Three SQ flights that could have run into bigger problems in June, July 2014

That was close.

Alfred Yeo| July 21, 12:19 PM

Following news of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced that its flights have been rerouted away from Ukrainian airspace.

According to SIA's spokesperson, she said that SIA is "no longer using the Ukrainian airspace and have re-routed all our flights to alternative flight paths that are away from the region". 

Based on information from flightradar24.com, a website that shows air traffic in real time, SIA took the same route as MH17 in the past week.

In fact, SIA had 75 flights that flew in the region of Donetsk last week, the second highest number of flights after Russian Airlines Aeroflot (86) and 1.5 times more flights than Malaysian Airlines (48).

Prior to this incident that has shocked the world and hogged headlines, SIA has had three close calls in the last two weeks -- that you probably didn't hear about in the news.

 

Here is a list of the four close calls, including the MH17 incident:

July 3, 2014: Near miss

On July 3, 2014, SQ61 had departed from Houston en-route to Moscow. The Boeing 777 had a near miss with an inbound Delta Airlines flight, coming within less than 600 metres of each other, causing the Delta Airline pilot to take evasive action. The incident is still under investigation.

 

July 16, 2014: Severe Turbulence

On July 16, 2014, a South African Airways plane en-route from Johannesburg to Hong Kong encountered severe turbulence over Kuala Lumpur. Airline spokesmen reported 20 injured, of which, three were critically injured.

Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Silk Air operate more than two dozen flights each day between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Last May, SQ308's brush with turbulence left 11 passengers injured and meals stuck to the ceiling. A repeat of that over Kuala Lumpur may have truly left Singapore Airlines crying over spilled milk.

 

July 16, 2014: Typhoon Rammasun

Also on July 16, 2014, as typhoon Rammasun wreaked havoc on the Philippines, a Singapore Airlines plane was grounded after hitting an aerobridge due to strong winds. The left wing and engine of the aircraft was damaged. Fortunately, no passengers or crew were on board.

 

July 17, 2014: Missile launcher 

MH17 carrying 298 people on board crashed over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, was believed to have been brought down by a missile fired by Russian separatists.

According to flightradar24.com, Singapore Airlines SQ351, also a Boeing 777 like MH17, en-route from Copenhagen to Singapore was just a mere 25km away from where MH17 disappeared off radar. In fact, two airlines (SQ351 and Air India AI113) were about 25km from MH17.

 

 

Top photo from Singapore Airlines Facebook page

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