Emergency Crews Answer Calls at O'Hare 3 Times a Week

To passengers, they can be unnerving. To pilots and firefighters, they are fairly routine.

At least three or four times a week on flights bound for O'Hare Airport, emergencies are called by pilots during flight, bringing fire trucks and ambulances to the runway area as a precaution. Almost always, the plane lands safely.

In 2006, there were 177 of these emergency calls -- known as "stand-bys" when they occur during flight and "emergency alerts" when they happen on the ground -- according to figures provided by the Chicago Fire Department.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said stand-bys and emergency alerts "happen more often than people think," but they represent a small fraction of the more than 900,000 flights O'Hare handles each year.

The frequency and nature of stand-bys vary considerably from year to year, along with the age and type of aircraft involved, since pilots have the discretion to declare an emergency, fire and Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

Reported problems range from blown tires and cracked windshields to lightning strikes and engine malfunctions. Yet, faulty indicator lights can often alert pilots to problems that don't exist. Even so, flight crews are trained to err on the side of caution.

WIRING OFTEN TO BLAME

"Safety always comes down to prudence," said Capt. Terry McVenes, a US Airways pilot and spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association. "It's a matter of calling the fire department when you smell smoke, instead of waiting for the house to burn down."

In fact, the smell or sight of smoke -- if not the activation of a fire indicator in the cockpit -- is one of the most common reasons stand-bys are called, data from the city's Aviation Department show.

There isn't always a fire to put out when firefighters inspect the plane. But when there is, wiring on the plane is usually to blame, said Norbert Diaz, the district fire chief for O'Hare and Midway airports.

The top reason pilots called an emergency in to air-traffic controllers at O'Hare this year was trouble with the plane's wing flaps. Next was engine malfunctions.

COMMON CAUSES:

Top reasons for emergency calls in 2006

Flap problems 26

Engine malfunction 18

Fire/smoke on the aircraft 17

Problems with hydraulics 12

Source: Chicago Department of Aviation

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.