CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NBC Charlotte Defenders are looking into your safety in the sky.
Our team looked into the number of emergency landings at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. We found you’re more likely to deal with the frightening experience on some airlines over others.
Airport records show 133 emergency landings in 2016 and then 170 emergency landings in 2017. That’s roughly one every other day or one emergency landing out of every 1,600 landings.
The Defenders found one airline had more emergency landings than any other, but it’s not the one you may think.
On August 15, 2018, the pilot for American Airlines flight 1668 declared an emergency shortly after takeoff. Cell phone video appeared to show sparks coming from near the engine.
However, NBC Charlotte found American Airlines had a far lower rate of emergency landings than its regional carrier, PSA Airlines.
NBC Charlotte went through airport data from 2017. Out of roughly 105,000 arrivals, American Airlines had at least 43 emergency landings. That’s compared to at least 48 emergency landings for PSA Airlines, even though PSA had about 12,000 fewer flights.
“I was a little surprised to hear the sheer numbers,” said Dr. Jerre Hill who is a pilot and a UNCC professor of mechanical engineering.
NBC Charlotte showed Dr. Hill the data, which revealed some of the reasons for emergency landings. That ranged from blown tires to cracked windshields. Records also show on November 12, 2017, fumes in the cockpit sent four crew members on a PSA Airlines flight to the hospital.
“That’s one of my biggest fears. Fire. And I think any pilot would tell you the same thing,” said Dr. Hill.
NBC Charlotte did the math for several airlines at Charlotte Douglas. For American Airlines, there was about one emergency landing every 2,400 arrivals. For PSA Airlines, there was an emergency landing every 1,900 landings.
Our team also looked at emergency landings for Delta and United Airlines, which have far fewer overall flights. Delta had at least three emergency landings for about 6,000 arrivals, which is about one in 2,000. United had one emergency landing for roughly 1,300 arrivals.
“When you consider the amount of flying those guys do, I guess it's to be expected there are going to be some issues,” Dr. Hill told NBC Charlotte.
Fortunately, almost all the planes land safely and many of the issues end up being relatively minor. Dr. Hill said pilot training and airplane engineering is better than ever.
“Airlines these days are way more dependable, free from defects, and engine problems,” Dr. Hill said.
Thankfully, the passengers aboard American Airlines flight 1668 landed safely and now have a story to tell about it.
PSA Airlines released the following statement about the number of emergency landings at Charlotte Douglas International Airport:
PSA Airlines has an unwavering commitment to safety, which is at the forefront of every decision we make. Running a safe and reliable operation is the key to our success, and we are proud to have safely transported more than 14.2 million customers on more than 269,500 PSA flights in 2018. In Charlotte, PSA has one of the largest regional operations held by a single operator at any airport in the country. The majority of our emergency declarations in CLT are not a safety of flight issue and are attributed to false indications on our aircraft that only require a system reset. When these events arise, we follow standard FAA protocol and our pilots are trained to create the largest margin of safety. That may result in either the FAA or the crew declaring an emergency in order to acquire expedited handing and/or landing on the longest runway available.