For the year so far, there have been four “occurrences,” three aircraft accidents and one serious incident with human factors.
The first accident was on January 2, when a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900, on landing at the Haneda Airport, Tokyo, collided with a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-Q300, operated by the Japan Coast Guard. The captain of the Dash 8 aircraft mistakenly believed that air traffic control (ATC) clearance had been given for the takeoff and taxied onto the runway. ATC recordings confirmed that the captain was instructed to hold short of the runway at a holding point on taxiway C5, as the Airbus A350 was already given clearance to land. Five of the six crew onboard the Dash 8 died in the collision, with only the captain surviving. Everyone on board the A350 survived. Both aircraft were destroyed in a fireball.
The second accident occurred on January 5 on an Alaska Airlines flight operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 9. Shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California, and while the plane was climbing through 16,000 feet, a door plug blew out, causing an uncontrolled decompression of the aircraft. It returned to Portland for an emergency landing. All 171 passengers and six crew members survived, with three receiving minor injuries. An investigation of the accident by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is ongoing. A February 6 NTSB preliminary report said four bolts, intended to secure the door plug, were missing when the accident occurred.
The incident occurred on January 25 on Batik Air Indonesia Airbus A320 flight between Halu Oleo Airport, Kendari and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, with 153 passengers and four flight attendants on board. At a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, the captain asked for permission to rest. After the pilot’s nap, the pilot asked the co-pilot whether he wanted to rest, but the co-pilot declined and the captain went back to sleep. Several attempts by ATC to contact the aircraft went unanswered. The captain woke up to find that the aircraft was not on the correct flight path and took corrective action. He saw the co-pilot was asleep and woke him up. The co-pilot, father to month-old twins, later admitted to investigators his sleep quality had degraded because of the several wake-ups from the babies the night before the flight. The flight then continued on course and landed safely at Jakarta. No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged.
The third accident occurred on March 11 involving Chilean-based LATAM Airlines on a scheduled flight from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. Approximately two hours after departing Sydney, the Boeing 787-9 experienced an in-flight upset and nose-dived suddenly. Of the 272 people onboard, 50 were injured, with 12 people taken to hospital after landing in Auckland. This accident is being investigated by the Chilean aviation authorities. A preliminary investigation suggests a flight attendant serving a meal to the pilots accidentally bumped into a switch on the pilot’s seat causing the
