The UTair airline plane had arrived in Moscow from the southern Russian city of Stavropol. Boing 737-400 is a medium-range, narrow-body jet airliner. Approximate range: 5,000 km. Overall length: 36.5 meters. Wingspan: 28.9 meters. First flight took place on 19 February 1988, entering service on September 15, 1988. Capable of carrying up to 168 passengers. Cockpit crew: two members. “The plane’s left landing gear leg caught fire upon landing. Preliminary reports suggest the brake wheels were destroyed,” Ria Novosti news agency has quoted a police source, adding that the airport was closed at 7:48 am Moscow time (0308 GMT) and reopened at about 10:00 am after the aircraft had been removed from the runway.An unnamed fireman at the scene confirmed to the Russian news channel Russia 24, that the incident had been “dangerous.”The plane was carrying 136 people but none of the 129 passengers or 7 crew members were injured in the incident.Despite the plane being nearly full, everyone was evacuated promptly, according to one of the passengers.”The plane banked on landing. However, it landed quite successfully. Then the flight attendant announced the evacuation. Passengers were hurried down escape chutes. Passengers saw the burst wheel and fire. “Within three minutes there were no passengers left onboard,” according to Evgeny Popov, a reporter for Russia 2, who coincidentally happened to be on the flight. The airport had to divert 23 flights to neighboring airports, as the emergency unfolded.The last emergency situation took place at Vnukovo airport on December 29, 2012, when a Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian budget airline Red Wings performed a hard-landing and skidded off the runway, crashing into a highway. The plane, flying from the Czech Republic, was practically empty, with only crew of eight on board. Five of them were killed. … Read More
Syria’s national airline takes off in full capacity
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Many Air Passengers Never Turn Off Electronics, Survey Finds
As many as one third of all airline passengers say they have accidentally failed to turn off an electronic device during takeoff and landing, despite the admonition to do so, according to a study released on Thursday by two industry groups. … Read More
Two planes collide at Newark airport
No one was injured when the planes clipped each other while preparing for takeoff, but passengers were forced to disembark after the damages took the planes out of service.The accident occurred at one of the busiest airports in the US at around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, as both the Scandinavian Airline and a United ExpressJet were on the taxiway.“ExpressJet Flight 4226, operating as United Express, from Newark (EWR) to Nashville (BNA) was on the taxiway in EWR when its tail was contacted by another aircraft,” a United official told ABC in a statement. “All 31 passengers deplaned the aircraft normally and were bussed to the terminal where they are being re-accommodated. ExpressJet is working in coordination with officials to determine the cause.”Passengers that were on the United flight were placed on a different plane headed toward Nashville, while Scandinavian Air is still trying to accommodate its passengers. Other departing flights were delayed by up to 45 minutes at the Newark airport.Around 9 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration reported a gate hold and taxi delays between 15 and 29 minutes.The damage was visible from a CBS 2 helicopter, which reported that the tail of one aircraft was crumpled.Officials are now investigating the accident.The collision is the second time that planes collided in the US this week. One person was killed in a mid-air collision of two small planes in California on April 29, merging about eight miles northeast of Ventura.One plane was carrying three passengers, all of which were injured and hospitalized after it landed on a golf course. The second airplane, carrying one passenger that died after the collision, crashed into mountainous terrain and started a small forest fire, KABC reported.In the case of the Newark collision, airport congestion is likely to blame. A February New York Times report predicted that such accidents will become more likely as air traffic continues to grow, especially within the next decade. Currently, two million passengers board about 30,000 flights in the US every day and planes frequently miss each other narrowly on runways and taxiways.And according to statistics listed by the Bureau of Transportation, taxiing accidents are the sixth most common type of airplane accident, with 4 occurring between 2010 and 2012. Tail strikes are the ninth most common type of airline accident, with three instances occurring within the past three years, not including the Newark collision. Most of these are a result of pilot errors, often at congested airports. … Read More
SAS plane breaks off wing at Newark
A Scandinavian Airline System plane with 253 passengers on board lost part of its wing when it collided with domestic plane at Newark airport outside New York on Wednesday. … Read More
‘Missiles fired at’ Russian plane with 159 passengers onboard flying over Syria
The news broke in on Monday as Interfax, citing “an informed source in Moscow,” reported that a Russian passenger plane was attacked.“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” the source told the Russian agency.The pilots reportedly managed to maneuver the plane in time however, “saving the lives of passengers.”It is believed the aircraft was intentionally targeted, “but it remains unclear whether the attackers knew it was Russian or not,” the source added.However, Russian officials, though admitting the plane might have been endangered, are not yet talking of a targeted attack.The Russian Foreign Ministry’s said on its website the plane’s crew at 4.55 PM Moscow time (12.55 GMT) “detected battle action on the ground that, according to the crew, could constitute a threat to the 159 passengers on board the plane.”The Russian Foreign Ministry is now “taking emergency measures to clarify all the circumstances of this situation, including making contact with the Syrian authorities,” the ministry’s spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich said.The plane that was allegedly targeted belonged to Nordwind Airlines – a Russian charter air carrier – and was identified as an Airbus A320. On April 29 it was en route to the city of Kazan, in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Airbus A320 specifications Cockpit crew: 2 Seating capacity: up to 180 Length: 37.57 m Wingspan: 34.10 m Operating empty weight: 42,600 kg Cruising speed: 828 km/h Maximum speed: 871 km/h Maximum range: 5,900 km Service ceiling: 12,000 m So far, there are no grounds to claim that the aircraft became a target of a missile attack, experts say.It was flying over a mountainous area in Syria when one of the pilots noticed “flashes on the ground.” After that, to keep safe, it was decided to increase the height of the flight, Irina Tyurina, a spokeswoman for Russian Union of Tourist Industry told RIA Novosti.“No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as had been planned,” the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism told news agencies. There were 159 passengers and eight crew members on-board the aircraft.Meanwhile, Syrian aviation authorities received no indication of the alleged attack on the Russian plane, says the director of Syrian Airlines, Ghaida Abdullatif:“We contacted the service that monitors traffic within Syrian airspace. None of the air traffic control services or other ground services at the airports in Damascus and Latakia have confirmed the information of a Russian plane being fired at”.Russian experts have already voiced their doubts that a passenger plane can actually perform kind of maneuvers that could help it avoid a missile attack.“Planes are usually attacked either from the side or from above. A pilot could not have seen the missiles ,” Vladimir Gerasimov, a Russian pilot and an expert on flight security told RT. “A passenger plane crew simply couldn’t see what’s behind. And if something is approaching the plane from the opposite direction – the speed doubles, so there is no time to do anything, ” he added.The civil war in Syria between the government of President Bashar Assad and opposition forces has been raging for over two years, claiming the lives of more than 70,000 people according to UN estimates. Assad says he is fighting an insurgency that has been sponsored from abroad. … Read More
‘No frills’ Indian hospitals offer $800 heart surgery
What if hospitals were run like a mix of Wal-Mart and a low-cost airline? The result might be something like the chain of “no-frills” Narayana Hrudayalaya clinics in southern India. Using pre-fabricated buildings, stripping out air-conditioning and even training visitors to help with…
