10 Greatest Emergency Landings (Part 2)

Number 10. Garuda Indonesia Flight 421. On January 16, 2002, a Boeing 737 owned by Garuda Indonesia planned to fly from Apen to Jojokarta, which is about 388 miles, a very short trip. The flight met severe thunderstorm activity and hail upon approaching its destination, suffering flame-out in both engines and ditching in a shallow river. However, the crash resulted in the death of one flight attendant and several injuries amongst the 59 survivors. Number 9. FedEx Flight 705. On April 7, 1994, a McDonnell Douglas DC-1030 cargo jet owned by Federal Express left Memphis, Tennessee with a load of electronics to be delivered to San Jose, California. The plane and its crew were victims of an attempted hijacking by a disgruntled FedEx employee, Auburn Calloway, who had also decided to commit suicide on the flight. Apparently, Calloway was facing the possibility of losing his job for forging his reported flight hours, so he set up an elaborate plan to destroy the cockpit's voice recorder and kill his fellow employees on board to make it look like an accident, before crashing the plane so that his family could rake in the $2.5 million life insurance policy that Federal Express would pay them. The plan was unsuccessful because, despite sustaining several injuries, the crew fought back, subdued Calloway, and landed the plane safely. Since this was a cargo plane, there were only four people on board. Nobody died, and Calloway was arrested. Number 8. British Airways Flight 5390 British Airways Flight 5390 left Birmingham Airport on June 10, 1990, heading for Malaga Airport in Spain, a relatively short flight. The BAC-111 aircraft was in the hands of an experienced captain, Tim Lancaster, and co-pilot Alistair Atchison. The routine takeoff had been handled by the co-pilot, who had just handed the controls back to his captain. Both men had released their shoulder harnesses, and Lancaster had even loosened his lap belt as the plane continued its climb. The aircraft had reached 17,400 feet above Didcot, Oxfordshire, England, when there was a loud bang. The fuselage quickly filled with condensation. The left windscreen, on the captain's side of the cockpit, had separated from the forward fuselage. Lancaster was pulled headfirst out of the plane, his whole upper body hanging outside the aircraft. The door to the flight deck was blown out because of the pressure. Flight attendant Nigel Ogden came in and quickly latched on to the captain's belt, keeping him from flying out of the plane. Two flight attendants began reassuring passengers and setting up emergency positions, while Lancaster was battered by freezing 345 mph winds. Atchison managed to land the plane at Southampton. Lancaster and Ogden were the only two people to suffer injuries, while all 85 other people on the plane managed to make it off the plane unscathed. 7. LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 On November 1, 2011, LOT Polish Airlines Flight 16 took off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, just outside New York City, on its way to Warsaw Airport in Poland. The Boeing 767-300ER aircraft had a perfectly normal flight right until the end, but its landing gear failed to extend, which forced the pilot, Captain Tadeusz Rona, a 32-year veteran with 20 years of experience piloting 767s, to make a belly landing on the runway. All 220 passengers and 11 crew members made it off the plane safely. 6. Northwest Airlines Flight 85 Northwest Airlines Flight 85 originated from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Michigan on October 9, 2002, and was on its way to Tokyo Narita Airport in Japan. As it was flying near Anchorage, Alaska, the Boeing 747-400 experienced a rudder-hardover incident at 35,000 feet and had to be diverted to Ted Stephens Anchorage International Airport. At the time, Captain Frank Guyve and First Officer Mike Fagan had taken over command of the aircraft so that Senior Captain John Hansen and First Officer David Smith could rest. Although the crew tried to declare the emergency, the plane was in a communications dead zone between North America and Asia. When they finally managed to reach the crew of another flight, a message was relayed to Anchorage and the plane was able to make an emergency landing in Alaska. None of the 386 passengers or 18 crew members were seriously injured. 5. Qantas Flight 32 On November 4, 2010, Qantas Flight 32 left London's Heathrow Airport for Sydney, Australia with a stopover at Singapore's Chani Airport. The Airbus A380-800 airplane, carrying 440 passengers and 29 crew members, met with uncontained engine failure, which was later discovered to have been caused by defective manufacturing. Four minutes after taking off from Chani Airport while flying over Batam Island in Indonesia, the plane started having problems. Captain Richard Champion D'Crespigny managed to return the double-decker jet to Chani Airport two hours later, adverting what could have been a horrible catastrophe. Although some debris from the plane did fall onto Batam, there were no injuries or fatalities among the passengers, crew, or people on the ground. 4. Pan Am Flight 6 Pan Am Flight 6 was meant to be an around-the-world airline flight that left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States on October 15, 1956. The initial plane for the flight was a DC-6B aircraft. It had many planned stops along the trip. It stopped at San Francisco International Airport, then flew onward to Honolulu, Hawaii. Later that night, the flight left Honolulu on a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. When the plane's engines failed over the Pacific Ocean, the aircraft crash-landed in the water. Miraculously, all 24 passengers and seven crew members survived, but 44 cases of live canaries that were being carried in the cargo area could not be saved and went under with the plane. The accident was the basis for the 1958 film Crash Landing. 3. Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751 Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 aircraft, took off with 129 passengers on board from Stockholm Arlanda Airport in Sweden in the early morning of December 27, 1991, en route to Warsaw, Poland, with a stopover in Copenhagen, Denmark. The airliner was piloted by Danish Captain Stefan G. Rasmussen and Swedish First Officer Ulf Sedermark. Unbeknownst to the experienced flight team, just before takeoff, ice had collected on the wing's inner roots, close to the fuselage. When it broke off and was sucked into the engines as the aircraft took off, both engines failed and the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing in a field near Katura, Sweden. None of the passengers or crew members were seriously injured or killed, which is why the Katara crash is also referred to as the Miracle at Katura. 2. Air Transit Flight 236 On August 24, 2001, an Airbus A330 was on its way from Toronto, Canada to Lisbon, Portugal with 291 passengers on board and a crew of 13. Nearly 200 miles from the nearest landing site and at an altitude of 39,000 feet, the pilot suddenly received a warning of fuel imbalance. Shortly after, the fuel-starved right engine failed completely and the pilots took the plane down to 32,000 feet. An Airbus can fly safely on one engine, but soon after, the left engine shut down too. It apparently also had run out of fuel. The pilots then maneuvered the 200-ton plane into a glide, hoping to reach the Azores 65 miles away, but they were prepared to ditch at sea. Military air traffic controllers guided the aircraft to the airport with their radar system. The plane touched down hard at a speed of 200 knots, bouncing once and then touched down again. There were no serious casualties, although around 80 passengers needed medical attention and the impact of the landing made eight of the plane's ten tires explode. Captain Robert Pichet and First Officer Dirk de Jager returned to a hero's welcome in Montreal and a few years later, a biographical movie about Pichet's life became a huge box office success in Quebec. 1. Taka Flight 110 Carlos D'Odono lost his left eye after being shot in the head by guerrillas during the Civil War in El Salvador, but despite his impaired vision, he went on to become a certified commercial pilot. On May 24, 1988, Carlos was flying a Boeing 737 for Taka Airlines, which was on its way to New Orleans, Louisiana. The plane was carrying 38 passengers and several crew members. During the flight, a violent thunderstorm killed power to both engines. The crew realized it was unable to restart the engines and could not glide to the airport. Fortunately, the co-pilot spotted a levee parallel to a canal, and Carlos began a risky maneuver meant for small planes called a sideslip. There was no way to slow the plane, but somehow, Carlos avoided a high cement wall and a steep embankment and made a bumpy but safe landing. No one on board was killed or even badly injured. For the first time in history, a 737 had managed a safe landing outside an airport without any engines. After the investigation was completed, Boeing engineers replaced one of the engines, removed extra fuel, and test pilots took off from the levee and safely landed the plane. And that aircraft you might think would have been doomed actually still flies for Southwest Airlines to this day.