Corruption is Everywhere > Two more incidents of terror on Boeing passenger jets yesterday

 

Boeing plane skids off runway, injuring 11

at Senegal airport

A Boeing passenger plane came off the runway during takeoff in Senegal early Thursday, injuring 11 people and shutting the international airport near the capital Dakar for almost 12 hours, management said.

Issued on: 09/05/2024 - 15:23

2 min

By:NEWS WIRES

The B737/300 aircraft, an Air Senegal flight chartered by privately-owned Transair, was carrying 78 passengers and headed for the Malian capital Bamako,  airport managers LAS said in a statement after the early hours drama left four passengers seriously hurt.

The jet "came off the runway during its takeoff phase" around one am (0100 GMT), said LAS, made up of Turkish group Limak, the publicly-owned airport operator AIBD and another Turkish entity, Summa.

Eleven people were injured, four of them seriously. Six other passengers were taken for medical check-ups inside the airport, LAS said.

The group said the airport at Diass, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Dakar, had reopened shortly after midday.

"We inform you that Blaise Diagne international airport has reopened. Airport operations have resumed as normal," LAS stated.

The aircraft was "immobilised" away from the runway and an emergency plan triggered by airport authorities as soon as they were alerted, the group said.

"All the airport emergency services have been mobilised for the evacuation of passengers and their care, as per the plan," LAS went on.

Online images showed a large hole in the left engine and the wing covered in firefighting foam.

"The exact circumstances of the incident remain to be determined, but an investigation is already under way to establish the reasons" why the aircraft left the runway.

"Aviation specialists along with representatives of the airline concerned are on site to examine closely the airline log data and interview crew members," LAS said.

The incident comes with Air Senegal having already endured months of criticism with passengers regularly complaining about delays to domestic and international flights.

The state-owned entity began operating in May 2018 after emerging from the April 2016 collapse of Senegal Airlines. The latter had itself replaced in 2009 Air Senegal International, in which Senegal and also Morocco had stakes.

The launch of the carrier's latest incarnation is part of a three-stage plan to turn Dakar into a regional air hub around  the international airport, inaugurated in December 2017, and revamped provincial airports.

The Blaise Diagne airport at Diass, which bears the name of the first African lawmaker elected to the French Parliament (1872-1934), replaces the Leopold-Sedar-Senghor International Airport (AILSS), in the suburbs of the capital, which has been converted into a military facility.

Transair, founded in 2010, is based at Blaise Diagne and serves a dozen destinations across West Africa, including Sierra Leone's Freetown as well as Nouakchott, Banjul and Conakry. According to its website it carries some 90,000 passengers a year.

Thursday's incident came a day after a Boeing 767 Fedex cargo plane touched down at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear which failed to open, though nobody was hurt, the US Federal Aviation administration said.

(AFP)

Another week - two more terrifying incidents with Boeing passenger jets

Boeing Plane Drags Nose Across Runway

in Istanbul After Landing Gear Fails

ABC 7 Chicago

832K subscribers

A Boeing cargo plane landed nose-down on a runway at Istanbul Airport after its landing gear failed to deploy, according to Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu.

No injuries were reported.

Corruption is Everywhere > Today's Boeing flight fright

 

Dramatic audio captures Southwest pilot declaring

emergency after engine cover rips off

By 

Social Links forYaron Steinbuch

Published April 8, 2024, 12:17 p.m. ET

Dramatic cockpit audio captured the frantic pilot of a Southwest Airlines flight asking for an “immediate return” to Denver and declaring an emergency after an engine cover ripped off shortly after taking off with 143 people on board.

"Frantic" is a bit extreme. The pilot should be commended for his response to this emergency.

“We don’t know the nature of the emergency but apparently several passengers and flight attendants hear something loud hit the wing,” the pilot of the Houston-bound Boeing 737-800 says in a recording obtained by LiveATC.net.

A few seconds later, he tells the controller: “Let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695 and we’d like an immediate return.

3

The engine cover ripped off shortly after takeoff.

@SweeneyABC / X

“We’ve got a piece of engine cowling hanging off, apparently,” he adds.

Terrifying video posted on X by ABC’s chief transportation reporter Sam Sweeney shows the cover flapping in the wind in full view of the passengers.

The pilot then informs traffic control that he was planning a flaps-up landing — a procedure in which the devices, which are normally lowered to provide extra lift at slower speeds, are kept up during certain emergencies.

The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that the cowling detached and struck one of the flaps.

“We’re moving everybody out of the way,” the controller advises the pilot, who is busy running through checklists.

3

The damaged engine.

@SweeneyABC / X

When asked for more information about the damage, the pilot says he “thought the flap from the inboard of the side between the engine and the fuselage ripped off on takeoff.

“We don’t actually see it from the cockpit — that’s just what the crew in the back are telling us,” he adds. “The engines seem to be fine but we’re structurally damaged.”

The pilot then asks to change the landing runway due to “the flaps up and the heavy gross weight” of the plane, which still carried about five hours of fuel.

Moments later, the flight landed safely and was met by emergency vehicles. No one was injured in the terrifying incident.

A Southwest rep told The Post the incident was the result of a “mechanical issue” on the plane, which was manufactured in 2017.

“Southwest Flight 3695 returned to Denver International Airport this morning and landed safely after experiencing a mechanical issue. Our Customers will arrive at Houston Hobby on another aircraft, approximately three hours behind schedule,” the spokesperson said.

The plane returned to Denver about 25 minutes after takeoff.

A Boeing spokesperson directed The Post’s inquiries to Southwest.

The embattled aerospace giant has been dogged by a series of safety issues and CEO Dave Calhoun has announced he will step down from his post at the end of the year.

On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 suffered a near-catastrophic mid-flight blowout when a door plug blew off at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

The plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, with a hole the size of a refrigerator. Miraculously, just one of the 177 passengers was injured. 

Last month, the Justice Department announced it had launched a criminal investigation into the incident. Boeing and Alaska Airlines have also since been hit with a $1 billion lawsuit over safety concerns.

Corruption is Everywhere > Another day, another emergency landing for Boeing

 

Sacrificing safety for profits whether in the building of an airplane or the maintenance of it, is corruption at thoroughly indecent levels.

American Airlines Boeing flight makes emergency

landing at LAX over ‘mechanical issue’

By 

Social Links forRichard Pollina

Published March 14, 2024, 3:20 a.m. ET

Deja vu.

An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night over a “possible mechanical issue,” according to KTLA.

The flight, which was arriving from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, safely landed at LAX on Runway 25 around 8:45 p.m., an official from American Airlines told the outlet.

American Airlines Flight 345 on the runway at LAX after making an emergency landing Wednesday evening.

Passengers safely exited the Boeing aircraft through the jet bridge after the aircraft pulled into the gate.

There were no reports of injuries onboard, according to the outlet.

There were reports of a blown-out tire, but AA officials only cited the pilot’s claim of a “possible mechanical issue,” according to the outlet.

It remains to be seen what the issue was. 

The scare is the latest in a surfeit of mechanical and safety issues Boeing aircraft have faced in the last two weeks — and the second aircraft to make an emergency landing at LAX in March.

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Japan diverted to Los Angeles International Airport on March 7 after one of the landing gear on the Boeing 777-20 fell off after takeoff.

Distressing footage shows the plane losing one of its six tires on the left side as it ascended.

All 235 passengers, 10 flight attendants and four pilots on board safely landed at LAX.

On Monday, a United Airlines Boeing 777-300 aircraft suffered a midair fuel leak and was forced to make an emergency landing.

United Airlines Flight 830 took off for a 14-hour journey from Sydney to San Francisco, but was redirected two hours into the flight over a “maintenance issue.”

Boeing said in a memo to employees on Tuesday that the company is implementing weekly compliance checks for every 737 work area and additional equipment audits to reduce quality problems.

John Barnett, a former Boeing quality inspector of three decades, was found dead from a “self-inflicted” gunshot wound in his truck in the parking lot of his South Carolina hotel on Saturday.

The engineer, who retired in 2017, had provided his first testimony in a bombshell lawsuit against the company, the Charleston County coroner told the BBC.

================================================================================

Corruption is Everywhere > Did I mention Boeing, Boeing, Boeing? Boeing and United - A Machiavellian pair?

 

No-one is accusing Boeing of murdering Barnett, or are they? How easy it would be to threaten the whistleblower with repercussions for his family if he continued to testify. Did he suicide? Was he suicided like Jeffrey Epstein? This needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Boeing whistleblower found dead in the midst of

testifying against company

By Kathryn Mannie  Global News

Posted March 12, 2024 9:33 am

 Updated March 12, 2024 2:59 pm

 4 min read

John Barnett, who worked for Boeing for more than three decades before blowing the whistle on the aircraft maker’s allegedly questionable safety standards, was found dead in his car in South Carolina.

Barnett, 62, was supposed to be in a deposition Saturday to answer questions related to a lawsuit against his former employer when he failed to show up to the meeting. His legal team tried to reach him by phone to no avail, until they contacted the hotel where Barnett was staying.

He was found dead in his truck in the hotel parking lot.

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office told local media that it appears Barnett died from a self-inflicted wound. The Charleston Police Department is investigating his death.

Barnett, originally from Louisiana, was in Charleston for legal interviews related to his case against Boeing, in which he argued that his former employer retaliated against him for raising concerns about the safety of the airplanes produced at its Charleston manufacturing plant.

1:57

Boeing has been plagued with safety and quality issues. What does it mean for the plane-maker’s reputation?

“Today is a tragic day,” Brian Knowles, Barnett’s lawyer, wrote in an email to Corporate Crime Reporter. “John had been back and forth for quite some time getting prepared. The defense examined him for their allowed seven hours under the rules on Thursday. I cross examined him all day yesterday (Friday) and did not finish. We agreed to continue this morning (Saturday) at 10 a.m., (co-counsel) Rob (Turkewitz) kept calling this morning and (Barnett’s) phone would go to voicemail. We then asked the hotel to check on him. They found him in his truck dead from an ‘alleged’ self-inflicted gunshot.”

Boeing stated that the company is “saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Barnett worked at Boeing for 32 years as a quality control engineer before retiring in 2017.

In 2019, along with a dozen other workers, Barnett told the New York Times that, facing manufacturing delays, Boeing pushed its workforce at the Charleston plant to churn out Dreamliners and ignore safety issues.

Barnett said at the time that he had discovered clusters of metal shavings hanging over wiring that commanded the flight controls in several planes. The metal shavings were apparently produced when fasteners were fitted into nuts, but if the shavings pierced the wires, the results would be “catastrophic.”

Barnett said he repeatedly urged his bosses to remove the shavings but they refused and moved Barnett to a different part of the Charleston plant.

A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed to the New York Times that it had inspected several Boeing planes and found the metal shavings, which can lead to electrical shorts and cause fires. The FAA issued a directive to have the shavings cleaned up and Boeing said at the time it was complying with the order and working to improve the design of the nut that produced the metal slivers.

View image in full screen

Boeing 787 Dreamliners are built at the aviation company’s North Charleston, S.C., assembly plant on May 30, 2023. Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty Images

Later in 2019, Barnett raised another safety concern, this time with the BBC. He said that procedures to track defective parts had failed, resulting in some sub-standard parts being fitted to planes to speed up manufacturing time.

He claimed that tests of the emergency oxygen systems on some planes had shown a failure rate of around 25 per cent, meaning that one in four oxygen masks deployed in the event of an emergency could fail.

Boeing denied the claims but the FAA found that at least 53 defective parts in the factory had gone missing and were considered lost. Boeing was ordered to take remedial actions following the report.

Barnett launched his own lawsuit against Boeing, accusing the company of defaming his character and hindering his career because of the safety issues he raised. This was the lawsuit Barnett was pursuing when he died.

1:25

FAA head says Boeing’s oversight system ‘is not working’

In recent months, Boeing has consistently been in the headlines after a series of high-profile accidents.

In January, a door plug failed on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane, resulting in a door panel blowing off the fuselage mid-flight. The blowout was linked to loose bolts and the FAA grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes with a door plug shortly after the incident.

On Monday, 50 people were injured onboard a Boeing 787 plane after a “strong shake” and sudden plunge caused people to be thrown from their seats and hit the plane’s ceiling during a flight from Australia.

The cause of the “technical event” is still under investigation.

United Air flight diverted back to Sydney

due to 'maintenance issue'

By Dana Forsythe

A United Airlines flight left Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport en route to San Francisco and returned two and a half hours later, according to flightaware records. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo

March 12 (UPI) -- A United Airlines flight from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco was cut short after crews discovered a "maintenance issue."

United Airlines said in a statement Monday that the crew and 167 passengers aboard the Boeing 777-300 aircraft arrived safely back in Sydney after the plane was redirected.

According to Flight Aware, United Flight 830 turned around just a couple of hours after departing from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport at 12:01 p.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time on the way to SFO.

The mishap, credited to a "maintenance issue," is the latest in a string of safety issues for both United Airlines and Boeing.

On Monday, more than 50 people were injured on a LATAM Airlines flight in Auckland, New Zealand, after an instrument failure caused the Boeing plane to drop suddenly. On Friday, a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Mexico City was diverted to Los Angeles after an issue with the plane's hydraulic system.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating United Airlines after a wheel fell off one of its Boeing 777 departing from San Francisco on Thursday.

In 2023, the FAA proposed a $1,149,306 civil penalty against United Airlines for allegedly conducting flights on Boeing 777 aircraft that were not in airworthy condition.