A CRJ-900 was descending as normal to its destination when the crew declared an emergency, stating that a passenger’s phone had caught fire. They planned to evacuate the aircraft after landing. The airport postponed departures to accommodate the emergency. The aircraft landed safely on an inactive runway, then they vacated the runway, came to a stop and shut down the engines on a taxiway. The crew told the passengers that they would disembark normally and requested busses to take them to the terminal. The runway reopened about 20 minutes after landing.
An Airbus A320, with 113 people on board, was cruising at FL350 when the crew was informed by airport authorities on the ground, that there was a luggage irregularity. They didn’t know how, but a piece of luggage was able to get onboard the aircraft without its owner. Jet fighter aircraft were sent to accompany the aircraft back to its airport of origin where it landed safely about 25 minutes later. The aircraft was searched but no explosives were found.
The first thing to know about the A320neo is that the ‘neo’ means, new engine option. The engines are more efficient on the A320neo, but that’s not the only thing that’s different. The plane is lighter and has aerodynamic improvements. It has larger curved winglets and bigger overhead storage bins. It also has nine more seats on the aircraft than the current A320 which means that the A320neo consumes 20% less fuel per seat.
Of course, Airbus is also building the A319neo, which has four more seats and the A321neo, which has twenty more seats than the current version. The maiden flight for A320neo was on September 25th 2014 in Toulouse, France, but Airbus started the planning for this plane in 2006 as an enhanced version of A320. They planned improvements to the engines and other parts of the plane. They created new winglets, now called ‘sharklets’, which they started to use in 2012.
The most obvious change to the cabin is the larger overhead storage bins for passengers and (optionally) the ability to change the colour of the cabin lighting. There are also improvements to the air purification system, and weight reductions in the galley.
So far, Airbus has more than 3,000 orders for the aircraft and it might become their best selling aircraft ever. The company hopes to deliver over 4,000 A320neos over 15 years and it is already the fastest selling commercial plane in history.
Exercise
To practice your speaking, you should try to talk about the new A320neo for between 60 – 90 seconds. Record yourself speaking and listen to it. Can you hear any simple mistakes that you know are incorrect? Try recording it again, did you improve your speaking the 2nd time?
A Boeing 737-800, with 111 people on board, began its preparations for takeoff as normal. While it was climbing out of its airport of origin the crew stopped the climb after reaching FL100 because there was leaking water on the cabin floor. The passengers reported this to the flight attendants and the pilots decided to return to their airport of origin as a precaution.
A 747-400, was climbing out of its airport of origin when the crew noticed something strange. They stopped the climb at FL130 for about 15 minutes, then continued the climb to FL220, then entered a hold for another 20 minutes. The captain decided to return to their airport of origin due to problems with the flaps. The aircraft descended and entered another hold. After that it begin a high-speed approach to land. It touched down on the runway at about 50 knots faster than normal, but was able to roll out safely. Emergency services were positioned close to the runway but weren’t needed.
A Fokker 100, with 97 people on board, was on approach to its destination when the left main gear didn’t extend properly. As a result, the crew decided to abort the approach and enter a holding pattern to consider their options. They tried to lower the gear a few more times but they weren’t able to, and eventually they decided to perform a partial gear up landing. Their approach was normal, but after the plane touched down it veered to the right and onto the grass. It stopped about 50m onto the grass. There were 5 minor injuries and 3 serious injuries, non of the flight crew were injured but the plane was substantially damaged.
