Major news from Warsaw, with news of a LOT Boeing 767 having to land with a landing gear failing to deploy before landing.

Flight reports video footage from Reuters… and it doesn’t look good.

The 767-300ER – forming flight LO016 from New York  – Newark to Warsaw was carrying 220 passengers and 11 crew.

Thankfully all were safely evacuated from the plane.
LOT also add:

“After noticing a central hydraulic system failure the standard procedure for emergency landings at Warsaw airport were implemented,” said the carrier.

“All airport authorities and emergency services were alerted and in place to assist the aircraft during the landing.”

I believe the Chuck Yeager term of “Any landing you can walk away from is a good one” comes to mind.  However, you can bet your bottom coin there will be an investigation pretty sharpish to why the landing gears failed to deploy.

In the meanwhile, Warsaw airport is closed to traffic, and is not expected to reopen until tomorrow (02/11/2011)

An Ethiopian Airlines flight 409 from Beirut to Addis Ababa has crashed 5 minutes after take off.

Search and Rescue operations are in progress – it is unknown if any of the 83 passengers or 9 crew survived.

The plane – a Boeing 737, is said to have disappeared from radar screens some five minutes after take-off in stormy weather at about 0200 local time.

News is still developing in this story – updates will follow during the day.

Emergency teams in Mashhad, Iran have been attending the scene of a landing accident involving a Tupolev Tu-154M.

The TU-154M owned by Taban Air flight 6437 from Abadan to Mashhad , suffered damage on landing, losing its undercarriage and a wing.

Iranian State media said almost 170 people were on board and that at least 46 were injured. There were no reports of fatalities in the incident. The rear end broke up, and passengers were evacuated from the plane.

It seems the plane landed in fog at Mashhad airport, where the tail of the plane hit the ground, caused plane skidded off the runway and burst into flame.

We’ll be doing a mini catchup over the next couple of days.  Lots been happening – me mostly sleeping through it. I’m also in the middle of planning my next trip at the mo – a post on that later.

An Air Berlin Boeing 737-800 Flight AB2450 departing Dortmund (Germany) to the to Las Palmas, Canary Islands (Spain) overran the runway during takeoff, and ended up at the end of it in the snow, nose down.

The pilot aborted takeoff due to a technical irregularity, and failed to stop the plane before runway threshold.

Thankfully, none of the 165 passengers or 6 crew were hurt, and the they were evacuated using air-stairs.

With weather conditions in Europe expected to get worse, focus on De-icing and runway maintenance – as well as delays and re-routings will become the norm…

This was going to be published yesterday – but I honestly was in superranty mood after the laughable misoperation of the ID Cards. Plus it’s given me more time to write this entry with a few more facts, so all the better really..

American Airlines Flight AA331 was a simple Washington DC (Regan National) to Jamaica Service via Miami service, served by a Boeing 737-800 (N977AN) – much like the Ryanair 737-800 that skidded off the taxiway later on.

Whilst on approach, it seems the weather was very poor, with heavy rain and thunderstorms in the region.
On landing, it appears that the aircraft aquaplaned on contact, and skidded off the end of the runway, breaking into 3 segments and coming to a rest near of the runway 15ft (thats 3 meters or so away) from the sea

The frame itself is 8 years old at the time of the incident, however, in three bits (fractured aft of the wing of the fuselage, the right hand engine has become separated from the body, and the left wing-tip has snapped clean off, along with the nose crushed and a couple of other breaks as well as the landing gear collapsing) -the frame it’s a write off.   

Thankfully, and perhaps more important is that whilst 44 people were injured – 4 seriously, there were no fatalities at all from the 154 people aboard the plane (148 passengers + 6 crew).


For those 154 people – please enjoy your Christmas Miracle.

One word: Ouch.

Picture – BBC News

It seems that everywhere is a bit of a skidpan at the moment – especially at Glasgow Prestwick Airport were a Ryanair 737 that arrived from Dublin skidded off a taxiway after landing safely.

No injuries thankfully amongst the 129 passengers and 6 crew, and were evacuated normally. Whilst the aircraft has been deemded safe to fly again, the airport remains shut until they get the aircraft off the taxiway.

Another sad day, another crash.

Today – Caspian Airlines flt 7908, left Tehran, heading to Yerecan. Alas, it failed to make it, and crashed 16 minutes after take off with 168 souls aboard. Currently the makeup of the passengers is mostly Armenian, but not 100% accounted for.

The aircraft involved was a Tupolev, Tu-154M, built in 1987, and took off safely with no irregularities reported. It crashed 75 miles from Tehran, leaving a 10 meter hole in the ground, with wreckage spread over 200meters from the point of impact.

Image BBC News/AP.

It seems anunas horriblus is getting more horribuls this year with the loss of another aircraft – this time a Yemenia Air Airbus A310 from on route IY626 Sanaa to Moroni in the Comoros islands.

Picture (c) Baron Inchcap, – http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/photos/baron_inchcape1/airbus-a310-f-ohpr-yemenia-3198.aspx

It seems the aircraft made one attempt at landing before contact was lost with the aircraft, and from the reports, it seems there conditions were described as “challenging” with high winds.

Prehaps more worryingly, this particular A310 wasn’t excatly praised in it’s last inspection whilst in France, and hasn’t been back since.

From the reports – 1 child has survived. The rest of the 141 passengers and 11 crew (152 souls) are alas being accounted for in bodies.

This year is just not good.

May the souls rest in peace.

Welcome to GhettoIFE.com!

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