Northwest Airlines - Incidents and Accidents - Non-fatal Accidents and Incidents

Non-fatal Accidents and Incidents

• November 24, 1971 (1971-11-24) – Northwest Airlines Flight 305 en route from Portland International Airport to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, was hijacked by D. B. Cooper. After receiving a $200,000 ransom payment and four parachutes in Seattle, he ordered the crew to fly to Mexico, and jumped from the aft airstairs of the Boeing 727–051 while it was in flight over Washington. The aircraft later landed safely in Reno, NV but Cooper's fate remains unknown.
• January 4, 1990 (1990-01-04) – Northwest Airlines Flight 5, a flight from Miami to Minneapolis, one of the three engines of the Boeing 727 aircraft fell off. The plane's crew, unaware that they had lost an engine, continued to fly for 25 minutes before making a safe landing in Tampa.
• March 8, 1990 (1990-03-08) – a Northwest flight flew from Fargo, North Dakota, to Minneapolis with the entire cockpit crew legally drunk. All three pilots were subsequently fired and had their licenses revoked by the FAA.
• November 20, 1992. A 727 lost hydraulic power and made an emergency landing in Detroit with only engines to steer the plane with.
• January 2, 1999 (1999-01-02) – (-Jan 3) due to bad weather and blizzards passengers were stranded on aircraft at Detroit for periods up to 8½ hours. An official inquiry found "... were serious and indicate that this event had important implications for passenger safety. Moreover, even if the well being of passengers had not been an issue, the review team believes that the stranding of passengers on aircraft queued on taxiways for up to 8½ hours invites more serious problems and is simply unacceptable. None of the other airlines serving Detroit experienced ground delays approaching the magnitude of Northwest's delays." Subsequently, passengers brought various legal claims against the carrier including false imprisonment and negligence and obtained a $7.1 million settlement.
• 2002 (2002) – On 9 October 2002, Northwest Airlines Flight 85, a Boeing 747–400, experienced a lower rudder hardover during cruise. The crew declared an emergency and diverted the airplane to Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.
• June 19, 2004 (2004-06-19) – pilots mistakenly landed at Ellsworth AFB instead of the nearby Rapid City airport. Passengers aboard were asked to close their window shades by US Air Force security personnel.
• June 19, 2005 (2005-06-19) – at 0435 in the morning Tehran local time, Northwest Airlines Flight 41, Ship No. 1243, operating from Bombay to Amsterdam made an emergency landing at the Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran. It was the first American air carrier to land in Iran in 26 years.
• August 19, 2005 (2005-08-19) – a Northwest Airlines 747-200, registration N627US, performing flight NW74 from Tokyo Narita Airport landed at Guam International Airport without its nosegear fully extended. The nose of aircraft made full contact with the runway. Smoke was reported onboard and all passengers and crew were evacuated, with only two minor injuries reported.
• October 20, 2007 (2007-10-20) – Northwest Airlines Flight 1432 executed an emergency landing at Hector International Airport in Fargo, North Dakota because the nose wheels had jammed in an abnormal position. There were no injuries onboard.
• February 20, 2009 (2009-02-20) – Northwest Airlines Flight 2, a Boeing 747–400 flying from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, to Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Japan, experienced severe turbulence when descending to Narita. All 408 passengers and 14 crew members landed safely; however, 50 people were injured; around five were hospitalized.
• May 4, 2009 (2009-05-04) – An Airbus A320-211, registration N311US, operated by Northwest Airlines as flight NW557, experienced a tailstrike resulting in substantial damage upon landing on runway 16L at Denver International Airport, Colorado (DEN). The flight was a regularly scheduled passenger flight which departed from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, Minnesota (MSP) at 11:39.
• October 21, 2009 (2009-10-21) – Northwest Airlines Flight 188, an Airbus A320, flying from San Diego International Airport to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport flew over the Minneapolis airport and continued to fly off course by 150 miles, leaving air traffic control to think the flight had been hijacked. The pilots originally stated they were in an argument regarding airline policy and did not notice that they had flown off course, but later admitted to having been using their personal laptop computers at the time. The pilots contacted air traffic control after they realized their mistake and arrived in safely Minneapolis about one hour late. The pilots' commercial flying licenses were subsequently revoked by the FAA.
• December 25, 2009 (2009-12-25) – a Nigerian al Qaeda member tried to detonate plastic explosives on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, an Airbus A330 from Amsterdam to Detroit, as the plane was landing in Detroit. The device failed to detonate properly, and the suspect suffered third degree burns. Two other passengers incurred minor injuries. The White House said it considered it an attempted terrorist attack.