeing 737 plane, heading from Chicago, Illinois, to San Francisco, California, was diverted after a woman passed out mid-flight.
The plane landed safely. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
The cause of death is not known at the moment.
An Air Inuit plane had to return and make an emergency landing at Kuujjuaq Airport, Quebec, Canada, on March 9.
The de Havilland Dash 8, flying from Quebec to Nuuk, Greenland, was halfway when the crew detected some problem with its hydraulic system, prompting it to return.
The plane landed uneventfully.
All passengers and crew members on board remained safe.
