Airlines, Airports, Americas, Europe, In the News, Oceania

This week: Evacuation in Chicago, back-to-back emergency landings at DFW & more

It’s been one of the more quiet weeks in the land of airport news. Generally this means less delays have occurred, which of course is a good thing. However those news we revisit this week are all of similar and slightly disturbing nature. Here they are in our overview:

On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that after a two-hour evacuation of portions of a lobby and baggage-claim area at O’Hare International Airport (ORD) the Chicago Police Department’s bomb squad cleared an unattended bag that had been found by the door and allowed operations to resume. The evacuation occurred in Terminal 1 and whilst no explosives were found, it lead to some significant delays for travellers.

A rather rare occurrence took place in Texas this week when CBS reported of “back-to-back emergency landings at DFW Airport”. the report said that in the first instance on Monday, an American Airlines jumbo jet three hours into its flight to Buenos Aires declared an in-flight emergency after the pilot reported indications of a pressurization problem. On the second flight, American Airlines told CBS News that a flight from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Fresno had to return to the airport because of mechanical issues.

Then just today in a security scare at Sydney Airport (SYD) this morning sparked the evacuation of hundreds of travellers – including those heading to the AFL grand final – from a busy terminal and delayed at least eight flights, reported ABC News. A Qantas spokeswoman said a man left the secure area of Terminal 3, used for Qantas domestic flights, before re-entering the area through exit doors, bypassing security checks. At least eight flights were delayed by up to an hour, affecting about 1,000 people.

And our last news comes from Scotland where the BBC reported that a Boeing Dreamliner plane with 260 people on board has made an emergency landing at Glasgow Airport (GLA) after an alert from the aircraft’s fire protection system. The flight, operated by Polish airline Lot, was en route from the US to Poland when it declared an emergency. According to the article passengers were taken off and the plane was undergoing checks. Lot was making other arrangements for passengers.

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Photo Credit: Intiaz Rahim via Compfight cc]