How was your flight?

November 22, 2009 11:15 PM

This past week: in D.R. Congo, an MD-80 strikes a lava field at the end of a runway; earlier over Iran, a medical emergency diversion frightens a passenger; the day prior, an LA-Sydney flight diverts to Honolulu to drop off a new mother and her child born en route. Also medical emergencies, unruly passengers, and unruly medical emergencies. It's avherald.com, your daily source for pretty much every incident occurring on an airliner.
posted by tss (33 comments total)

On the way to Honolulu a new born girl made its first cry and was immediately accomodated in business class.

Awww...
posted by pelham at 11:20 PM on November 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

That's quite the effort at collating.

Interesting reading in some cases, though. Good post.
posted by bwg at 11:27 PM on November 22, 2009

the day prior, an LA-Sydney flight diverts to Honolulu to drop off a new mother and her child born en route

False alarm, its just a viral for the final season of Lost.
posted by mannequito at 11:28 PM on November 22, 2009

Please don't build your airport runway on DEADLY LAVA!
posted by dirigibleman at 11:54 PM on November 22, 2009

"This is your captain speaking. We're expecting a smooth ride to Goma today, and hope to get you on the ground a few minutes early - we've got a tailwind today, and definitely no lava. So we ask that you sit back and - oh, goddamn it!"
posted by bicyclefish at 12:24 AM on November 23, 2009 [5 favorites]

V Australia B773 near Hawaii on Nov 13th 2009, unborn in a hurry

???!
posted by kaspen at 12:24 AM on November 23, 2009

I read the avherald site every day. It's captivating. Not a day goes by without an in-flight engine failure, or a plane skids off a runway, or turbulence injuring passengers. I vacillate between being reassured that such things are handled without drama far far more often than not, or terrified that such things are an every day occurrence. So far mostly the former... touch wood. :) Sometimes though, you see the red crash icon on a story on the front page little voice says "oh no... "
posted by adamt at 12:27 AM on November 23, 2009

Oh yeah. Combine this with LiveATC, and I'm starting to develop a new hobby.
posted by Jimbob at 12:52 AM on November 23, 2009

Cool site! I wish the search function worked a little more easily, though. I had to keep clicking "next" all the way to 2005 before I saw that they didn't have nearly as comprehensive of coverage back then as they do now. Damn.

I was looking for an incident in late 2004 where my mom went batshit. She mistook some South Americans for "Muslin Terrorists," when they went to the bathroom about four times each, looking uneasy. She, being the upstanding, vigilant midwesterner, naturally assumed it couldn't have been anything intestinal ("They didn't look like any Mexicans I've ever seen! And we're living Post-9/11!"). The way my mom proudly tells the story, she'd made quite a scene before the flight attendants found her Valium for her. I'm pretty sure she still thinks she saved the day.

But, alas, I still have only heard Mom's side of the story.
posted by The Potate at 1:20 AM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

Regarding the plane in the lava, they claim "substantial damage to the nose." That plane looks like a write-off to me. Maybe that's why I'm not a third-world-airline magnate.
posted by maxwelton at 1:35 AM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

I was well aware of the real danger posed by birds to airplanes, especially after the Hudson river crash earlier this year, but still...

WTF!!
posted by shoebox at 1:43 AM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

On the way to Honolulu a new born girl made its first cry and was immediately accomodated in business class.

Yeah, bleating kids on planes is always great, especially when I've paid a thousand percent markup for business class.
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:13 AM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

don't forget the professional pilots rumor network, where you can find lots of juicy stuff every day. that site is where the ones who have outgrown airliners.net go. also potentially interesting to some here is cranky flier.
posted by krautland at 2:28 AM on November 23, 2009

An American Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration N363AA performing flight AA-155 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Boston,MA (USA), was enroute at FL360 near Donegal (Ireland) 120nm northwest of Dublin

120 nanometers?!? I suppose they were flying inside a carbon nanotube with graphine wings. The engines would have to be some sort of protein.
posted by Badasscommy at 3:51 AM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

nm=nautical miles, basasscommy.
posted by deadmessenger at 3:54 AM on November 23, 2009

This is interesting, but not complete - I was on a Delta flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta that had to divert to Norfolk last year after a loss of cabin pressure, and as far as I can tell, that flight is not listed there at all.
posted by deadmessenger at 3:58 AM on November 23, 2009

I know, though it should be written Nm to be clear.
posted by Badasscommy at 4:06 AM on November 23, 2009

deadmessenger: usually it is exhaustive. try another search. do you have the N-number?
posted by krautland at 4:16 AM on November 23, 2009

I know, though it should be written Nm to be clear.

How far is a Newton-Meter? They probably should have written 1.1 kilo-furlongs to be clear.

According to wikipedia, which is never wrong, N m is to be used for torque measurements and there are lots of standards for nautical miles
posted by autopilot at 4:33 AM on November 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

I like this. Now I don't have to wait for things to show up on the NTSB's accident database.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:09 AM on November 23, 2009

usually it is exhaustive. try another search. do you have the N-number?

I don't have the tail number, no. I tried "Delta 669", "DL669", "Delta Norfolk", "Philadelphia Atlanta", "Philadelphia Norfolk", "Norfolk Atlanta", "June 4th 2008", "Jun 4th 2008" and didn't find anything.
posted by deadmessenger at 5:28 AM on November 23, 2009

do you have the N-number?

Hey, let's keep it clean and respectful, okay. This is Metafilter.
posted by Naberius at 5:36 AM on November 23, 2009

I was well aware of the real danger posed by birds to airplanes, especially after the Hudson river crash earlier this year, but still...

WTF!!


You know, from that headline I was almost expecting to see this picture instead.
posted by samsara at 5:57 AM on November 23, 2009

The engines would have to be some sort of protein.

Applause. The nanometer joke is so obvious, but that is an amazing embiggining of it.

I know, though it should be written Nm to be clear.

"Nm", as noted, would be Newton meter, a unit of torque. "nM" is nanomolar. "NM", is, of course, the postal abbreviation of New Mexico.

nm could be nautical mile or nanometer. nm(1) is a unix utility to list symbols from object files.

They probably should have written 1.1 kilo-furlongs to be clear.

Any reference to the FFF system is a win.
posted by eriko at 5:58 AM on November 23, 2009

I read that as "an MD-80 strikes a larva field" and I have to say it really did get my interest up.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:50 AM on November 23, 2009

I was looking for an incident in late 2004 where my mom went batshit. She mistook some South Americans for "Muslin Terrorists," when they went to the bathroom about four times each, looking uneasy. She, being the upstanding, vigilant midwesterner, naturally assumed it couldn't have been anything intestinal ("They didn't look like any Mexicans I've ever seen! And we're living Post-9/11!"). The way my mom proudly tells the story, she'd made quite a scene before the flight attendants found her Valium for her. I'm pretty sure she still thinks she saved the day.

Your mother is Annie Jacobsen?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:51 AM on November 23, 2009

Really interesting; thanks for sharing it. I do wonder about that baby born over the Pacific, though. Where is his original birth certificate and what does it say? THE PUBLIC HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW!!!
posted by TedW at 9:33 AM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

I vacillate between being reassured that such things are handled without drama far far more often than not, or terrified that such things are an every day occurrence.

Yeah, I'm not sure that knowing more helps. That most plane accidents happen during takeoff and landing hasn't really turned out to be reassuring. It just makes me worry a lot at those times.
posted by smackfu at 3:10 PM on November 23, 2009

I'm scheduled, tomorrow morning, to make my first flight this year. (Maine>NJ) Maybe I'll wait until Wednesday to read this stuff.
posted by LeLiLo at 3:27 PM on November 23, 2009

Please don't build your airport runway on DEADLY LAVA!

The city is perforce downhill from the volcano, just not downhill enough. The runway was there first. The problem is that it all cooled and became igneous rock, and the D.R. Congo hasn't had the cash to do much more than chip away at the problem. It surely doesn't help a bit that Goma is right smack in the center of one of the most intractable parts of the Congo civil war(s) that have simmered for the last decade or so. As recently as a year ago there was fighting on the outskirts of the city.
posted by dhartung at 3:39 PM on November 23, 2009

I read that as "an MD-80 strikes a larva field" and I have to say it really did get my interest up.

In the unlikely event of an emergency landing and evacuation, leave your carry-on items behind. Life rafts are located below your seats and emergency lighting will lead you to your closest exit and slide. And remember: if you walk without rhythm, you won't attract the worm.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 2:13 PM on November 24, 2009

I don't have the tail number, no. I tried "Delta 669", "DL669", "Delta Norfolk", "Philadelphia Atlanta", "Philadelphia Norfolk", "Norfolk Atlanta", "June 4th 2008", "Jun 4th 2008" and didn't find anything.

go to flightaware.com, register and search for your flight number. go back through the months of data until you find the day of your flight. you will find out which aircraft flew the route that day and its aircraft registration number, which will begin with N. hack that into the NTSB accident database. if there was anything that day, something will pop up. if there isn't anything in the database it just felt like an incident but actually wasn't.

do you have the N-number?
Hey, let's keep it clean and respectful, okay. This is Metafilter.
N-Number.
posted by krautland at 7:37 PM on November 27, 2009

actually, DAL669 seems to be a flight that got cancelled too long ago. anyway, there are lots of possible reasons for a simple diversion. it's not automatically an accident. it could just have been a warning light or something like that. you could ask on airliners.net or do a search there in their forums.
posted by krautland at 7:42 PM on November 27, 2009