Terrified passengers leap from plane’s emergency exit after fire

A Trigana Air flight en route from Jayapura-Sentani Airport (DJJ/WAJJ) to Wamena Airport (WMX/WAVV) experienced a brief tailpipe fire during the startup of engine number one on the apron at Jayapura-Sentani Airport (DJJ). Passengers, terrified by the sight of flames emanating from the aircraft's engine, rushed to the emergency exit.

Upon noticing the fire, a passenger reacted in panic, opening the emergency door and alerting others. This caused a cascade of alarmed passengers to scramble towards the exit.

Social media videos depict passengers congregating on the tarmac, with some sliding down the evacuation slide. The incident involving the Boeing 737-500 aircraft took place at Sentani Airport in Jayapura, Papua Province, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

Flight IL237, destined for Wamena, had 121 passengers aboard. The flight was subsequently cancelled, and two additional flights were delayed as a result of the fire. Iptu Wajedi, the head of airport security, remarked, "Sometimes a fire can occur when the exhaust gases ignite for the first time."

He confirmed that all passengers were able to disembark from the aircraft. "We are in the process of identifying the passenger who first reported the fire on the plane," he stated. The airport's spokesperson, Surya Eka, mentioned that the flight was called off after a passenger abruptly opened the emergency door upon noticing flames emanating from the aircraft's engine.

"Due to the rush to exit the aircraft, four passengers sustained injuries," Mr. Eka elaborated.

The affected passengers received medical attention at the Health Quarantine Centre. Mr. Eka further explained, "This event prevented the aircraft, which was scheduled to transport 121 passengers to Wamena, from departing." He added that an investigation into the fire's origin is pending, awaiting the National Transportation Safety Committee's review.

Aircraft Information:

Airline: Trigana Air

Code: IL/TGN

Aircraft: Boeing 737-59D

Registration: PK-YSC

Serial Number: 26421

Engine: 2 x CFMI CFM56-3C1

First Flew: 23rd April 1992

Age: 32 Years Old

Plane spotting at Tokyo's Haneda airport

Spending a week in Tokyo on holidays a few weeks ago, my beautiful, gorgeous wife made time in our itinerary for some plane spotting. So, one afternoon we headed out to Haneda Airport. 

Haneda has amazing, dedicated observation decks. We went to terminal two, went up to the 5th floor and was blown away by the amazing views. Approaching the viewing deck, you can turn left or right as they both offer fantastic views of the aprons, runways and the bay.

Haneda Airport (HND/RJTT) is 6 mts (21 feet) AMSL, it is the busiest of the two international airports serving the greater Tokyo area, the other one of course being Narita International Airport (NRT/RJAA)

Haneda is the hub for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
Other airlines that use Haneda as a base is Air Do, Skymark Airlines, Solaseed Air and Star Flyer.
It has four asphalt concrete runways. They are 16R/34L is 3,000 metres long (9,843 feet) - 16L/34R is 3,360 metres long (11,024 feet) - 04/22 is 2,500 metres long (8,202 feet) - 05/23 is 2,500 metres long (8,202 feet)

(Some of these photos aren't the sharpest, as I was travelling with an old less quality lens, as I didn't want to risk my good lens getting broken or lost)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS BOEING 787-9 JA935A (MSN 66522)

AIR DO BOEING 767-381EER JA607A (MSN 32976)

AIR DO BOEING 737-781 JA11AN (MSN 33882)

JAPAN AIR BOEING 737-846 JA306J (MSN 35335)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS BOEING 777-281 JA743A (MSN 40902)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS BOEING 787-9 JA833A (MSN 34524)

J-AIR EMBRAER E190STD JA243J (MSN 19000718) 

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS AIRBUS A320-271 JA222A (MSN 9580)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS BOEING 777-281 JA715A (MSN 32646)

SOLASEED BOEING 737-86N JA804X (MSN 38026)

JAPAN AIRLINES BOEING 767-346 JA656J (MSN 40368)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS AIRBUS A320-271N JA213A (MSN 7554)

JAPAN AIRLINES BOEING 737-846 JA314J (MSN 35343)

AIR CANADA BOEING 787-9 C-FVLU (MSN 38360)

DELTA AIRBUS A350-941 N515DN (MSN 404)

SKYMARK AIRLINES BOEING 737-81D JA73NN (MSN 39422)

SOLASEED AIR BOEING 737-86N JA810X (MSN 41271)

AIR DO BOEING 737-781 JA14AN (MSN 33883)

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS BOEING 7437-881 JA86AN (MSN 62641)

JAPAN AIRLINES AIRBUS A350-941 JA07XJ (MSN 451)

I do have more photos, which I will add very soon.

Looking back on China Airlines flight 605

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 737-8AL B-18663 (MSN 61772)

China Airlines Flight 605, a daily non-stop service from Taipei, Taiwan, (TPE/RCTP) departing at 6:30 a.m. and arriving in Hong Kong (HKG/VHHH) at 7:00 a.m. local time, experienced a runway overrun on the 4th of November 1993, while attempting to land during a storm.

Just minutes prior, a British Airways pilot had declined to approach Kai Tak Runway 13, which the captain of CAL 605 chose to attempt.

The aircraft landed over 2,100 feet (640 m) beyond the runway's displaced threshold at a speed of 150 knots (278 km/h; 173 mph), following an IGS approach to Runway 13. At the time, Typhoon Ira was producing crosswinds of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) on the runway, with gusts up to 38 knots (70 km/h; 44 mph) from a heading of 070 degrees.

During the final mile before touchdown, the pilots were alerted by multiple computer-generated wind shear and glide slope deviation warnings and experienced significant airspeed fluctuations. The captain, who was piloting the aircraft, disconnected the autopilot to manually fly the plane and also turned off the auto-throttle due to its unsatisfactory performance. Upon landing, the first officer attempted to maintain the aircraft on the runway centerline, but his excessive inputs required the captain's intervention. Simultaneously, the captain unintentionally increased engine power instead of engaging the thrust reversers. 

The auto-brakes, set to level two, were deactivated seconds after touchdown because of the power increase. The speedbrakes were momentarily deployed but then retracted for the same reason, causing the aircraft to "float" and rendering the brakes ineffective until the speedbrakes were redeployed. When the first officer realized that the auto-brakes were off and the thrust reversers were not engaged, the captain promptly initiated manual braking and thrust reversal.

Realizing the plane would overrun the runway and collide with the approach lighting system for runway 31, the captain intentionally veered left. This maneuver resulted in a "ground loop," causing the aircraft to slide off the runway's left side and into Victoria Harbour. The aircraft eventually stopped in shallow water, facing almost directly opposite the direction of runway 13.

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-409 with registration B-165, it was a 5-month-old Boeing 747 manufactured in June 1993. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney PW4056 turbofan engines and had only logged 1,969 flight hours in 359 takeoff and landing cycles at the time of the accident.

This incident marked the first hull loss of a Boeing 747-400.

Looking back on Qantas 32

Qantas Flight 32 was a scheduled passenger flight from London (LHR/EGLL) to Sydney (SYD/YSSY) via Singapore (SIN/WSSS). 

QANTAS AIRBUS A380-842-VH-OQA (MSN 014)

On the 4th of November 2010, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A380, suffered an uncontained failure in one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. The failure occurred over the Riau Islands, Indonesia, four minutes after takeoff from Singapore Changi Airport. After holding for almost two hours to assess the situation, the aircraft made a successful emergency landing at Changi. No injuries occurred to the passengers, crew, or people on the ground, despite debris from the aircraft falling onto houses in Batam.

The airplane took off from runway 20C at 09.56 local time. Following a normal takeoff, the crew retracted the landing gear and flaps. The crew reported that, while maintaining 250 kts in the climb and passing 7,000 ft above mean sea level, they heard two 'loud bangs', followed shortly after by indications of a failure of the No 2 engine. The aircraft levelled off and because of an overheat warning of engine No 2, thrust for this engine was moved to 'idle'. Meanwhile, at 10:02, when the airplane was flying over Batam Landmass, the crew radioed a PAN call to the Approach Controller citing a possible engine failure. At that time, the pilot of QFA 32 maintained height on 7,500 feet and requested to be on heading 150 degrees to investigate the problem but did not request to return to Singapore immediately.

At 11.45am Qantas 32 touched down on 20C, and as a result of the aircraft landing 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) faster than its normal landing speed, four tyres were blown.

While the aircraft was stopping abeam taxiway E10, Changi’s Airport Emergency Service (AES) found that engine number 2 was damaged near the rear of the engine and fuel had leaked from the port side (left wing). Moreover, there was smoke from tyre number 7 and there were 4 tyres deflated, meanwhile, the pilot was not able to shut off engine number 1. Nevertheless, it was safe to disembark passengers. Exactly at 13:54, all passengers had been disembarked, and finally at 14:53, engine number 1 was finally able to be shutdown.

On later inspection, a turbine disc in the aircraft's number-two engine (on the port side nearer the fuselage) was found to have disintegrated, causing extensive damage to the nacelle (a nacelle refers to the whole covering of an engine,) wing, fuel system, landing gear, flight controls, and engine controls, and a fire in a fuel tank that self-extinguished. The subsequent investigation concluded that the failure had been caused by the breaking of a stub oil pipe, which had been manufactured improperly.

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A380-842, registration number VH-OQA, serial number 014. The aircraft entered service in September 2008, it was the first of 8 A380 delivered to Qantas and had four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines; it was named Nancy-Bird Walton in honour of an Australian aviation pioneer. After completing repairs in Singapore, estimated at A$139 million, the aircraft returned to Sydney in April 2012.

Plane spotting at Taiwan's Taipei airport

 A few weeks ago, my wife and I, heading to Tokyo, had a three-hour stopover in Taipei. Our China Airlines Airbus A350 departed Brisbane right on time at 22.50. We landed on 05R in Taipei 8 hours 20 minutes later at 05.10 Taipei time. 

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE/RCTP) is 33mts (108 ft) AMSL. It is the busiest and largest airport in Taiwan. It has two main runways - 05L/23R which is long 3,660 mts long (12,008 feet) and is Asphalt. The second runway is 05R/23L which is 3,800 mts long (12,467 feet) and it is also Asphalt.

05R was the main active runway that morning, but sadly, where our arrival gate was, and then where the coffee shop we found was, it overlooked 05L. At first it was very quiet but after 40 minutes or so, it became active. All these shots were taken through thick glass.

EVA AIR AIRBUS A321-211 B-16209 (MSN 6042)

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 777-309 B-18005 (MSN 43979)

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 777-36N B-18052 (MSN 41822)

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 777-309 B-18007 (MSN 43982)
SPORTING THE BOEING LIVERY

STARLUX AIRBUS A350-941 B-58501 (MSN 480) 

CHINA AIRLINES CARGO BOEING 747-409F B-18723 (MSN 34266)

DHL/AIR HONG KONG AIRBUS A330-343F B-LDZ (MSN 1408)

STARLUX AIRBUS A321-252 B-58205 (MSN 10270)

CHINA AIRLINES AIRBUS A330-302 B-18308 (MSN 699)

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 747-409F B-18723 (MSN 34266)

CHINA AIRLINES AIRBUS A330-343 B-18316 (MSN 838)

CHINA AIRLINES CARGO BOEING 777-F B-18781 (MSN 68058)

EVA AIR AIRBUS A321-211 B-16220 (MSN 6747)

CHINA AIRLINES CARGO BOEING 747-409F B-18720 (MSN 33733)

EVA AIR AIRBUS A321-211 B-16211 (MSN 6179)

CHINA AIRLINES AIRBUS A330-302 B-18317 (MSN 861)

SCOOT BOEING 787-9 9V-OJG (MSN 37128)

CHINA A IRLINES AIRBUS A330-302 B-18361 (MSN 1539)

STARLUX AIRBUS A350-941 B-58501 (MSN 480)

STARLUX AIRBUS A321-252NX B-58212 (MSN 11047)

DHL/SINGAPORE CARGO BOEING 777-F 9V-DHB (MSN 67141)

CHINA AIRLINES BOEING 737-8AL B-18663 (MSN 61772)

EVA AIR CARGO BOEING 777-F B16788N (MSN 67032)

TURKISH AIRLINES BOEING 787-9 TC-LLB (MSN 65802)

JAPAN AIRLINES BOEING 767-346 JA619J (MSN 37550)

CARGOLUX BOEING 747-4R7F LX-YCV (MSN 35805)

JINAIR BOEING 777-2B5 HL-7734 (MSN 34207)