What: SAS Boeing 737
Where: Vasteras Airport in Sweden
When: Friday
Who: 97 passengers and six crew were evacuated down the slides
Why: smoke was detected in the cabin while the plane was on its way to Stockholm from Oslo in Norway, and was then diverted to Vasteras Airport, some 40 nautical miles west of Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. Smoke was thick, and passengers were wearing oxygen masks when the plane landed.
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Air India flight IX-213 overran the end of the runway upon landing in Mumbai, India, on July 10th.
The incident happened when the Boeing 737-800 plane was coming from Vijayawada, India.
All eighty-two passengers and seven crew members remained unharmed.
SEATTLE, Jan. 27, 2011 — Boeing Training & Flight Services has signed a long-term agreement with Blue1 to provide 717 training capabilities in Stockholm, Sweden, beginning the first quarter of 2011. Blue1 is a Scandinavian Airlines’ subsidiary based in Helsinki, Finland.
“Enhancing safe and efficient flight operations, with cost-effective solutions implemented closer to our customer’s home bases is our main priority,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief customer officer, Boeing Training & Flight Services. “Through this partnership with Blue1, we are bringing our 717 training programs closer to our customers.”
Blue1 operates five Boeing 717s with an additional four scheduled to enter its fleet by the end of March 2011. “As we transitioned to the 717, it became increasingly clear that we would benefit from a regional 717 training solution,” said Mr. Heikki Setala, head of Flight Operations, Blue1. “Boeing, as the original manufacturer of our airplanes, was wholly supportive of our needs and provided an overall cost-reducing solution.”
The European Aviation Safety Agency-certified 717 full-flight simulator will be relocated from Boeing’s Atlanta campus to a training center in Stockholm. Boeing will continue to support its customers with 717 solutions in North America and Asia Pacific.
Under the terms of the agreement, Boeing continues to hold the exclusive license to market the Stockholm-based 717 training capacity to third parties.
Boeing Training & Flight Services offers comprehensive training solutions worldwide through its global network of campuses and other locations that best serve its customers’ needs.
The Boeing 717 is a proven and reliable 100-seat jetliner, with more than 125 in active service with airlines today.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Stefan Sonnenberg
What: Air Greenland de Havilland Dash 8-200 en route from Nuuk to Paamiut
Where: Nuuk
When: Oct 25th 2010
Who: 11 passengers and 3 crew
Why: While en route, a fire was reported in the lavatory. Smoke was detected in the cabin. The crew returned to Nuuk where they made a safe landing.
Maintenance found an oil leak in the bleed air system.
After a crash, the stories always come out that put faces on the “seats.” The one that has, so far, struck me the most in the Dana Air crash is a tale of mixed blessings.
First Omonigho Akinsanya had come to visit, and now she was waiting in the crowded, overheated Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to catch a plane to take her home. She, with her 5-year-old son Moyo, and her sister had been waiting in line, trying to travel back home.
The airport, which is undergoing renovations is reportedly hot and crowded, and Omonigho Akinsanya had her son to manage. She was understandably upset when a man broke in line and took the last seat in the crowded airplane that her sister had already boarded.
His breaking in line saved her life. But she cannot rejoice in the luck, fortune, Karma, coincidence that left her alive. Her sister was one of the victims.
This is her sister’s sad story, and her own too, because it is a terrible loss and a close call. But it is only one of 153+ losses (not forgetting the families on the ground who were minding their own business in their own apartments when a plane fell on their heads.)
It is hard to sift rumor from fact. One rumor is that the flight had been diverted or delayed due to Dame Patience Jonathan, the first lady, but that rumor has been discounted; she was at an event on Sunday when the crash occurred, and nowhere near the airport. There was a rumor of a bird strike, stemming from an official speculating on the cause. And then of course, everyone is studying the plane’s history, and wondering if it was airworthy.
The MD-83 belonged to Alaska Airlines from 1990 when it was new until 2007, when the plane’s title went to North Shore Aircraft LLC (probably the financier) and leased back for a year. Before it was retired in 2008, it had gone through a diversion on Nov 4 2002 due to an overheated light ballast; on August 20, 2006 due to a “chafed wire bundle.” And as Dana Air 5N-RAM it suffered a bird strike on April 19, 2010.
The pilot, Peter Waxtan, was an American, and the first officer was Mike Mahendra, from India. Captain Waxton called a double engine failure. The pilot had requested to land on Murtala Muhammad Airport’s longer runway 18R before calling air controllers back a few minutes later to report a total emergency.
There has been some negative buzz regarding maintenance of this MD83 in the hands of Dana Air, and a recent discussion of Dana Air crew being reluctant to fly in this plane, due to mechanical difficulties on a recent flight, even that Dana Air execs insisted the plane be flown. Plus, it was overloaded.
It is still so soon after the crash that we hardly know which questions to ask first. There are so many questions. But if Dana Air was putting faulty aircraft in the air, they will have to answer for it. Too bad it will be too late for those who were aboard.
A FedEx Boeing 777 freighter had to make an unscheduled landing at the Whitehorse airport, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, shortly before 8 a.m. on September 4.
According to a FedEx spokesperson, the flight, en-route from Memphis, Tennessee, to Anchorage, Alaska, was diverted for emergency landing “due to technical issues.”
The Whitehorse emergency firefighters and medics were put on alert on the airport when the plane landed safely. No one was injured.
The U.S. FAA is investigating.
Air India Express flight IX-611 had to make an emergency landing in Mumbai, India, on October 12th.
The Boeing 737-800 plane heading from Tiruchirappalli, India, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was diverted after the airport officials informed the crew that the plane may have impacted localizer antenna and wall during departure.
The plane landed uneventfully. All one hundred and thirty passengers and six crew members remained unharmed.
The plane sustained substantial damage.
