Frog In Aircraft Window

Not something you see every day. This little amphibian was spotted in a window of a Turkish Airlines' Airbus A320 in July during a flight from Moscow to Istanbul. A passenger quickly snapped this shot before he slid back in to the side wall. The frog was between the pressurized outer window and the inner cabin pane. After landing in Istanbul mechanics tore through the aircraft but could find no sign of the little guy. Earlier in the day the aircraft started out in the Turkish city of Adana which is known for having tons of frogs that eventually get shipped to China and Japan to end up on restaurant menus.

[Flight Global]

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Photos From Manchester Jet Clipping

Photo Credit: Stewart Andrew via Airliners.net

If you click on the above photo to blow it up, you can see where the winglet of the Futura International Airways Boeing 737-800 was clipped off when it contacted the tail of this Lufthansa Airbus A320 that was holding at the runway at Manchester International in the U.K yesterday. The Futura 737 was attempting to taxi behind it. The pilots then exchanged insurance information and were on their way (last sentence untrue).



Other Photos from BBC


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Honduras A320 Crash

The latest news says this TACA International Airlines Airbus A320 overshot the runway at the Tegucigalpa, Honduras airport. The aircraft was arriving from El Salvador. 124 passengers were aboard the aircraft, up to 4 dead, including one of the pilots. Below are a few images of the crash and a video (not of the accident) showing the typical approach into the airport where the crash occurred...it's not the easiest one out there for sure.

TACA has identified the accident aircraft as an A320-233 Airbus, Irish registration EI- TAF, series number 1374 built on January 4th 2001. Until May 29th it had accumulated 21,957 flight hours and 9,992 landings.



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Happy 20th Birthday Airbus A320

It was March 28, 1988 that the first Airbus A320 was delivered to Air France for testing and training and it entered into service on April 18, 1988. So, really, this is an ongoing birthday celebration from March 28 - April 18, 2008 as there is not really a "born on date" like with humans or Bud Light beer bottles.

Please note that me posting a Happy Birthday message to the A320 does nothing to make me like Airbus any more than I did previously, I am simply reporting the interesting news of the day to our faithful readers. Airbus lovers (unlike myself, did I make that clear) laud the A320 as the one that got Airbus in the commercial aircraft manufacturing game.

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Lufthansa A320 sheds winglet in crazy crosswing approach

This incident apparently happened today in Hamburg Germany. The photo above (from Lars Tretau (if you couldn't figure that out)) shows the point on it's crazy crosswind approach when the Lufthansa Airbus A320 made contact with the hard surface using only its left winglet shortly before executing an immediate go around. The video below is reportedly from the same event, though the vantage point is no where near as good, and the point of impact get's a little fuzzy. I'm waiting for anyone to debunk this one. It's nearly too difficult to believe. Maybe I just want to believe it's fake. I've seen some crazy approaches, but that's just stupid. 2 words: crosswind alternate.

"Kriss-Kross"ed brake cables the "Daddy-Mac" in Jackson Hole Runway Excursion

The NTSB has indicated preliminary inspections of the United Airlines Airbus A320 that slid off the runway at Jackson Hole, Wyoming last Tuesday night show that it had its left main gear wheel speed tachometer wires crossed incorrectly between the inboard and outboard wheels. This configuration could easily lead to improper anti-skid usage by the aircraft. Supposedly, both main gear units were replaced earlier in the month.

The flight from Denver exited the runway edge and ended up in 5 feet of snow severely damaging the both engines (as seen in the photo from Jackson Hole News&Guide) Apparently, damage to the airframe is nominal. While the NTSB investigation continues, Jackson Hole Airport officials wonder how many more aircraft they'll have to yank out of ditches as this is the second commercial flight to exit the runway in 2 weeks.