Here is a collection of airline mishap stories that adorned the pages of newspapers and were featured on TVs during the past 10 days. It is not encouraging. Operating with bargain basement maintenance seems to have its price. These stories speak for themselves. ’nuff said.
Plane with blown tire lands safely at NYC airport
NEW YORK (AP) 7/29/08— A Delta Air Lines plane carrying 167 people safely made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport Tuesday evening, hours after it blew out a tire on takeoff from the Queens airport, authorities said.
Continental jet makes safe emergency landing at SoCal airport after pilot smells smoke
ORANGE, Calif. (AP) 8/8/08 — A Continental Airlines jet made an emergency landing at John Wayne Airport shortly after its departure when a pilot smelled smoke, authorities said.
The plane, carrying 113 passengers and five crew members, landed safely Thursday afternoon and evacuated without incident, airport spokeswoman Rachel Gibson said.
Cylinder fragments blasted into Qantas cabin: investigators
SYDNEY (AFP) 7/30/08 — Fragments of an oxygen cylinder blasted into a Qantas jet’s passenger cabin mid-flight with enough force to shear off a door lever when an explosion punctured the jet’s body, investigators said Wednesday.
Jet Evacuated After Emergency Landing At LAX
LOS ANGELES (CBS) 8/5/08 ― Passengers have been evacuated by inflatable chutes from an American Airlines jetliner after an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport.
American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said Flight 31 bound for Honolulu departed LAX at 8:48 a.m. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported a “odor and possible haze in the passenger cabin,” and declared an emergency, Wagner said.
Australians to Investigate Qantas Safety
SYDNEY, Australia 8/4/08— Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority said Sunday that it would investigate safety standards at Qantas Airways after recent episodes involving the carrier’s fleet.
Accept higher prices, but not faulty planes
Violent storms caused much of my flight delays; nothing the airlines can do about the weather. But three of my flights – two on American Airlines, one on US Airways – were either delayed or canceled because of announced equipment malfunctions.
Airline passengers experiencing terminal stress
First, his American Airlines plane had to return to the gate for two maintenance checks and to reboot the aircraft’s computer. Then, the mechanics took so long that the crew ran over its allotted time and another crew had to be brought in. All the while, the passengers had to remain onboard in a hot plane, he said.
Worrisome state of aircraft maintenance — little things count
Last week an explosion tore a hole in the side of a Qantas 747 over the Pacific. Yesterday a Cathay Pacific flight descending into Vancouver is reported to have lost a fuselage panel. In both cases, the aircraft and passengers are safe. These are high profile cases, but what about the toilet that doesn’t function, the seat that doesn’t recline and reading lights that don’t work. They speak volumes about attention to detail.
Worrisome state of aircraft maintenance – big things count too
Earlier this week, my colleague, Charlie Leocha, wrote about the sorry state of aircraft maintenance. He postulated, in a nutshell, that all of those broken reading lights, torn seat cushions and malfunctioning headsets might point to a larger systemic problem with airline maintenance programs in the era of airline cutbacks.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
