Thai AirAsia flight FD-761 made an emergency landing at Udon Thani International Airport, Thailand, on March 13th.
The Airbus A320-200N plane heading from Macau to Bangkok, Thailand, was diverted after the crew received an engine fire indication.
The plane landed uneventfully. All one hundred and forty people aboard remained safe.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Daniel Alaerts
What: Air France Airbus A340-300 en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airportto Bangkok Thailand
Where: Amritsar
When: Aug 27th 2009,
Who: not available
Why: While entering Indian airspace, the flight crew sent the wrong transponder code so that the airplane showed up as “unidentified” on both civilian and military radar screens. Communication was lost; and Indian Air Force MiG 29s were sent to intercept the flight; then the interception was aborted when the flight crew corrected the code. The flight continued to land normally at its scheduled destination.
Gulf Air flight 155 had to make an emergency landing at Manila Airport in the Philippines, on August 5th.
The plane was heading to Bahrain when the crew noticed smoke in the cabin and decided to turn back for an emergency landing.
The plane landed safely. All 307 passengers and 12 crew members remained safe.
Dragon Air flight KA-212 had to return and make an emergency landing at Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong, China, on July 5th.
The Airbus A321-200, en-route to Phuket, Thailand, was mid-air when the crew reported that its left engine was on fire, prompting the plane to return.
The plane landed uneventfully. All people onboard remained unharmed.
The passengers were accommodated in a replacement plane.
FedEx flight FX-1329 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 27th.
The Airbus A300-600 plane heading from Madison, Wisconsin, to Memphis, Tennessee, was diverted due to an electrical systems issue.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Rumors are multiplying. Now there is an unconfirmed rumor that the captain was absent from the cockpit at the time of the event.
In NOT a Flight of Imagination , we did not go into depth about the false-rumor buzz initially created by the French publication “Le Figaro” which is owned by Dassault Group. (i.e. vested interest.) It has already been released that an Airbus rep who is in on the AF 447 black box decoding had obtained permission to send out a telex indicating:
…no immediate action is required as a result of preliminary data from the Air France Airbus A330 accident.
Of course this is what Airbus is going to say. For all we know, they had that statement ready before they even looked at the tapes. Airbus is laying the groundwork. Don’t forget that this is a criminal case in the French court. One does not need a crystal ball to see that this is going to be very expensive for Thales and Airbus and Air France. And of course, the size of compensation payouts for the victim’s families be determined by the extent of blame of the involved parties.
From this quote, a thousand rumors sprang, based on every possible interpretation of that one statement. Although the initial Airbus statement was approved by the BEA, the interpretations were disapproved of by the BEA who followed up saying that Sensationalist publication of non-validated information, whilst the analysis of the data from the flight recorders has only just started, is a violation of the respect due to the passengers and the crew members that died and disturbs the families of the victims, who have already suffered as a result of many hyped-up stories.
The telex does not rule out pitot tube icing, currently a suspected factor in the crash. But Airbus is positioning itself already to blame dead pilots who cannot defend themselves. They want to take the court of public opinion as far as possible away from potential design flaws, manufacturing shortcuts, etc. However, this is not a wise move if they really consider it. The entire bastion of Airbus Fly By Wire theory is that they make “pilot proof” planes.
So, how in the same breath, can they say their planes are pilot-proof and that they crashed due to pilot error? According to their own hype, If the plane itself is pilot-proof, then it can not crash due to pilot error. It HAD to crash due to “other than pilot” error.
As I understand it, no matter what happens on this fly-by-wire model, if there is a problem, the pilots are shut out of being able to fix it anyway.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Martin Woudstra
What: Northwest Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Rome Fiumicino Italy to Atlanta,GA
Where: Shannon, Ireland/Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky
When: Jun 12th 2009
Who: 285 people on board
Why: En route, smoke developed in the cabin supposedly from the galley. On landing, Shannon fire services sprayed the right hand main gear. Passengers debarked and re-embarked. The flight reached Atlanta but after circling, weather-caused traffic congestion in Atlanta forced the flight to land in Cincinnati.
