It has been a relatively quiet year for plane crashes. On July 6, 2013, however, the Korean airline Asiana Airlines experienced a crash. Their flight 214 on approach to San Francisco International Airport from Seoul crashed after reportedly clipping a sea wall. The crash landing sheared off the plane’s landing gear and tore the tail off from the rest of the fuselage. It then burst into flames. The Boeing 777 had 307 people on board (291 passengers and 16 crew). The passengers included 141 Chinese nationals, 77 South Koreans, 61 Americans, three Indians, three Canadians, one French,…
Air Safety
Category Archives for Air Safety.
Airbus drops 100 feet
What caption would you put on this picture? This picture taken by Alan Cross and published to Instagram has gone viral. The two Singapore Airlines flight attendants sit calmly after being ordered to their seats when their Airbus A380 (registration 9V-SKH) encountered severe clear air turbulence 90 minutes into a Singapore to London flight on 26 May. Behind them is a scene of devastation. Breakfast was just being served when the plane dropped 100 feet. Eleven people had minor injuries as a result of the turbulence. The flight SQ308 continued onto London and landed safely…
Lion Crash-Scathing report
Lion Air, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, have been the brunt of a scathing preliminary report following a crash on April 13 just off Denpasar airport in Bali of a brand new 737-800. The plane, had been delivered brand new to Lion Air in February, 2013 and had only 142 hours of flying time. It was found to be airworthy. Four of the 108 (101 passengers and seven crew) on board, were seriously injured in the incident when the plane hit the water and broke up. According to The National Transportation Safety Committee (Indonesia’s…
Aeromexico Air Strike incident
Controllers at Madrid airport are scathing about an AeroMéxico incident in April. A Boeing 767-200 (registration XA-TOJ) performing flight AM-2 from Madrid to Mexico City scraped its tail along the runway for four seconds as it took off at 14:58h (258pm). The craft left two pieces of metal behind on the runway. This metal punctured the tyres of an Air Europa plane as it took off at 15.29hrs (329pm) bound for Caracas, Venezuela. That flight returned to Madrid (after burning fuel for four hours). That aircraft sustained no damage, apart from tyre damage on the…
787 takes to the sky -Who, Where and Why
After a three-month break from mid January until late April, an elaborate battery fix and two US test flights, the 787 is back in the air. I have previously described the changes that are being installed by 300 Boeing technicians to the planes across the world. Interestingly, the Japanese authorities have insisted on additional alterations in addition to the changes mandated by the FAA. They have insisted ANA and JAL install battery monitoring systems to monitor the battery performance and to carry out an inspection program to battery changes are working effectively. These additional precautions do not apply to any other airlines flying 787 Three questions: Why has the US FAA not…
Horrific 747 Crash
The 747 is one of my favorite planes. Last Monday, 29th April, a National Airlines 747-400 (registration N949CA) crashed shortly after take off from a refueling stop at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. All seven on board perished. The Taliban claimed responsibility but it looks to me more like the plane stalled just after take off. A camera captured the extraordinary crash (NB video is disturbing and contains “bad” language) RIP to the crew of National Airlines flight 102. Related Posts “Damn it, we’re going to crash” AF447
787 Cleared to Fly!
The FAA (the U.S. regulators) has approved the return of the grounded 787 Dreamliner to the air next week. The authority were clearly satisfied with Boeing’s fixes with US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood saying: “These changes to the 787 battery will ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers“. The manufacturer is saying while it does not know what caused the fire, it’s fixes will deal with 80 possible causes. “Next week, the FAA will issue instructions to operators for making changes to the aircraft and will publish in the Federal Register the final…
Lion Air Loses it
Lion Air’s slogan is “We make people fly”. On Saturday 13th April, the airline did not quite live up to their promise ditching a 737-800 and 101 passengers and seven crew into the sea. All survived -22 with injuries. The plane is a write-off. Lion Air began flying in Indonesia in 2000. They commenced with one plane. Lion Air now connects 36 Indonesia cities plus destinations Singapore, Malaysian destinations and Ho Ch Minh in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. Their website says their fleet consists of 15 737-800s, 16 MD90s, ten 737-400s and two 737-300s. Not sure how the 737-800 fits in?…
787 to fly from May 31
United Airlines has scheduled a 787 flight from Houston to Denver on May 31. Seats are available for sale. It is planning to resume international 787 flights on June 10, from Denver to Tokyo. United stated they will make more schedule changes when they know that the plane has been cleared to fly. Over at Qatar Airways, their CEO announced their 787 fleet will be flying before May 31 with the Wall Street Journal claiming that Qatar is planning to have four of their five 787s in service by April 30. ANA (All Nippon) CEO…
787 in weeks???
On Friday, “line number 86,” a Boeing-owned 787 Dreamliner built for LOT Polish Airlines took off for a test flight to “demonstrate that the new battery system performs as intended during normal and non-normal flight conditions.” This was the second test flight of the aeroplane since Boeing unveiled its improvements designed to circumvent the potentially disastrous on board lithium-ion battery fires. The company said its fixes address more than 80 possible causes. “Possible Causes” because no one -Boeing, regulators, airlines knows what caused the fires. The jet, carrying test equipment, nine crew and two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials, took off from the Boeing…
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