A small plane crashed shortly after taking off from Grants-Milan Municipal Airport, Grants, Cibola County, New Mexico, on the evening of September 26th.
The Piper PA-32R-300, carrying 2 passengers and the pilot, had its engine sputtering before it went down.
All three people miraculously survived the crash with no injuries whereas the plane burst into flames.
The crash remains under investigation.
A Loganair charter flight had to return and make an emergency landing at Rotterdam The Hague Airport in the Netherlands on September 30.
The Saab 340 aircraft, carrying 17 passengers, departed for Aberdeen, Scotland, but had to turn back shortly afterwards due to a hydraulic leak. Passengers reported seeing red fluid leaking out from the aircraft’s wing.
According to an airline spokesperson, “The aircraft landed safely at the airport around 4.35pm local time where it was brought to a halt, but subsequently rolled just off the runway due to an issue with the hydraulics.” The passengers had to jump out of the emergency exits.
The airline arranged a replacement service for the passengers.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Karl Nixon
What: Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 en route from Cyprus to Athens to Prague, Czech Republic
Where: Athens
When: Aug. 14, 2005
Who: 121 passengers
Why: Before losing radio contract, pilots reported trouble with the air conditioning system. In the flight, cabin pressure failure knocked out the pilots. They made it to Athens, but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Crash video shows fire fighting planes controlling fires, bodies, baggage, airplane spread over a large debris field, the tail and engines relatively intact. At the time of the crash, except for one pilot (who was observed trying to land the plane), everyone aboard was comatose due to lack of oxygen.
In the case, prosecution failed to prove that German pilot Hans-Juergen Merten and his Cypriot co-pilot Charalambos Charalambous didn’t meet the minimum standards
A Cyprus court has acquitted four former airline officials of manslaughter charges.
GoAir flight G8-102 made an emergency landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, India, on July 9th.
The Airbus A320-200 plane, flying from Kolkata, declared an emergency after lightning struck it causing the windshield to crack.
The plane landed uneventfully. All 180 passengers remained safe.
What: Beech A-30 Bonanza en route from Asheville Regional Airport
Where: crashed into Kenmure subdivision, a gated golf community
When: September 10, 2009
Who: 1 fatality: pilot Larry Youngblood
Why: In foggy conditions, the plane apparently hit several trees, and landed between two house with its wings torn off. The NTSB is investigating.
A small plane crashed in Parker County, Texas, on October 12th.
The plane went down near the unincorporated community of Poolville.
Two people were killed in the crash.
The cause of crash is being investigated.
Chinese billionaire Lam Kok purchased a French vineyard, and boarded a helicopter with three others, including his son, the former owner who was flying the helicopter, and a translator, to take an aerial tour of the 65-hectare (160-acre) vineyards and surrounding grounds. Lam Kok’s and James Gregoire’s wives had declined to fly.
Twenty minutes after the flight took off, the helicopter went missing.
The helicopter, flown by James Gregoire, former owner of the vineyard, was missing but a witness came forward and told a mounted policeman that the helicopter had been seen falling into the Dordogne river, and people had been seen struggling in the water.
Emergency helicopters, divers and a hundred foot officers converged on the scene, and were deployed to search. After dark, a helicopter with a searchlight joined the searchers.
Lam Kok, new owner of the vineyard Château de la Riviere was head of the Hong Kong-based Brilliant group which plans to develop a tea and wine tasting center and hotel in Bordeaux.
One of the bodies was recovered around midnight. Rumors are that the body is of Lam Kok’s twelve year old son. The search was halted overnight, but resumed on the morning of the twenty-first. The search has been hampered by strong currents in the river.
Ironically, John Leprince, a former owner of the vineyard, died in a plane crash in 2002, not far from the crash site in the Dordogne. Combined with this crash, this means the last three owners of the vineyard were lost in aviation accidents.