CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We don't often hear about emergency landings. So after a Delta Air Lines flight landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport without its nose gear Wednesday morning, WCNC Charlotte wanted to look into the data and see how often incidents like this occur at Charlotte Douglas.
WCNC Charlotte looked at 10 years' worth of Federal Aviation Administration data that included incidents and accidents at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and found from 2013 to today, the FAA reported 16 incidents with commercial airliners.
It seems like a small number, so WCNC Charlotte wanted to see how Charlotte compares to other airports.
OUR SOURCES:
WHAT WE FOUND:
Charlotte Douglas had around 23 million travelers in and out of the airport in 2022 and is in the top 10 most traveled airports in the country. Over the last decade, there have been 16 incidents or accidents involving commercial airliners, according to FAA data.
WCNC Charlotte reviewed each incident, and these do vary. A few were medical attention calls in which the plane had to return to the airport. There were a couple of bird strikes with damage to the aircraft reported upon take off. One cabin window blew out during landing, and one incident WCNC Charlotte reported on in 2017 was when a plane struck a deer while taking off.
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With 16 incidents over 10 years, how does Charlotte Douglass compare with other large airports?
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the most traveled airport in 2022 in the U.S., with 45 million passengers, almost double the Charlotte total. When WCNC Charlotte looked at Atlanta's commercial incidents and accidents, only three were reported in the past decade.
WCNC Charlotte also examined JFK International Airport in New York and found 14 incidents in the last 10 years involving commercial aircraft.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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