United Airlines flight UA-104 had to return for an emergency landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on January 1st.
The Boeing 767-300 plane took off for Houston, Texas, but had to return shortly afterwards after the crew reported a flaps issue.
The plane landed safely at a higher than normal speed. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Air Transat flight TS-703 made an emergency landing in Toronto, Canada, on January 31st.
The plane was flying from Roatan, Honduras, when the crew reported a pressurization problem.
The crew initiated an emergency descent and subsequently landed safely. All one hundred and sixty-one passengers and six crew members remained safe.
Qantas flight QF-2164 had to return and make an emergency landing in Sydney, Australia, on June 19th.
The plane took off for Port Macquarie, Australia, but had to turn back due to a lightning strike.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
I could speculate here about what caused the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, but that is all it would be: speculation. One can look at the type of plane, the weather, and various circumstances, but the truth is that the devil is in the details, and we just don’t know the details. The investigation will turn them up; the investigation can be a long road down a circular path.
It makes it more difficult when there was no distress call. No mayday. Think of this: if something happens and you’re on a plane rapidly losing altitude—or with catastrophic issues which could be anything on a plane from a drunk grandpa to a bomb on board to a bad repair failing, to a sudden system failure due to frozen pitot tubes, what is the first thing that you are going to do if you’re part of the flight crew? That’s right—the first thing will be to fix the issue, and stay in the air. The last thing to do after the crisis is handled is to call ATC and let them know what’s going on.
But because there was no distress call, we can assume that whatever happened happened fast. And now the wildest speculation of all is that the two people with fake passports were terrorists carrying a bomb. Do we need to go down that thought path? There are plenty of things that could have gone wrong although the 777 has a a stellar safety record.
Now too, there is even speculation where the plane went down, apparently. There’s an oil slick approximately where the teams are searching. Maybe they’re right. Maybe under that slick, there’s a beacon to hear.
Still, I keep hoping there’s a raft somewhere full of survivors.
An aerial fire tanker made an emergency landing at Chico Municipal Airport, California, on June 30th.
The DC-7 Erickson Aero Tanker took off from Chico Airport but had to return shortly afterwards due to an issue with its hydraulics.
Three wheels caught fire as the plane landed on the airport.
All four crew members aboard remained safe.
British Airways flight BAW-82GD had to return and make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport, England, on September 6th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane took off for Athens, Greece, but had to return shortly afterwards due to problems with one of the engines.
The plane landed back safely. Everyone aboard remained safe.
The American Airlines flight 950 en-route to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil made an emergency landing in Norfolk, at 6:20 a.m. on Saturday, April 12.
The Boeing 777-200 aircraft had 242 passengers and 15 crew members on board. No one was injured.
A mechanical indicator light, signalling possible fire in the cargo area, prompted the pilot to seek an emergency landing at Norfolk International Airport. However, the airport fire crews did not find any indication of smoke or fire during their inspection after the plane landed.
