Anytime there is a problem with a flight to, from, or within Hawaii, we take note. Gratefully, both of these on American Airlines flights from Honolulu were resolved without harm. These also brought to mind the incident on United Airlines Hawaii flight Denver headed to Honolulu that took place just over one month ago. In that one, a dangerous engine failure occurred a half-hour after departure at 23K feet. The plane returned to Denver and made an emergency landing with no injuries reported.
AA Honolulu to Los Angeles flight incident.
An American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles returned to HNL with 199 passengers aboard their Airbus A321. As reported by the Aviation Herald, this occurred last month and was previously unreported. The crew noted at about 5K feet that “Their flaps had not retracted.” In addition, there was a potential airspace conflict that arose with another plane. It appears that the American Airlines crew received heading information which put them in parallel with private aircraft. When they reported to air traffic control, that issue was subsequently resolved. The flight landed safely in Honolulu.
Another plane was summoned, and the passengers arrived in Los Angeles following the delay. The plane can be seen flying over the water off of Honolulu, according to this from FlightAware.
AA Honolulu to Chicago flight incident.
Unrelated, another American Airlines flight, this one from Honolulu to Chicago, when the crew asked for and received permission for an emergency landing. AA flight 74 diverted to Los Angeles after a tire pressure warning, according to the FAA. That occurred on the March 27 flight.
Kudos to American Airlines for their handling of these issues.
Were you on either of these flights? We’d love to hear from you.
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Late last month we were to fly to Seattle from Kona. Our “tun-around” plane had a mechanical issue (undefined) that delayed us for 3 hours. Finally, we were put on the San Jose plane and they could wait for ours to be fixed. Once onboard, the pilot told us that a fire/smoke sensor in one engine was broken and a part was apparently being flown in to replace it.
Good thing we’re flying Southwest Airlines then. Oh wait… we’re also flying American round trip transcontinental. Glad I have no next of kin.
Not sure I would rate Southwest as safer than AA. I seem to remember a pax dying after almost being sucked out of a window.
I’m flying to Maui this Saturday on Southwest. Have always flown Alaska but they have discontinued their direct flights. Got my Covid test through City Health in Sacramento. Such a great operation. Easy to schedule through the website. Easy to make changes if necessary. Drive through testing and everyone was friendly and professional. I was told to expect results in around 48 hours but they were on my phone the next morning when I woke up. I was quite impressed!
On May16,2017 a similar problem happened on our American Airlines flight leaving from Honolulu. We took off and flew for what seemed to be about an hour and a half. Then we get an announcement from the cockpit that there is an indicator light on and we were returning to Honolulu. We were met at the airport by several fire trucks, but that was a precaution because we were landing heavy with so much fuel. It was 3 days later before we finally were able to get on a flight home. American put all the passengers up, at their expense, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel and everyone was given a food allowance for their stay.
I won’t fly on the Airbus 321Neo to Hawaii ever again. Horrible experience with Hawaiian Air and that plane. Same kind of over the water issues with mechanical stuff…Way too many of these reports are about the A321Neo…..Bad design or lousy maintenence crews.
Luckily, the 737-MAX isn’t certified to fly over water.
I wouldn’t get on the 737MAX if you paid me!!!!!
I totally agree. I always choose Boeing wide body flights on AA. Stopped connecting at LAX and use DFW or ORD. Never been a Fan of Airbus. Used to amuse me that the cabin crews of several European airlines called them Scarebuses. My last two trips were B773 (seat 1A) and B789 (seat 1a). Both were fantastic flights. The use of narrow body equipment to Hawaii or TATL does not suit me at all. For short flights like inter island the narrow bodies like the Hawaiian B717 are great but not 7-8 hours