FEATURED A former Boeing manager who raised safety concerns is found dead. Coroner suspects he killed himself
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Watch: Boeing plane skids on runway as landing gear fails
Cargo aircraft on the last leg of its flight from Paris forced to make emergency landing at Istanbul AirportOur Foreign Staff8 May 2024 • 10:42am
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A cargo aircraft made an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport on Wednesday after its front landing gear failed.
A video on social media showed the Boeing 767 belonging to FedEx Express using the back landing gear and then dipping its nose with the front portion of the fuselage.
The plane was on the last leg of its flight from Paris to Istanbul when the pilots realised the front landing gear failed to open, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
The nose of the plane skidded along the ground on the runway at Istanbul-Atatürk Airport CREDIT: Aviation Safety Network
After the plane landed nose-down, the runway was closed off
No one was injured and the crew safely evacuated the aircraft, said Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, the transportation and infrastructure minister for the Turkish government.
The runway where the plane landed was closed off while the aircraft was being removed, he added.
Whistleblowers complain about Boeing safety
A host of safety concerns have been raised about Boeing aircraft in recent months.In January, a door panel was blown out of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft on an Alaska Airlines flight in mid-air, forcing the aircraft into an emergency landing.
Two months later, at least 50 people were hurt when a Boeing 787, operated by LATAM Airlines, abruptly lost altitude during a flight from Sydney to Auckland. Passengers spoke of being thrown from their seats by sudden turbulence.
Last month, a whistleblower made a number of different quality allegations about several Boeing planes and urged the US company to ground every 787 Dreamliner jet worldwide.
The Boeing engineer, Sam Salehpour, claimed his employer took production shortcuts while making the 787 which compromised its safety. He also raised issues about the production of the 777, a similar type of jet.
The American regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, is investigating the allegations.
Two other former Boeing employees, who made whistleblower complaints against the company on safety grounds, have also died this year.
Boeing has insisted the 787 and 777 are safe. In a statement last month, Boeing said: “We are fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner because of the comprehensive work done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft. These claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate.
Singapore Airlines: Passengers recall horror as turbulence hit flight
One person has died, with several injured, after severe turbulence on a London to Singapore flight.
www.bbc.com
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Passengers tell of horror aboard turbulence-hit flight
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Passenger describes moment turbulence hit Singapore flight
Passengers have recounted scenes of "absolute terror" when severe turbulence hit their Singapore Airlines flight, launching people and objects across the cabin.
A 73-year-old British man, Geoff Kitchen, died from a suspected heart attack, while more than 30 people were injured when the London-Singapore flight suffered a sudden drop as a meal service was under way.
Briton Andrew Davis described “awful screaming and what sounded like a thud" in the first few seconds of the incident.
"The thing I remember the most is seeing objects and things flying through the air.
"I was covered in coffee. It was incredibly severe turbulence," he told the BBC.
Another passenger said the aircraft suddenly started "tilting up” and “shaking".
"I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop, so everyone seated and not wearing a seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling," 28-year-old student Dzafran Azmir told Reuters.
"Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it," he added.
The Singapore-bound Boeing 777-300ER diverted to Bangkok following the mid-air incident, making an emergency landing at 15:45 local time (08:45 GMT) with some 211 passengers and 18 crew aboard.
Singapore Airlines said 31 people on board were taken to hospital and the airline offered its deepest condolences to Mr Kitchen's family.
The Thornbury Musical Theatre Group, a local theatre company he helped run in South Gloucestershire, called him "a gentleman with the utmost honesty and integrity".
An airline official said that about 10 hours into its flight, the plane had encountered "sudden extreme turbulence" over Myanmar's Irrawaddy Basin at 37,000 feet.
The company said it was working with Thai authorities to provide medical assistance to passengers, and was sending a team to Bangkok to provide any additional help needed.
The cabin interior, pictured after the emergency landing in Bangkok
Food and drink items, including kettles, were pictured on the plane's floor after it met turbulence
'People who had been standing did somersaults'
Singapore Airlines also provided details on the nationalities of those on the flight, which included 47 from the UK.Allison Barker said she received a message from her son, Josh, who was on the plane en route to Bali: "I don't want to scare you, but I'm on a crazy flight. The plane is making an emergency landing... I love you all."
After that message, she waited for a "petrifying" two hours before hearing from him again.
"One minute, he was just sitting down wearing a seatbelt, the next minute, he must have blacked out because he found himself on the floor with other people," she told the BBC.
Josh, she said, sustained minor injuries - but she is concerned that coming close to death could have a lasting impact on him.
Another Briton, Jerry, 68, was travelling to Australia for his son's wedding. He said there was no warning before the "plane plunged".
"I hit my head on the ceiling, my wife did - some poor people who were walking around ended up doing somersaults," he recalled.
A British man with a neck injury said he and his family were “lucky enough” none of them had died.
“It went from no turbulence... no plane shaking at all and then I was hitting the roof. All of a sudden, I was up like that.
“My son was thrown down on the floor two rows behind me. I heard that there was a guy hitting the roof in the toilet and he was injured quite badly, too,” he said, speaking from a Thai hospital.
Singapore's Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said the government would provide assistance to the passengers and their families.
"I am deeply saddened to learn about the incident on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow to Singapore," he posted in a statement on Facebook.
Turbulence is most commonly caused by aircraft flying through cloud, but there is also "clear air" turbulence which is not visible on a jet's weather radar.
“Injuries from severe turbulence are relatively rare in the context of millions of flights operated," aviation expert John Strickland told the BBC.
"However, severe turbulence can be dramatic and lead to severe injuries or sadly in this case a fatality."
Flight crews are also trained in how to respond to turbulence, he said.
"It is not for nothing that airlines recommend keeping seatbelts loosely fastened throughout a flight, be it long or short," he added.
Aviation journalist Sally Gethin said wearing a seatbelt could be the "difference between life and death", explaining that anything not bolted down is at risk during severe turbulence.
Research has shown that climate change will make severe turbulence more likely in the future
Singapore Airlines: Passengers recall horror as turbulence hit flight
One person has died, with several injured, after severe turbulence on a London to Singapore flight.
Research has shown that climate change will make severe turbulence more likely in the future
Aye, ya'll think the fact that they company is taking short-cuts while on planes while people are nearly 40K miles in the atmosphere and making crappy products got anything to do with stories like these? Even two whistleblowers that tried to drop tha dime perished.
Nah. Climate change/global warming is the culprit. I'm sure some ABW accounts were just itching to hear that.
RIP to the one that they life. My sympathies.