Tag: Emergency Landings

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One Very Easy, Borderline Insane Way to Get Kicked Off a Flight

May 14, 2013 at 11:15 AM | by | Comments (0)

There's a distinct difference between "fan" and "stan." A fan has a normal affection for a product, person, or somesuch. A stan? Well, they're different. They fall into the batshit category. They go too far. They can be dangerous.

That's how American Airlines crew could categorize the passenger they had to remove from a recent flight from LA to JFK.

A woman, obviously Whitney Houston's biggest fan, repeatedly sang her "I Will Always Love You" song for hours on end, before passengers had had enough.

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A Little Smoke Can't Stop, Won't Stop the Boeing 787 Dreamliner

January 16, 2013 at 2:22 PM | by | Comment (1)

"Everyone on the bus!"

It was a nippy morning outside of Seattle and two loads of Boeing top brass and members of the press were being bussed out onto the tarmac at the airline manufacturer's Paine Field Airport. This would be the very first peek inside the shiniest airplane on the flight line before ANA/All Nippon Airways flew her away to Tokyo. The other airplanes on the tarmac, windows still blacked out and engines still unconnected, could have felt nothing but jealousy (if airplanes had feelings, that is).

This was 16 full months ago, in September 2011, when Boeing first delivered a 787 Dreamliner to a customer airline. We were there, onboard that bus, and then, later, inside that plane, running our palms over the new seat fabric and imagining the thousands of eager travelers who'd sit in each individual seat during only the first few months of service. Would they know what a special plane they were on?

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Feel Good News Story of the Week: Qantas' 'Nancy Bird Walton' A380 Comes Home

April 23, 2012 at 9:58 AM | by | Comments (0)

We all remember back in early November of 2010 when Qantas flight 32 was climbing out of Singapore's Changi Airport and, due to an oil leak, blew an A380 engine. The engine explosion pierced fuel tanks, created a hole in the wing and damaged wiring. Parts of the engine even rained down on a small Indonesian island as the pilot called for an emergency landing back in Singapore.

The resulting blame game was intense, between the engine manufacturer, the maintenance crews and the plane design itself.

Fast forward over 1.5 years later and the plane is still stuck in Singapore undergoing much needed repairs and a full investigation. An airplane, especially a massive A380, grounded for that long costs beaucoup bucks no airline wants to fork over, but no airline wants to risk an accident. We get it.

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Emergency Landing Forces Qantas Passengers to Deplane Via Forklift

January 31, 2012 at 8:55 AM | by | Comments (2)

From time to time planes are forced into emergency landings. Sometimes the reasons are real emergencies, like a bird strike or cracked windshield. Sometimes the reasons are still real, but are only a smell of smoke in the cabin or an unruly passenger. In all cases, the crew make the executive decision to bring the bird down in the interest of safety. In many cases, the problem is detected, rectified and the passengers are on their way with a bit of a delay. They'll be a little late, but no major dramas ensue.

Over the weekend, a Qantas aircraft had such an emergency where the crew smelled smoke on board. Naturally, alarms were raised and the captain decided to divert to an alternate airport. The Boeing 767, en route from Darwin to Brisbane, safely landed in the small outback town of Mt. Isa.

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An In-Flight Meal Proves Deadly for One Jetstar Passenger

September 6, 2011 at 10:47 AM | by | Comments (0)

We’re always quick to criticize in-flight meals as hazardous to your health due to their taste, but a recent dinner aboard a Jetstar flight was actually deadly for one unlucky passenger.

During a flight from Singapore to Auckland, a passenger—Robert Rippingale—choked on his in-flight meal only an hour or two into the 11-hour journey. He was sitting next to his girlfriend, who initially thought he was just laughing, but soon the scene turned very serious.

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Ryanair Handles Mid-Flight Passenger Heart Attack Exactly How You Imagine

August 5, 2011 at 2:32 PM | by | Comments (0)

Any time Ryanair spokespeople begin to talk about following EU airline regulations—and by "following EU airline regulations" they mean "doing the absolute minimum as required by law"—you know that something has gone wildly awry.

Last time we saw them being defensive like this was last year, after they stranded Canary Island-bound passengers on the entirely wrong island in the midst of a thunderstorm. The airline's excuse? That according to EU regulations they were, in terms of physical distance, close enough.

So with Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara telling a Swedish newspaper that flight attendants handled a medical situation according to EU requirements, you know that the story is going to be good. And by good we mean very, awesomely bad.

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Cuba Libres All Around! United Flight Makes Surprise Stop in Havana

Where: Havana, Cuba
August 1, 2011 at 8:30 AM | by | Comments (0)


Too bad the United passengers missed this action

Weird smells. In-flight drama. An emergency landing in Cuba. These three elements sound like the basis for a Weekend At Bernie's-sort of movie, but instead it was reality for 135 passengers onboard United Flight 931 this weekend, when their Washington-Dulles to Cancun, Mexico trip took a detour—to Havana, Cuba.

The cause of the unscheduled stop? CNN reports: "The crew detected a burning smell, saying it was in the cockpit," and they landed the Airbus A320 on Castro's turf just to be safe.

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Get A First Person Look at Last Week's Delta Emergency Landing

January 3, 2011 at 9:12 AM | by | Comments (2)

Some Delta passengers had something to be thankful for this holiday season as 2010 ended, as their flight had to make an emergency landing in Colorado Springs last Thursday. Obviously any landing that isn’t on the scheduled runway at the scheduled time is an emergency one, but this detour was pretty calm and orderly.

Pilots noticed a light indicating that one of their engines was probably not working like it was supposed to, so they made the decision to land in Colorado instead of Arizona. However, once safely on the ground the overheated brakes created a fire danger, so the call was made for all passengers to Steven Slater their way out of the plane and onto the runway.

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Speedos and Mesh Underwear: The Busiest Travel Weekend Was Also Skimpiest

November 29, 2010 at 9:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

As expected with one of the busiest travel periods of the year, much travel news happened over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Luckily for everyone, the headlines focused on occurrences of nudity at airports or the lack of, as the TSA declared victoy in Opt-Out Day, even though they had turned off most of the controversial full-body scanners. There were no underwear bombs or package bombs; there were only Jaeger bombs at family tables stewn with pumpkin pie crumbs.

Alas, before getting back on track after a gluttonous weekend, let's pig out once more...on the brief news bits from the last few days:

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What Is 'Snarge' and Why You Don't Want It On Your Flight

November 22, 2010 at 4:25 PM | by | Comments (0)

Up until today, our vocabulary remained free of the word "Snarge", but now that we know what it means, we are totally going to find ways to use it. This icky-sounding term is pretty damn icky for sure; it's what bird remains are called, but not just any bird remains; it's the leftovers of birds found in the engines of airliners that suffer bird strikes.

Even before "The Miracle on the Hudson" hit the water after bird strikes took out its engines, the danger of flocks living around New York City's airports was well documented. Now the issue is back, after the pilot of yesterday's Delta Flight 30, which blew an engine after taking off from JFK bound for Moscow, claims that a bird strike caused the failure. Notable extra fact: the flights had Leonardo DiCaprio onboard! As of now, no "snarge" has been found in the engine, but the NTSB isn't ruling out the possibility, although it's probably just that a compressor stalled and the engine malfunctioned.

[Photo of a different bird strike engine: AP/WSJ]

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Emergency Landing at JFK Filmed from Inside the Plane

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
September 27, 2010 at 11:59 AM | by | Comments (0)

There is a popular saying that "the future will be blogged." Well, forget that. The future will be completely caught on smartphone video, such as with the emergency landing of a Delta Connection (operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines) jet last night after some of the landing gear failed to deploy. Flight 4951 from Atlanta, Georgia to White Plains, NY made the landing at New York's JFK Airport after the pilot radioed in the issue, and luckily the worst thing that happened was the airplane got a little scratched up.

Two passengers managed to keep their phone cameras rolling while bracing for impact, as the flight attendant repeated a command to "stay down." The regional jet landed on the runway, with the pilot balancing the plane on the remaining landing gear until the final moments, when gravity took over and the wing hit the ground, shooting a trail of sparks, which you can see in the video. All passengers and crew were unharmed and were even able to leave the plane normally, albeit onto the tarmac.

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It's JetBlue Passengers' Turn to Ride the Inflatable Slide after Fire Breaks Out

August 26, 2010 at 4:49 PM | by | Comments (0)

What a month it's been for JetBlue, huh? First, there was flight attendant Steven Slater who quit his job by exiting down a plane's evacuation slide, then the airline bounced back by releasing their All You Can Jet pass, and yet now we're back to the evacuation slide business.

It was just announced over the news that a JetBlue Airbus A320 experienced a "hard landing" at Sacramento Airport after flying in from Long Beach. The landing caused two blown tires and a small fire broke out on board, which was quickly extinguished. All 87 passengers and 5 crew members are safe, after leaving the plane via the emergency exits, which means they got to ride the slides!

Yes, this was a scary event for the passengers, as quick as it was, and we're not making too light of it. But the fact still remains that if TIME Magazine named a person of the month and not just of the year, August's wouldn't be a person. It'd be a thing: the inflatable evacuation slide.

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