A lot has happened in aviation in 2024. From the first hull loss of an A350 and the door-plug blow out in January to the severe turbulence experienced by Singapore Airlines in May and the Farnborough Air Show in June a lot has happened. In this blog post, I take a look at some key events from this year.
January
January was a busy start to the year for Aviation when on the 2nd January 2024 a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft while landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport (HND). The A350 burned for several hours but all 379 passengers and crew evacuated safely. This is the first hull loss of an A350. The Coast Guard aircraft was carrying 6 people. 5 were killed and 1 survived. All flights at HND were stopped as all fire crews were occupied with the A350 fire.
You can read about the crash of JL516 with this blog post - JL516 Crash. (https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/jl516-crash)
However, aviation events in January do not stop there. On the 6th January 2024 just after midnight (UTC time) (or Friday 5th January 2024 local time) an Alaskan Airlines flight departed Portland for Ontario. The plane was a 737 MAX-9 and as it was climbing, at an altitude of approximately 16,000 feet a section of the fuselage broke off resulting in a rapid depressurization. The aircraft diverted back to Portland. The night sky was visible through the hole in the fuselage. The section that broke off was a door plug which in some aircraft (depending on the configuration) can be used as an emergency exit. However, this was not the case for this aircraft and the capability to use this as an emergency exit was disabled during manufacturing. Alaska Airlines grounded all of their Boeing 737 MAX-9 aircraft until inspections occurred. The FAA also temporarily grounded 171 737 MAX-9 aircraft until inspections occurred.
You can read about the door plug blow out with this blog post here: Alaska Airlines - Door plug blowout
Also in January, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked the proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines by JetBlue.
February
February saw the Singapore Airshow with large aircraft orders. You can read the blog post about the Singapore Airshow here: Singapore Airshow 2024 (https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/singapore-airshow-2024).
Also in February, Canadian budget carrier Lynx Air ceased operations.
March
In March, a LATAM Boeing 787-9 aircraft flying between Sydney and Auckland encountered severe turbulence. However, it turned out that the pilot's controls had moved due to the pilot's seat moving.
April
In April, Australian low cost carrier, Bonza entered administration and suspended all services.
May
In May, Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 from London Heathrow to Singapore encountered severe turbulence. 1 passenger was killed and 104 were injured. The plane made an emergency landing in Bangkok.
You can read the blog posts of the incident here: Singapore Airlines Incident (https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/singapore-airlines-incident)
and here: Singapore Airlines Incident Update (https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/singapore-airlines-incident-update)
June
In June, Lufthansa City Airlines started operations, another subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Also in June, Boeing announced its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems.
July
July was a busy month in aviation. The EAA AirVenture Oshkosh took place and Rex Airlines, another Australian carrier entered administration. Also in July, the CrowdStrike IT outage cancelled over 5,000 flights around the world with many delays. (4.9% of all scheduled flights for that day were cancelled). The Farnborough International Airshow also took place in July which saw many orders. You can read our reports on the Farnborough Airshow here:
Farnborough Airshow 2024 - Days 3 and 4 (https://www.avgeekblog.co.uk/post/farnborough-airshow-2024-days-3-and-4)
August
In August an ATR 72-500 aircraft crashed in a residential area near Sao Paulo. The crash killed all passengers and crew onboard.
September
In September, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) left Star Alliance and joined SkyTeam. SAS was a founding member of Star Alliance.
October
In October, a World War Two bomb exploded under a taxiway in Japan. Also, Czech Airlines ceased operations after nearly 101 years. October also saw QantasLink retiring the Boeing 717.
November
November was also a busy month for aviation. This month, in India, Vistara merged with Air India while over in America, Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Also in November, Iberia operated the first long haul flight of the A321XLR from Madrid to Boston. A Boeing 737-400 operated by Swiftair on behalf of DHL crashed on approach to Vilnius. Additionally, EASA lifted a 4 year ban on Pakistan International Airlines from operating in Europe.
December
Aer Lingus took delivery of its first two A321XLR aircraft on the same day. These are the second and third A321XLRs to be delivered. The aircraft have registration EI-XLR and EI-XLT.
On December 22nd, an Aer Lingus Regional ATR72-600 aircraft experienced a hard landing at Belfast City Airport (BHD) and the nose wheel collapsed.
On December 25th an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed killing 38 of the 67 people on board. There is speculation that the plane was shot down by Russian forces.
On December 29th a Jeju Air 737 crashed at Muan, South Korea after attempting a gear up landing. It is believed that only 2 crew members survived. Experts are investigating the crash and looking into the possibility of a bird strike.
Looking back, 2024 has been a busy year for aviation. The events listed in this blog post are by no means all the aviation events that happened in 2024 but they are some of the key aviation highlights of the year. Let me know if you want to know more abut a certain topic. I hope you enjoyed reading this post and will continue to enjoy AV Geek Blog content into the new year.
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