In just the past week, Allegiant and Allegiant spokeswoman, Kim Schaefer, have made the following statements from just a handful of the stories I've read. I can't help but wonder if Kim gets tired of this, or if she even believes the things she says anymore.

"While we regret the inconvenience to the passengers on these … flights, Allegiant would like to emphasize these decisions were made in the interests of their safety, and we stand by the decisions of our professional pilots and crew in these matters," said Allegiant spokeswoman Kim Schaefer. "Allegiant is a very safe airline."

"Out of abundance of caution, an emergency was declared and the aircraft landed safely at [Jacksonville International]," said Allegiant in an email.

The airline said in an e-mail to NBC 10 News that "Allegiant is a very safe airline. We have robust internal and external auditing programs and are investing heavily in new training programs and technologies that are industry leading."

"An email from Allegiant says 'an in-flight emergency was never declared', but officials at Hector Airport say 'an emergency was declared and responders were put on alert.'"

Interestingly, this story got very little attention, but four of the five emergencies have been out of SFB:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/former-allegiant-air-mechanic-says-passengers-should-be-concerned-with-airlines-safety

And of course, there's this:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/allegiant-air-had-five-emergency-landings-out-of-florida-during-holiday/2259958

 

None of the news agencies have picked up on the engine failure and divert to GJT.

 

Plus, word on the line is the SBN divert required an engine change. When they ran the airplane up, the OTHER engine shat the bed and also required a change. So, the same airframe required two new engines on virtually the same day. Gives me the chills if this has any truth to it...

 

Yeah but now odds are....no more engine problems if you're lucky enough to be flying that one for the day.

I worked for a company called Grand Air Express for 3 months one summer back in the late 90's. I was hired to fly the Piper Aerostar. We called it the lawn dart. The year before I got there, they had 7 engine failures on 6 airplanes. Being the math whiz I am, I figured I was even safer than I otherwise would be because over 50% of the engines were brand new.

 

Wow. Insane if true. Probably is.

 

The SBN flight was not a diversion. It was a regular flight that had deiced and, from what I was told, had problems because freezing rain/icing built up on the engines before takeoff. When they ran the engine up ice was ingested and damaged the engines.

Always more to the story guys. Not as sensational as the news media and/or message boards makes it sound.

 

That seems far-fetched.

 

Seems to me all the issues we have with freezing rain year after year would create a policy not to fly when it is forecast.

 

Soooo,...between the time deicing was complete and take off, the intakes puddled that much ice from freezing rain? With engines running? Not likely. Must've been the single engine taxi in those long JFK-like takeoff lines SBN is so famous for. 🤔

Or maybe it was the cheap fly-by-night vendor G4 used to de-ice? Sounds like they forgot to check the inlets for Ice accumulated prior to deice, when the freezing rain was actually coming down. I wonder how many similar incidents happened that day up the road at O'Hare?

Good thing this crew had their act together and aborted. This same thing happened years ago in PIA after an overnight. Aborted takeoff after both engines compressor stalled because of ice ingestion. Those pilots saved the company too. Seems G4 management will never learn. Maybe they should stick to solar deicing 😂

 

Takeoff into freezing rain classified greater than light is prohibited at any airline.