Solomon Airlines make emergency landing at Henderson Airfield

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MissBurrill

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Emergency Landing


A Solomon Airlines operated flight from Honiara to Brisbane was forced to turn back half-way through the flight after the aircraft developed mechanical faults mid-air yesterday afternoon.

The airbus was leased by Solomon from by Strategic Airlines.

It was difficult to verify whether the Strategic airbus was the A330-300 which can carry about 287 passengers or the A320-200 which can take only 156 passengers.

This particular aircraft had been developing mechanical faults in the past weeks during routine flights during its Brisbane – Honiara – Brisbane flight according to eye witnesses.

I remember living in the Solomon Islands in 2009 and the people being proud they were getting their own plane and no more code sharing with Our Airline.

I love it how the Solomon Star weren't sure on passenger numbers
 
Solomon Airlines have had a string of interesting charter companies operate their flights. At one point it was a Spanish crew, which made things, shall we say, interesting.

They have been using the Strategic A320 of late, but the runway at HIR was extended some time ago to accommodate widebodies, so they may substitute the A330, but I doubt there would be the numbers to justify it.

I imagine this will be a pain for Strategic having a plane that has gone tech stuck at HIR, I'm surprised they didn't divert to a North Queensland airport.
 
Solomon Airlines have had a string of interesting charter companies operate their flights. At one point it was a Spanish crew, which made things, shall we say, interesting.

Different airline but in 2009 when work put me on the Pac Blue flights there was always one of the engineering boys* on the flight. He relaxed for 3 hours, sweated in the Honiara heat for 30 minutes making sure all was good then relaxed on the 3 hour flight back to Bne, pausing to buy duty free. I wonder how much kit they carry in case they need to fix something.

*I only saw male engineering staff on this run.
 
Different airline but in 2009 when work put me on the Pac Blue flights there was always one of the engineering boys* on the flight. He relaxed for 3 hours, sweated in the Honiara heat for 30 minutes making sure all was good then relaxed on the 3 hour flight back to Bne, pausing to buy duty free. I wonder how much kit they carry in case they need to fix something.

A "flying spanner" is pretty standard risk mitigation when operating to airfields where you cannot get local support and/or where you have a small fleet. Typically very little kit is taken (enough to be able to unlatch inspection panels) and the main contribution is that the engineer can OK an aircraft to fly with a defective part in certain prescribed circumstances.
 
A "flying spanner" is pretty standard risk mitigation when operating to airfields where you cannot get local support and/or where you have a small fleet. Typically very little kit is taken (enough to be able to unlatch inspection panels) and the main contribution is that the engineer can OK an aircraft to fly with a defective part in certain prescribed circumstances.

Thanks Dave!
 
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I imagine this will be a pain for Strategic having a plane that has gone tech stuck at HIR, I'm surprised they didn't divert to a North Queensland airport.

At least they have a number of A320s that can be called on as a sub, if its the A330 its impact would have been greater, which is why they will struggle when things go wrong being the small airline they are. Even JQ have had issue with their small A330 fleet, Strategic dont have a big brother with cheap charter rates to use when it does go wrong!
 
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