140 passengers of a Delhi-bound SpiceJet flight from Surat had a narrow escape on Thursday evening when the aircraft hit a stray buffalo on the runway, as it was about to take-off.

“All SpiceJet flights from Surat to be indefinitely suspended after one of our aircraft hit a large stray animal on take-off toll today. Suspension will be effective as soon as possible,” Mr Kumar said.

Source (NDTV)

20 minutes after the original incident, an Air Europe Airbus suffered a FOD incident, the front tyre was punctured, presumably by remains of the earlier aircraft’s fuselage.

Rather concerning, was the following information (Source: TypicallySpanish)

The air traffic controllers have criticised the Mexican crew for not sounding an alarm, or even not telling Barajas air traffic control that they had hit the runway.

For further information:

• Incident description at AviationSafetyNetwork
• Incident description at El Pais (in Spanish)
• Description from TypicallySpanish

A tyre has burst on a passenger plane landing at Gatwick Airport.

One passenger told the BBC that after making a “nice smooth landing… there was an almighty bang and the plane suddenly lurched to the right”.

The pilot managed to keep control of the aircraft, which had flown from Ukraine, and there were no injuries.

Gatwick Airport said everyone on board the plane had safely disembarked and had been taken on a coach to the South Terminal.

Source (BBC)

HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Thanks to the quick actions of three Team Holloman members, a foreign object debris issue was handled before any Holloman asset was compromised…….

“We were at the right place at the right time,” said Mr. Vaughus. “Someone’s life could’ve been at stake and possibly our own if it didn’t get cleaned up. It could’ve gotten ugly, so we did what we were supposed to do.”

Source

Incident: Ryanair B738 at Dublin on Sep 4th 2010, blew tyre on takeoff

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-DAV performing flight FR-1958 from Dublin (Ireland) to Nice (France), blew a nose gear tyre on takeoff from Dublin’s runway 10. The crew of an airliner departing next reported debris on the runway, a runway inspection revealed tyre debris. The Ryanair crew was informed of the tyre debris and decided to divert to Ryanair’s base at Stansted,EN (UK) where the airplane landed safely.

A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration EI-EGB reached Nice with a delay of 3:35 hours.

Source (The Aviation Herald)

An Allegiant Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83, registration N893GA performing flight G4-768 from Roanoke,VA to Orlando Sanford,FL (USA) with 142 passengers and 5 crew, rejected takeoff from Roanoke’s runway 24 at low speed after a lot of smoke was observed from the right hand engine. The airplane turned off the runway, the tower reported the smoke was no longer visible. Emergency services responded and followed the airplane to the apron, where passengers disembarked normally. Emergency services subsequently confirmed the right hand engine had been on fire and (now at the gate) foamed the engine.

The runway was closed for an inspection, debris from the engine was found on the beginning of the runway.

The airline reported, that the crew received an engine fire indication, shut the engine down and activated the engine’s fire suppression system.

A replacement MD-83 was dispatched to Roanoke and reached Orlando with a delay of 6.5 hours. (…source)

A case has been put before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee for an $8M taxiway to be built at the Holloman Air Force Base (link to map). One of the arguments for the project is that the new taxiway would help reduce FOD damage to the F22A Raptor. The funding has been requested by Tom Udall, the senator for New Mexico. The case states:

Due to the high susceptibility of the F-22A to engine damage caused by ingesting Foreign Object Debris (FOD), F-22A operations require pavements free of FOD. If this project is not executed, all F-22A Raptor operations will remain susceptible to extremely costly FOD damage. Each engine in an  F-22A costs over $6M and a single FOD incident can render an engine useless without major repairs. Given the fact that other installations operating the Raptor have already experienced severe FOD damage incidents, a project costing just under the price of one single F-22A engine pays for itself in short order. Failure to train aircrews in the world’s premier airborne weapons platform will greatly reduce the ability of the U.S. Air Force to project global airpower dominance in defense of the nation.(….source)

There is some evidence to backup the claims regarding the F22A’s susceptibility to FOD damage (and the expense):

In October, 2005 a F-22A from the 27th Fighter Squadron operating from Hill Air Force Base suffered $6.7 Million worth of damage to the right engine after sucking in 5-inch-long landing gear pin while the engines were running.(….source)

For more details and debate regarding the above incident see here.

Photo: P. Radosta/austrianwings.info

Photo: P. Radosta/austrianwings.info

A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration TC-JFV performing flight TK-1887 from Istanbul Ataturk (Turkey) to Vienna (Austria), landed on Vienna’s runway 34 when the crew of the following aircraft taking off reported debris on the runway.

Runway 34 was closed, a runway inspection found several pieces of an engine cowling on the runway.

The right hand engine (CFM56) of TC-JFV was found to have lost parts of its cowling in the area of the thrust reverser.

A replacement Airbus A320-200 registration TC-JPN was dispatched to Vienna and reached Istanbul with a total delay of 6:10 hours.

Source: The Aviation Herald

A Tatarstan Air Boeing 737-300, registration VQ-BDC performing flight U9-5655 from Ufa (Russia) to Antalya (Turkey) with 148 passengers, had departed Ufa when the crew was radioed about tyre debris, that was found on the runway. The crew decided to divert to Kazan (Russia) about 250nm west of Ufa, where the airplane burned off fuel and landed safely about 2 hours after departure. One of the right hand main gear tyres was found damaged.

The flight was cancelled, the passengers were re-booked onto two other flights from Kazan.

Source (The Aviation Herald)

A PSA Airlines Canadair CRJ-200 on behalf of US Airways, registration N244PS performing flight JIA-539/US-2539 from Charlotte,NC to Mobile,AL (USA), had departed Charlotte’s runway 18C when a number of tyre fragments were spotted prior to intersection with taxiway E4. The airplane levelled off at 11000 feet and returned to Charlotte’s runway 18C for a safe landing about one hour after departure, turned off the runway onto taxiway E3 and stopped past the hold short line.

An inspection revealed the inboard left hand main tyre and wheel had been damaged, the according hydraulic system had failed in the meantime. The aircraft was shut down, the passengers disembarked onto the taxiway and were bussed to the terminal. Engineers are currently inspecting the left hand engine for possible ingestion of debris.

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Source: Aviation Herald