Airbus Updates No.150

Incident: United Airlines A320 near Chicago on Mar 29th 2011, unruly passengers

By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, Mar 30th 2011 15:47Z, last updated Wednesday, Mar 30th 2011 21:20Z A United Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N403UA performing flight UA-251 from Washington Dulles,DC to Portland,OR (USA) with 135 passengers, was enrotue at FL340 about 150nm northwest of Chicago O'Hare Airport when the crew decided to divert to Chicago to offload three passengers that had not complied with cabin crew instructions. The crew requested Chicago's runway 10 indicating they were landing overweight. The airplane landed safely on runway 10 about 35 minutes later. All passengers had to pass a security screening in Chicago. Following checks the airplane was able to continue the flight without the offending passengers and reached Portland with a delay of 4.5 hours. The airline said, that 2 or 3 passengers did not follow crew instructions prompting the crew to divert. The situation on board may have been complicated by another passenger not feeling well. In a later statement the airline reported, that 3 men were involved in the "customer service issue", the men blocking the aisle and not responding to cabin crew requests to clear the aisle near the rear of the aircraft, most of the other passengers remained unaware of the events. The nationalities of the men are not being disclosed by either police or the airline. A passenger reported, one of the men was on his hands and knees in an aisle near the rear emergency exit and appeared to be ill, his companion attempted to help the ill. Both did not speak English. A third passenger unrelated to the two attempted to translate. The captain announced they were diverting to Chicago due to a medical issue. All three were removed from the aircraft after landing, the translator however returned and continued the flight, the other two did not continue. All passengers went through another security screening, all belongings left on board were also screened. After departure from Chicago the captain explained that he had become concerned about the interactions with the ill man reported by the cabin crew. Incident: Monarch A321 at Manchester on Mar 31st 2011, flaps problem By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Mar 31st 2011 20:04Z, last updated Thursday, Mar 31st 2011 20:04Z Incident: Jetblue A320 near Santo Domingo on Apr 1st 2011, door open indication By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Apr 1st 2011 19:17Z, last updated Friday, Apr 1st 2011 19:17Z A Jetblue Airbus A320-200, registration N708JB performing flight B6-756 from Aruba (Aruba) to New York JFK,NY (USA) with 125 passengers, was enroute near Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) when the crew received a door open indication and decided to diverted to Santo Domingo's Las Americas Airport. The airplane landed safely. After checks the airplane was able to depart again and is currently estimated to reach New York with a delay of 2 hours. Incident: Air Canada A320 at Toronto on Mar 28th 2011, slatless landing By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Apr 1st 2011 20:10Z, last updated Friday, Apr 1st 2011 20:10Z An Air Canada Airbus A320-200, registration C-FLSU performing flight AC-923 from Orlando,FL (USA) to Toronto,ON (Canada) with 152 people on board, was on approach to Toronto's runway 24R when the crew selected flaps 1 but received a "F/CTL SLATS" ECAM message. The crew aborted the approach and executed the relevant checklists, however without success. The crew subsequently performed a Slats 0 Flaps 3 landing on runway 33R about 20 minutes after aborting the first approach. The Canadian TSB reported that maintenance was unable to duplicate the problem. Incident: TAP A332 near Salvador on Apr 2nd 2011, engine shut down in flight, smoke in cabin By Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Apr 2nd 2011 09:36Z, last updated Saturday, Apr 2nd 2011 09:42Z A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A330-200, registration CS-TOG performing flight TP-186 from Rio de Janeiro,RJ (Brazil) to Lisbon (Portugal), was enroute near Salvador,BA (Brazil), when the crew reported an engine (PW4168) had to be shut down and decided to divert to Salvador for a safe landing. A passenger reported that there was smoke in the cabin. Other passengers tweeted about smoke, burning smell and failed lights in the cabin after a sound like an explosion.