July 2013 was quite a month in the aviation industry, where it seemed like not a single week went by without a major accident, incident, or big story occurring. Because simply so much happened over the last month, we thought it would be best to take a look back, and remember all the news which was crammed into one month.
July 2: Almost immediately, the month didn’t start off so great. Just two days into the month, a Russian Proton-M rocket with a payload of GLONASS satellites malfunctioned just after taking off from its launchpad in Kazakhstan. While the reason for the crash was not known right away, the crash was later determined to be caused by a sensor which was installed upside-down. According to Aviation Week, “incorrectly installed angular rate sensors on the first stage” of the rocket caused the crash.
July 3: The very next day at JFK, the wing of the brand new American Airlines 777-300ER was damaged by the wing tip of a 757.
July 7: On a beautiful Saturday morning in San Francisco, Asiana 214, a Boeing 777-200, was flown into a seawall just short of the runway. At the controls was a pilot still in training to transition to the 777 after flying the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, and the pilot training him was on his first training flight. Flying the aircraft visually, the pilots did not realize that their airspeed and altitude were too low until it was to late, and the tail of the aircraft struck the seawall, separating it from the fuselage. Two passengers died at the scene, and a third passenger later died at an area hospital. This was the first deadly crash of the 777 series.
July 7: Later that day, Solar Impulse completed their tour across American, landing at JFK just before midnight. The original plan called for a landing at about 2am after a photo shoot near the Statue of Liberty, but a tear in the aircraft’s skin forced an earlier landing.
July 12: Five days after the crash of Asiana 214, an Ethiopian 787 at London Heathrow seemed suffer from a case of spontaneous combustion while parked on a remote ramp. A fire ripped a hole through the top of the fuselage near the tail of the aircraft. After several days of investigation, the AAIB determined that the probable cause of the fire was due to faulty Honeywell emergency locator transmitters (ELT) housed on-board the aircraft. The FAA later mandated that all ELTs be inspected on 787s, while Boeing later recommended inspections on several other aircraft types in advance of any regulatory rulings. After inspections, several aircraft were found to have ELTs installed with pinched wiring, which may have sparked the lithium-ion fueled fire.
July 17: Under the cover of darkness, Boeing rolled out the first 787-9 Dreamliner. The -9 is an extended version of the current 787-8 model. Several days later, a brand new Boeing house livery was revealed.
July 19: The 1,000th Airbus A330 was delivered to Cathay Pacific, becoming the first European-built widebody 1,000 deliveries.
July 21: In Iceland, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 preforming certification tests for category III auto-land, accidentally landed without its landing gear deployed. Reports state that the aircraft was preforming a one engine approach and go-around, but was not able to complete the maneuver before impacting the ground. One injury was reported, and Sukhoi says the aircraft will be repaired and returned to service.
July 22: At about 5:45pm, the nose gear of Southwest 345 collapsed upon landing at LaGuardia Airport. While initial reports were unclear about if the gear collapsed after touching down or if the gear never deployed, it was later confirmed by the NTSB that the front landing gear of the 737 impacted the runway before the main landing gear. Video of the accident showed that the aircraft did not flare before touching down. At this point, it is still uncertain what caused the accident, be it mechanical failure or pilot error. Only a few minor injuries were reported.
