United Airlines flight UA-870 had to return and make an emergency landing in Sydney, Australia, on April 17th.
The Boeing 787-900 plane took off for San Francisco, California, but had to return shortly afterwards due to an unusual odor in the cabin.
The plane landed safely. There were 238 passengers aboard at the time; all of them remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Alastair T. Gardiner
Newspaper reports talk about traces of black soot on the Auxiliary Power Unit. The APU is like your computer backup—similar in theory to the battery backup you may have at home hooked to your computer.
The APU is an auxiliary engine that provided electric power and air to the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 until the main engines began to run.
We ourselves haven’t seen soot, or proof of fire–but we haven’t seen much proof at all, since the report that we keep hearing whispers of has not been made public.
Some facts are known We know, for example, that…
—…the APU is located in the rudder section.
—…the weather was bad.
OLBA 250300Z 06004KT 030V090 5000 VCTS RA FEW020CB BKN026 10/06 Q1014 NOSIG
We have heard rumors which may or may not be unfounded:
—Statements made anonymously by Lebanese airport sources report that Captain Habtamu Benti, the pilot in command (PIC) of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 encountered engine problems, perhaps a flame out, during takeoff, and requested permission to abort the flight and return to Beirut. He was given clearance to do so, but another aircraft, a Etihad Airlines flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates was in the process of landing and could have interfered with his emergency maneuvers. *
But some information has been made public.
—The rudder found at the plane’s tail was reported to have been sent to France. *
—“One of the five cockpit voice recorders which has a damaged segment will be sent from France’s BEA to a Seattle-based company [Honeywell] to recover that lost segment.” *
So we have even more questions. Where, for example, are the statements of the witnesses? What has France said about the rudder? Has the APU been found, and if so, what is its condition?
Even if ATC sent pilot in to a storm, the pilot also has radar and should have seen the storm and refused the order to take off and/or the heading issued to him. Did his radar fail? Did the APU fail? It might well be that the pilot was misled by a radar system in the plane that was not operating correctly. Unlikely, but, possible. There are still a lot of possibilities we can not rule out. The captain had too many hours logged to take off in to a storm with a plane that he knew was not built to withstand the forces of a cell ahead of him.
Even if there is no immediate report available yet, we look forward to the promised release in March/July. (They say that data collection will continue until March 15 2011, in April the data will be verified/validated by Ethiopian and Lebanese authorities, officials of Boeing and the US National Transport Safety Board by May 30th, with a tentative public release date in July.) When more official information is released, it will help to rule out all gross speculation, so we can focus on possible culpable parties in the chain of events that caused this tragedy.
We shall see.
What: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 en route from Beirut to Addis Ababa
Where: 2 miles west of the coastal village of Na’ameh.
When: Jan 25 2010
Who: 7 crew 83 passengers
Why: Shortly after taking off in stormy weather and heavy lightning, Lebanese ATC lost contact. The plane disappeared from radar 45 minutes after leaving Beirut. Witnesses on the coast saw the plane as it crashed into the sea. So far 9 bodies have been found by members of the Lebanese army .
Update
Initial reports of 7 survivors, became 9 bodies, and now the count has reached 21 bodies.
The site of the crash is 2 miles west of the coastal village of Na’ameh.
Fifty-four passengers were Lebanese, 22 Ethiopian, two were British and there were also Canadian, Russian, French, Iraqi and Syrian nationals.
A Cypriot police helicopter has joined the Lebanese army in the search for survivors, and two U.N. helicopters are on the scene.
Ethiopian Airlines is state owned, and has a standing order of 10 of Boeing’s Next-Generation 737-800s
—
ET-409 Incident – 25 January, 2010
Ethiopian flight ET-409 was scheduled to operate from Beirut to Addis Ababa on January 25th lost contact with the Lebanese air controllers shortly after take off. The flight departed at 02:35 Lebanese time from Beirut International Airport.
Flight ET-409 carried 82 passenger plus 8 Ethiopian Crew members. Out of the total passengers 23 were Ethiopian, 51 Lebanese, 1 Turkish, 1 French, 2 British, 1 Russian, 1 Canadian, 1 Syrian, 1 Iraqi nationals.
Strobe flashes
Nok Air Flight DD7805, heading from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, made an emergency landing at Surat Thani airport, Thailand, at about 8:20 a.m. on August 31.
The pilot requested permission for emergency landing after the left wing of Boeing 738 aircraft was hit by birds. The aircraft made an uneventful landing and all 139 crew and passengers remained unharmed.
According to Atthaporn Nuang-udom, director of Surat Thani airport, “The crew and passengers were then assembled in the airport’s arrival lounge. NokAir arranged for another aircraft to pick them up and flew them safely to Don Mueang on Sunday morning.”
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Michael Fast
What: Air Canada 767 en route from Toronto to Buenos Aires and/or Sao Paulo Brazil.
Where: Toronto’s Pearson International Airport
When: Wednesday April 15 2009
Who: 129 on board
Why: When the pilot detected problems with the automatic pilot system, they followed standard operating procedure and returned to the airport for a safe landing. Passengers debarked on to the runway and were transported to the terminal where they were scheduled to take an alternative flight.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Matthias Bindseil
What: Tarom Romanian Air Transport Airbus A310-300 en route from Bucharest Otopeni (Romania) to Tenerife Sur Reina,CI (Spain)
Where: Madrid
When: Jun 18th 200p
Who: 201 passengers and 10 crew members
Why: En route the windshield cracked, and the flight was diverted safely to Madrid. No injuries were reported though the cockpit depressurized.
US Transportation Department has started an investigation into possible overcharging by airlines following May 2015 Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia.
The New York-Washington Amtrak rail service was suspended after a derailment that took 11 lives and injured 200 people.
The department has sent letters to JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Continental Holdings, asking for their average fares before, during and after the accident. According to transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, “These airlines have allegedly raised fees beyond what you would ordinarily be expected in the Northeast Corridor at a time when the Amtrak line was shut down.”