Welcome to our 4th video covering noteworthy incidents! If you want to check out the other
videos in this series, as well as our summaries on airline fleet news, you’ll find them in our
playlist called “Simple Flying Summarizes,” which we’ll link to in the description.
Since the middle of August, we’ve reported on around 20 different incidents-
and with so much interesting stuff happening,
everything reported here will unfortunately be a very short summary of each event. If you’d like
us to make a video dedicated to one of these incidents, let us know by leaving a comment!
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at incidents in the past month or so...
On August 13th, an Icelandair 757-300 experienced an engine
failure on final approach to Paris Charles de Gaulle. The crew declared an emergency,
but managed to land safely and taxi to the stand under their own power.
The aircraft spent a few days out of action, but has since returned to service.
The next week, on August 20th, an American Airlines 737-800 made contact with an Alaska
Airlines A320-200 while being towed to the gate. The two jets clipped wings at Hollywood Burbank
Airport. There were no customers on board either aircraft and there were no reported injuries.
The next day, on August 21st, an Aerosucre 737-230F was heading to Bogotá from Mitú in
Colombia. However, as the aircraft was taking off, the main cargo door opened,
forcing the jet to return back to Mitú-Fabio Alberto León Bentley Airport.
No injuries were reported in this incident.
Then on August 23rd, an Alaska Airlines flight from New Orleans to Seattle experienced a cell
phone fire onboard. The 737-900ER had touched down in Seattle when the incident occurred.
The airline tells Simple Flying that the crew acted swiftly using fire
extinguishers and a battery containment bag to stop the phone from smoking. Evacuation
slides were deployed due to hazy conditions inside the cabin.
A few days later on August 27th, an unruly passenger caused a disturbance at Miami
International’s gate D23. What appears to be discontent over mask rules, the passenger
in question started to become verbally aggressive towards people in the gate area.
The incident soon escalated, with the passenger becoming physically aggressive. This included
aggression towards employees in the area as well as some inanimate objects at the gate.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said the incident involved a military veteran in crisis,
and that the passenger in question was transported to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation.
That same day, a Biman Bangladesh flight from Muscat to Dhaka was forced to divert when
the flight’s Captain became incapacitated. The incident, which was initially believed
to have been a heart attack, caused him to lose consciousness. Cruising at 37,000 feet,
the First Officer took control of the aircraft and diverted to Nagpur in India.
Resuscitation attempts were made during the diversion, which saw the aircraft touch down
safely after 40 minutes. Upon landing, the Captain was taken to hospital. However, despite treatment
in an intensive care unit, he was unable to regain consciousness and died a few hours later.
The cause of death had in fact been a brain hemorrhage, rather than a heart attack.
Days later, a man breached security at Los Angeles International Airport in the
early hours of Sunday August 29th. He reportedly walked into a parked American Airlines aircraft.
Employees servicing the plane notified police, who promptly arrested the intruder. American
Airlines says that the aircraft was then reinspected by security teams.
Then on September 5th, an Aer Lingus A330-300 flying to Chicago suffered a rejected takeoff
in Dublin. The pilots opted to reject the takeoff at a low speed soon after passengers reportedly
heard a loud bang from the right engine. After seeing no fire or debris,
the A330 made its way back to a stand for passengers to deboard and switch aircraft.
On September 6th, a bunch of ants forced a London-bound Air India flight to be delayed
at New Delhi’s IGI airport. The discovery was made before the aircraft was to depart.
The 787 was parked at the gate when someone noticed a swarm of ants in the business class
section. The airline officials looked into the complaint and decided to replace the aircraft.
The flight eventually arrived in London with a delay of roughly three hours.
On the same day, an Iran Air A330 on its way to Hamburg entered a holding
pattern due to heavy fog over the airport. After waiting for a little over an hour,
the plane climbed back up to 30,000 feet and diverted all the way to Milan.
The nearly 600-mile diversion was due to the fact that Iran Air is not allowed to
receive jet fuel at any German airport. This is because many western supply companies have
stopped selling fuel to the airline in order to comply with US sanctions imposed against Iran.
These days, any third parties who supply Iranian airlines with maintenance,
catering, refueling, and even booking, are also liable to face prosecution.
Normally, Iran Air’s aircraft flying to Europe carry enough fuel to return to Tehran.
However, following the prolonged holding, the A330 no longer had sufficient supplies to make it back
to Iran. This was what prompted the detour to the nearest available – and accessible – fuel supply.
Then on September 8th, a Turkish Airline A330 flew in circles around Istanbul for four hours
with a failed engine. The jet departed for Johannesburg and found itself in trouble during
the initial climb after the left engine emitted several loud noises and flames for a few seconds.
Since the A330-300 was fully loaded with fuel, the pilots had to reduce weight to
land safely and prevent a hard landing. While fuel dumping is available in most long-haul aircraft,
A330 customers can choose whether or not to include a dumping mechanism since the aircraft can
safely divert on a single engine. As we don’t know if this A330 had fuel dumping capabilities or not,
it’s unknown if this was the reason for the extended holding pattern
Days later, a bomb threat forced a diversion and full aircraft search in Hong Kong. This took place
on September 13th and had a Hong Kong Airlines flight to Shanghai diverted back to Hong Kong
after an hour and a half in the air. Two threats over several days were reported via
the Airport Authority website, both of which have proven to be hoaxes.
On September 15th, a Lufthansa Airbus A350 heading to Chicago burst a tire taking off from Munich.
The flight was north of Glasgow when the decision was made to turn the plane around.
The Airbus landed at Frankfurt/Main later in the day.
The Aviation Herald suggested that the pilots were not aware of the burst tire until over Scotland.
This would suggest that a post-departure runway inspection may have found tire debris.
Then on September 17th, a United Airlines 737-900ER tipped backward,
experiencing a stationary tail strike.
The charter flight full of football players arrived in Lewiston (Idaho) after a flight
from LAX, and was in the process of offloading passengers and cargo when the tipping took place.
United Airlines told Simple Flying that the incident was due to a shift in weight
and balance during the offloading process with no injuries reported.
Many have commented that the 737-900 is well known for its balance issues,
and either requires loading and unloading in a specific sequence,
or a special tail stand to prevent the plane from tipping.
That same day, two Sun Country 737s were damaged following a severe thunderstorm at
Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport. The winds of the storm were so strong that the
two 737s slid into each other and slammed into jet bridges, despite being secured with wheel chocks.
And finally, on September 18th, an Air France 777 was forced into an emergency landing
after a technical failure shortly after taking off from Beijing.
The jet suffered a problem with one of its air conditioning pipes,
with passengers reporting a loud bang before smoke filled the cabin just one minute into takeoff.
The aircraft landed back in Beijing about 14 minutes after departure with no reported injuries.
We hope you’ve enjoyed another episode of recent incident news!
Given the length of the videos in this series, we’ll be moving them,
as well as our incident summaries, over to our other YouTube Channel: Long Haul by
Simple Flying. Be sure to subscribe through the link in the description! See you there!
And, just a reminder that with all of our videos, there’s a more detailed corresponding article on
SimpleFlying.com. Check out the links in the description to learn more- and, as always,
share your thoughts on this video and any of the topics we covered by leaving a comment!