BREAKING NEWS: Another Airbus Crash UPDATE: Survivor

[Eeyores Butterfly]

CNN has reported that an Airbus A310 with 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean. This one was a Yemeni airliner. No word yet on the fate of those aboard.

UPDATE: CNN has reported that a 5 year old was found floating in the Indian Ocean. He is so far the only survivor of the crash.

 

[wdwiala]

Oh my!

 

[johnsontrio]

glad my vacation was last week... both legs over water on an Airbus

 

[terri01p]

Oh my mercy NO !

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

Prayers for all the souls involved and for their families.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

The problem may or may not be related to the fact that the plane was an Airbus. Airlines in foreign countries such as Yemen do not have the same types of safety standards and government regulations as carriers that fly within the US.

It is a tragedy regardless of the reason. Prayers for the families of those onboard.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

The one thing that I wonder about are the altitude/air speed sensors. The FAA has reported that two other Airbus planes had problems with them and has launched an investigation, but I believe those were all A330s like the Air France jet. Not sure if they have indicated concern with other models.

It seems like air crashes happen twos. After flight 800 there was the crash in the Florida Everglades. After September 11 there was the crash in the New York neighborhood. Now we have two Airbus crashes. At least this time there does not appear to be any problems with finding the plane as there was with Air France.

Those poor families. Hopefully they will have some answers for them soon.

 

[EMom]

I won't get into specifics, because the story is too long, but when we were in Russia we took an in country flight and it was supposed to be on Aeroflot. Now everyone makes fun of Aeroflot, but every Aeroflot plane we flew on was brand-spanking new and the nicest I'd ever been on.

We walked out of the airport waiting room to catch our "shuttle" (more like a cattle trailer) to the plane out on the runway and as we got closer, I realized it WAS NOT an Aeroflot. Not by a long shot. It was.....Heaven help me......Ural Airlines, which has the WORST safety record in Russia. DH was not aware of this, but I was. They crash and have all sorts of problems. But it was Russia, and we couldn't run screaming back to the terminal, refusing to get on. You just don't pull that kind of stunt there. Plus, no one in sight spoke English. They almost had to shove me up the stairs to the plane.

I cannot begin to describe the condition of that plane. I've been on better looking buses in the interior of Mexico. No seatbeats, collapsing seats, springs poking through seats, nails halfway hammered into place. Only an overhead "rack" which was a shelf with nothing....not even net...to hold in all the luggage shoved up there. If we hit any turbulence, it was going everywhere and we were all dead meat. Forget pressurization. I thought my ears would explode.

DH looked at the safety instructions, which appeared to have chewed by a rat and started to read them. I just looked at him, shook my head and said, "I don't know why you are even bothering to read that. If this plane has one minute of trouble, you can kiss your *** goodbye." After that, we referred to it as the "Kiss Your *** Goodbye Flight." It was the scariest flight I have ever been on and I'm no scaredy cat flyer. The return flight was on the same airline, different plane, but it was in just as bad a shape.

A few weeks after we returned to the US, the State Dept. issued an advisory telling all US citizens to not fly on Ural Airlines. They were too unsafe. No duh.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I won't get into specifics, because the story is too long, but when we were in Russia we took an in country flight and it was supposed to be on Aeroflot. Now everyone makes fun of Aeroflot, but every Aeroflot plane we flew on was brand-spanking new and the nicest I'd ever been on.

We walked out of the airport waiting room to catch our "shuttle" (more like a cattle trailer) to the plane out on the runway and as we got closer, I realized it WAS NOT an Aeroflot. Not by a long shot. It was.....Heaven help me......Ural Airlines, which has the WORST safety record in Russia. DH was not aware of this, but I was. They crash and have all sorts of problems. But it was Russia, and we couldn't run screaming back to the terminal, refusing to get on. You just don't pull that kind of stunt there. Plus, no one in sight spoke English. They almost had to shove me up the stairs to the plane.

I cannot begin to describe the condition of that plane. I've been on better looking buses in the interior of Mexico. No seatbeats, collapsing seats, springs poking through seats, nails halfway hammered into place. Only an overhead "rack" which was a shelf with nothing....not even net...to hold in all the luggage shoved up there. If we hit any turbulence, it was going everywhere and we were all dead meat. Forget pressurization. I thought my ears would explode.

DH looked at the safety instructions, which appeared to have chewed by a rat and started to read them. I just looked at him, shook my head and said, "I don't know why you are even bothering to read that. If this plane has one minute of trouble, you can kiss your *** goodbye." After that, we referred to it as the "Kiss Your *** Goodbye Flight." It was the scariest flight I have ever been on and I'm no scaredy cat flyer. The return flight was on the same airline, different plane, but it was in just as bad a shape.

A few weeks after we returned to the US, the State Dept. issued an advisory telling all US citizens to not fly on Ural Airlines. They were too unsafe. No duh.

That sounds worse than the plane we took in Mexico from Acapulco to Mexico City on AeroMexico in 1987. Some of the seats didn't have working seatbelts and the flight attendants didn't seem to care. I remember literally tying my seatbelt in a knot around my waist because the buckle was broken.

 

[MAH4546]

"Another Airbus Crash?"

The title of this thread is uninformed and sensationalist.

There are two Western manufacturers of large jets, Airbus and Boeing. When a plane crashes, there is a good chances its going to be an Airbus or a Boeing, just like flipping a coin. To try to draw some correlation between the fact that last month's crash was also an Airbus crash is ridiculous. It was in 2007 few years ago that three Boeing 737s crashed in a matter of months, and there is certainly nothing unsafe about those.

On that note, my thoughts go out to the victims of this unfortunate accident.

The problem may or may not be related to the fact that the plane was an Airbus. Airlines in foreign countries such as Yemen do not have the same types of safety standards and government regulations as carriers that fly within the US.

Yemenia, like many airlines in the Middle East, has a fairly modern fleet and a near flawless safety record. This is their first fatal crash ever, and they've been around for almost 50 years.

The Middle East is actually known for having some of the world's most strict safety standards.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

"Uninformed and sensationalist?" Geez louise. I could have easily said another plane crash, it just came out Airbus when I typed. I was in no way trying to make a big deal out of the particular manufacturer, although in light of the investigation into the A330 I can't help but wonder if this plane experienced similar issues with its airspeed and altitude sensors.

The purpose of the thread was to simply discuss a breaking news story and offer positive thoughts/prayers for the families of the victims.

 

[EMom]

That sounds worse than the plane we took in Mexico from Acapulco to Mexico City on AeroMexico in 1987. Some of the seats didn't have working seatbelts and the flight attendants didn't seem to care. I remember literally tying my seatbelt in a knot around my waist because the buckle was broken.

I kid you not, it was beyond description. There's so much more I could tell. My first clue was that the exterior paint had been touched up with what appeared to be plain old spray paint. Yes, orange spray paint. Inside, the seat in front of DH kept collapsing on to him and he kept having to push it off him. For a while, there was actually a passenger in it.....But he finally got up and left in disgust to find another non-collapsing seat.

On the flight back (I think) DH went to the bathroom. He came back and told me NOT to go to the bathroom, but to wait until I landed. Since I go to the bathroom about once an hour on a plane, I knew that meant things were BAD in that bathroom. I asked, "Is it really disgusting in there?" He said, "NO, that's not it. The bathroom must be directly connected to an engine." He said the noise was deafening and the bathroom was vibrating out of control. I decided to "hold it."

But on the return flight, we had God on our side. : The head of the Russian Orthodox Church (equivalent of the pope) and some other priests were on the plane. I told DH there was no way that plane was going down. When we landed, there were news crews and bands, etc. I muttered that there ought to be news crews every time a Ural Airlines plane lands safely, because it's nothing short of a miracle.

 

[LukenDC]

The problem may or may not be related to the fact that the plane was an Airbus. Airlines in foreign countries such as Yemen do not have the same types of safety standards and government regulations as carriers that fly within the US.

I agree. I would not fly with a Yemeni carrier even if the planes were all made by Boeing.

 

[Mommy2three]

they have found a survivor, a 5 year old child.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

CNN has reported that a 5 year old child was found and there is hope that there may be more survivors. At this time they believe the fact that it was another Airbus was coincidence. There is on word on whether or not there were any error messages or communications between the flight crew and air traffic control.

 

[Jenvenza]

Unbelieveable that they found that 5 year old in the sea!! Amazing! Hopefully there are more survivors.

 

[MAH4546]

I agree. I would not fly with a Yemeni carrier even if the planes were all made by Boeing.

Yemenia Yemen Airlines has a better safety record than Air France, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Japan Air Lines and TAM, to name a few, and their fleet is younger than American, Delta, Northwest and US Airways. But lets ignore facts in order to base assumptions on false stereotypes. Sounds like an awesome idea.

 

[S. C.]

Praying for more survivors.