Tag Archives for incidents.
Forty-three years ago, a brand new Boeing 767 cruising at 41,000 feet over Canada went quiet as both engines failed — not because of sabotage or mechanical collapse, but because a metric conversion mistake had sent it into the sky with only half the fuel it needed. What happened next became one of aviation’s most famous survival stories: a powerless widebody gliding toward an old air base that was no longer really an air base at all.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is on a courtesy campaign, trying to get passengers to be kind to each other and to flight crew – and to dress better. But what people wear isn’t the driver of conflict in the skies.
A total of 176 people were on board—169 passengers and 7 crew members-were evacuated using the plane’s emergency slides after noticing flames and smoke near the tail of the aircraft. Firefighters arrived within minutes.
On December 25, 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, an Embraer ERJ-190 aircraft, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, during an attempted emergency landing. The flight, carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, was enroute from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, when it diverted to Aktau due to adverse weather conditions.
United Airlines flight 354 from San Francisco to Boston was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Denver on Monday due to damage observed on the aircraft’s wing.
While the aircraft was cruising at 31,000 feet, passengers reported seeing damage to the slats on the right wing.
We’ve seen belligerent or drunk passengers try to open the door of a commercial aircraft while inflight. And unless the plane is at sufficiently low altitude, or a door’s seal fails, it will almost always be pressurized such that this is impossible.
What I don’t think I’ve seen before is an flight that takes off with a door that’s still open!
NTSB found that the captain, who hand-flew the takeoff, called for flaps to be reduced from 20 to 5. However the first officer “thought that he heard the captain announce flaps 15.”
The cause of the incident was attributed to “[t]he flight crew’s failure to manage the airplane’s vertical flightpath, airspeed, and pitch attitude following a miscommunication about the captain’s desired flap setting during the initial climb.”
Tuesday’s United Airlines flight 1274 from Hartford, Connecticut to Washington Dulles had to return to Hartford shortly after takeoff when pilots realized that a cockpit window had been left unlatched – and popped open once they took off and climbed to 4,000 feet.
While it was difficult for air traffic control to hear pilot transmission due to the noise of wind entering the cockpit with this window open, the plane was cleared to return immediately.
The Boeing 737-800 (registration EI-DHH) touched down on runway 28L, veered to the left off of the runway, but pilots managed to get the aircraft back onto the runway. Air traffic control instructed the arriving aircraft behind it to perform a go-around while cockpit crew of the Ryanair flight sought guidance on whether their aircraft was on fire or emitting smoke.
Spirit Airlines flight 259 from Dallas to Orlando diverted to Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday afternoon as smoked filled the cabin of the aircraft when the battery of a passenger’s electronic device caught fire in an overhead bin. Once on the ground, 10 passengers and crew were hospitalized.
Smoke also reportedly filled the cockpit. A retired fireman assisted cabin crew in dousing the flames. Meanwhile, air traffic control gave the flight’s captain a direct routing to get on the ground.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
