aviation

Cathay Pacific A350 makes a very hard, high pitch landing at London Heathrow.

A Volaris Airbus A321-200N, registration XA-VSC performing flight Y4-488 from Tijuana to Guadalajara (Mexico), landed on Guadalajara's runway 11 at 11:52L (17:52Z) but touched down hard and suffered a tail strike. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. There were no injuries, the aircraft suffered substantial damage.

Mexico's DAAIA (Direccion de Analisis de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion) reported the aircraft XA-VSC suffered a hard landing at Guadalajara, but attributed the aircraft to Viva Aerobus instead of Volaris. The DAAIA quoted the captain of the flight stating: "We were on an ILS approach. The first officer was flying the aircraft, the approach was carried out in a normal way. On short final an instability started, the first officer decelerated the aircraft completely, the aircraft went down, I didn't have time to correct, a strong impact was felt. When we arrived at the apron, we were informed that a tail strike had occurred, a report was recorded in the logbook and the company and authorities were informed." The DAAIA have opened an investigation.

The aircraft is still on the ground in Guadalajara about 72 hours after landing.

Source and photo

July 24th - a Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration N189DN performing flight DL-185 from Milan Malpensa (Italy) to New York JFK,NY (USA), was climbing out of Malpensa's runway 35R when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence and hail prompting the crew to declare emergency reporting severe turbulence, hail and a cracked windshield. The crew stopped the climb at FL230 and diverted to Rome Fiumicino (Italy) where the aircraft landed on runway 16R without further incident about 65 minutes after departure. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained substantial damage including punctures of the right hand wing, punctures of both engine spinners, damage to both engines' fan blades, punctured radome, and dents along the leading edges of the wings.

Source and photo's

A Kalitta Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration N401KZ performing flight K4-968 from Anchorage,AK (USA) to Ningbo (China), landed on Ningbo's runway 31 but veered right off the runway and came to a stop with all gear on soft surface about 32 meters off the right hand runway egde about 2200 meters/7200 feet down the runway at about 15:18L (07:18Z). There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained minor if any damage.

Source

Where we live we can watch the procession of planes coming in and out of DIA. (I'll try an get a better pic later)

Air Algérie flight AH1087, a Boeing 737-800 (7T-VKJ) hit a light pole, severing the right winglet at Tlemcen Zenata Airport,(TLM/DAON), Algeria.

This plane is likely to be AOG for a while. See more photo's here.

Did you know a 747 could carry an additional engine? The 5th engine is not working: it is carried as cargo underneath the wing to transport it from one location to another. This special way of carrying the engines is mainly used to transport an engine to an already broken down aircraft at a non-base airport. The second 747 can fly in a new engine, after which engineers can replace the engine on the broken down 747. The broken engine can be carried back in the same way to the home base airport.

Due to the drag, the performance of the aircraft is quite heavy impacted. Crews must plan additional fuel stops to account for the added fuel burn.

See for more information and a very nice description of this process this blog from Flightradar24.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/3045766

The photo is a frame of a video from the JetBlue aircraft, showing the runway incursion

A Jetblue Embraer ERJ-190, registration N179JB performing flight B6-206 from Nashville,TN to Boston,MA (USA), was on final approach to Boston's runway 04R cleared to land on the runway.

A single engine aircraft had been cleared to line up and wait on crossing runway 09, the crew of Embraer already cleared to land heard that clearance, acknowledge the clearance and proceeded onto the runway, however, commenced their takeoff run without clearance.

More info: https://avherald.com/h?article=50c9d066&opt=0

SA Novespace of France operates an Airbus A310 (F-WNOV) to perform 'parabolic' flights. During these flights, the aircraft simulates weightlessness for a short period of time. The cabin of the aircraft is therefore mostly empty, to give people the space to float around.

Astronauts from ESA use these flights to prepare themselves for weightlessness in space. See for an image what parabolic flight maneuvers are: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paolo-Lunghi-2/publication/314285521/figure/fig2/AS:469569253974026@1488965442721/Parabolic-flight-sequence.png

Delta Air Lines flight DL1437, a Boeing 757-232, was evacuated on the runway after landing at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, GA (ATL). Apparently several tires on the left main landing gear had burst/deflated during landing on runway 09L, followed by a overheated landing gear which was contained by ARFF.

Source: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/343181

General Electric owns a 747-400 (N747GF). This aircraft is used to test new engines in-flight. For example the one in the photo: the new GE9XTM engine, which will be used on the new Boeing 777X. What a size difference compared to the CF6s of the 747!

This frame was orginally delivered to Japan Airlines in March of 1994 with registration JA8910. GE bought it in January 2011 to replace the aging Boeing 747-100 (N747GE). The 747-100 was orginally delivered to Pan Am in 1970 as 25th 747 off the line. GE bought it in March of 1992 and has used it until January 2017. The N747GE is currently on display at Pima Air and Space Museum (Tucson Davis-Monthan AFB)

A United Boeing 767-300, registration N641UA performing flight UA-702 from Newark,NJ to Houston Intercontinental,TX (USA), landed on Houston's runway 26L at 10:34L (15:34Z) but touched down hard. The aircraft rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron. There were no injuries.

Source: https://avherald.com/h?article=50c768a7&opt=0

Air India owned several A320 aircraft with double wheels. By default, all A320s are delivered with a singe-wheel setup by Airbus. Back in the early 90s, Air India wanted to operate A320s to airports in India which could not carry the weight of an A320 on the ramps and taxiways. To help distribute the weight more evenly, Air India asked Airbus to design and deliver double-wheeld A320s. Several A320s were delivered with double-wheel setup in the early 90s to Air India.

Nowadays, the infrastructure in India has vastly improved and the weight constraint is no longer in place. Air India has stored or scrapped all double-wheel A320s.

This is a post in a serie of aircraft odd-variants. If you like it: please upvote it :)

Akasa Air from India will soon start operating its first Boeing 737-8200 Max. After Ryanair, it will become the second airline to operate this very high density 737-800Max variant. Equiped with an extra after-wing emergency exit, this 737-800Max variant is certified to transport a whopping 212 passengers in a high density (crammed) setup. The extra emergency exit is added to comply with safety regulations, allowing 212 passengers opposed to the 189 of the regular 737-8max.

I am starting a small series on the "odd variants" of some aircraft types. This is the first post 🙂 Please upvote if you would like to see more ✈️

Honeywell owns a 757-200 with RR-engines. They have fitted their 757 with a small, 3rd, wing to test avionics, engines and other instruments. So far it has carried a jet engine, prop engine and instruments..

It is an early 757 from 1983: the 5th delivered 757. Delivered to the now defunct Eastern Airlines. Honeywell aquired it in 2005 as N757HW.

Picture source // aeroprints.com

On the 15th of April, a Cargolux 747-400 (LX-ECV) landed at Luxembourg runway 06 and bounced, the left wing dropped and both left engines (CF6) touched the runway surface before the crew initiated a go around.

More details and an aftermath photo: https://avherald.com/h?article=507e3a26&opt=0

TUIfly Belgium is replacing their current ERJ-190s with newer E2 models that were previously owned by Belavia, the state-owned carrier from Belarus.

In my opinion, TUI has a great livery that also gives these E2s a very nice look. What do you think?

Image source: https://www.planespotters.net/photo/1458186/ei-gyx-tui-fly-belgium-embraer-e195-e2-erj-190-400-std / Radim Koblížka

Really interesting article about airlines, independent safety inspectors ans Russia

What a gigantic ... flying sausage 🌭

Does someone know why Cathay Pacific and other airlines use different codes for airplanes than what Boeing has listed? For example they list a 777-367 which seems to be a variant of the 777-300 but I can't find any information on what makes it a 367 vs a 300. Is that just the code that CX uses for the 777-300s they own? I also notice they have odd ones like A321-251NX, A330-343X and such. So what do those non-normal model numbers mean?