Thursday 31 July 2008

Woman dies onboard Delta flight to Atlanta

A woman's body was found in the bathroom of a Delta Airlines flight after it had landed at Atlanta from Los Angeles.

The crew were assisted by medical professionals and the flight was met by authorities who confirmed that the lady had died.

Los Angeles Times quoted: "There were no signs of foul play and the body of a woman in her 60s was taken to a medical examiner's office for an autopsy".

A passenger onboard had alerted crew members when the woman had failed to come out the bathroom after half an hour and the woman's identity hasn't been released due to passenger privacy.

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Another Qantas aircraft makes emergency landing

Another Qantas plane had to make an emergency landing just 3 days after a hole ripped through the fuselage of a Qantas 747.

The plane bound for Melbourne had to turn back to Adelaide with a mechanical problem. The pilot had told passengers there was a problem with the landing gear after it failed to retract after the Boeing 737-800 took off.

A Qantas spokeswoman said: "there was no risk to passengers’ safety during the “routine air turnback”.

Investigators have since found evidence that an oxygen tank had exploded onboard the 747 which eventually landed safely in the Phillipines on Friday.

Sunday 27 July 2008

Oxygen canister found to be missing from Qantas 747.

An exploding oxygen canister has been suspected of blowing the big hole in the fuselage of the Qantas 747 en-route to Melbourne. The airline has been ordered to check all the oxygen bottles on its 30 fleet of 747s.

After the pilot had to make an emergency landing in Manila one of the oxygen bottles usually stored in the area where the explosion occurred was found to be missing.

Reports have also come to light that some of the oxygen masks onboard the aircraft were in poor condition and some didn't even deploy nearly causing some passengers to pass out.

An hour after departing Honk Kong a loud bang was heard and the aircraft descended from 29,000 feet to 10,000. All crew and passengers embarked unharmed.

Investigators have said no evidence of an explosive material has been found onboard the plane or in any luggage.

Saturday 26 July 2008

2 Metre hole blown in fuselage of Qantas Boeing 747 Jumbo.


Qantas have always maintained a 100% safety record but concerns have now been raised when a 747 on its way to Melbourne had to make an emergency landing in the Phillipines.

A loud bang was heard onboard the aircraft which blew a 2 metre hole in the fuselage and a forum for the Airline Industry said the plane had 'serious corrosion issues'.

One entry was reported saying "serious issues have been detected on VH-OJK while undergoing maintenance at Avalon [Melbourne Airport]."

VH-OJK is the specific registration code for the plane.

The entry, written by someone describing himself as an 'in-flight operations employee' continued: "This is the first aircraft to undergo cabin reconfiguration with the all new Premium Y/C cabin.

"Sources tell me the launch date has further slipped once to 5th of March operating the QF001 SYD-BKK-LHR route. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope OJK recovers from her plastic surgery!"

Qantas have confirmed the plane had undergone maintenance and Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon has said that preliminary checks didn't indicate corrosion near the hole.

The plane which had departed from London Heathrow and had stopped over at Hong Kong with 346 passengers was built in 1991. Whilst they were flying over the South China Sea people heard a loud bang which led to cabin decompression and oxygen masks releasing.

In order to stabilise the cabin pressure the Captain lowered the plane to 10,000ft and then went on to complete a safe emergency landing. Nobody was hurt and engineers are now conducting a full investigation into what happened.

Qantas haven't suffered a serious air accident since 1951 and have a fantastic safety record.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

100 feared dead after plane explodes on landing

A Sudan Airways jet has exploded whilst attempting to land at Khartoum Airport and veered off the runway.

It’s feared more than 100 people are dead. Aviation officials have said 203 passengers and 11 crew were onboard the aircraft and 103 and 10 crew members have survived.

The Airbus A310 had taken off from Damascus and was trying to land in a thunderstorm. It appeared to have landed safely before then swerving off the runway and exploding into a massive fireball.

"There are missing passengers who could be still inside the plane, or left the aircraft but did not inform officials they were passengers," a police spokesman said.

One survivor stated: “The landing was "rough", the right wing was on fire. Smoke poured into the cockpit and passengers began opening emergency exit doors as the flames quickly swept into the plane.”

The cause of the accident is still unclear. John Ukec Lueth Ukec the Sudanese ambassador to Washington has put the cause of the accident down to bad weather.

"There was a lot of water on the runway and they still tried to land," he claimed. "It will be investigated and we will find out what went wrong, whether it is a technical issue or human error."

Sudan’s police chief later added:

"Bad weather caused the plane to crash-land, split into two and catch fire. We believe that most of the passengers were able to make it out and escape with their lives."

However, the director of Khartoum Airport has said a technical fault with the aircraft caused the accident. He said that the aircraft landed safely and was being instructed from the control tower about taxiing. "At that moment, one of the engines exploded and the plane caught fire. It is a technical reason," said Mr Ibrahim

This incident has added to Sudan’s poor aviation safety record. In May 24 people died in a crash in remote part of the country where members of the region’s government were killed.

A Sudan Airways Boeing 737 crashed after take off from Port Sudan killing everyone onboard in July 2003.

Sunday 25 May 2008

Jumbo 747 splits in two during take off

A Jumbo 747 has crashed and split in two at the end of the runway in Brussels Airport.

The aircraft was a cargo plane due to fly to Bahrain and was attempting to take off when it crashed.

The five crew members onboard the plane have all been slightly injured and are in hospital. A spokesman at the airport said:

"The plane is very seriously damaged. The aircraft cracked in two after it crashed at the end of runway 220, which lies very close to a rail line and houses. Rail services to and from the airport were suspended as a safety precaution, however the crash did not affect other flights at the airport."

Firefighters at the scene sprayed the wings of the jet with special fire retardant foam as a precaution.

It's not known at present what cargo was onboard the aircraft or what was the cause of the accident.

The pilot has told authorities that a big noise sounded as he tried to take off.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Fans stranded at Gatwick Airport

A special charter flight put on for football supporters going to Russia for the Champions League final has been cancelled leaving hundreds of fans stranded at Gatwick airport.

A spokesman has said that a technical problem caused the fight to be cancelled.

Fans have now started to leave the airport as it's now too late to get to the match in time which starts at 19.45 BST.