Boeing 747 makes emergency landing in Florida after ‘engine malfunction’

A Boeing cargo airliner made an emergency landing in Florida on Thursday night after what its operator called “an engine malfunction” occurred shortly after takeoff, in the latest setback for the beleaguered company. A gaping hole where a paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Sunday 7 January 2024 Boeing opens factories to airlines and adds more checks after blowout Read more

Video taken by an eyewitness and posted to social media showed the 747-8 aircraft trailing flames and sparks from its left wing as it circled back to land at Miami international airport at about 10.30pm.

The operator, New York-based Atlas Air, said the plane “experienced an engine malfunction soon after departure”. Its crew of five “followed all standard procedures and safely returned” to the airport, it said in a statement, adding it would conduct a “thorough inspection to determine the cause”.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday it would be investigating the incident, adding that the eight-year-old Boeing 747-8 aircraft was heading for Puerto Rico. Its preliminary report stated that an inspection after the flight had landed revealed a “softball-sized hole” above one of its four engines, but did not specify when or how it occurred.

The plane, colloquially known as a jumbo jet, is equipped with four General Electric GEnx engines. The pilot reported a fire in the left wing engine closest to the fuselage, according to cockpit audio of the emergency call.

squirrelwithnut,

All of these airplane malfunction stories coming out in recent weeks are exactly the thing I wanted to see leading up to my flight tomorrow for the first real vacation I’ve had since before COVID. Thanks Universe.

hperrin,

Just remember that the drive to the airport is more risky than the flight.

ivanafterall,
ivanafterall avatar

Like my dad would always say loudly while waiting in line for rollercoasters, "It's crazy to think about how these things are built by the lowest-bidder, isn't it?"

HappycamperNZ,

You can watch mentor pilot on YouTube - the safety process and investigations will make you feel much better :)

OceanSoap,

Yeah, heading to Ireland in February. Bit nervous for this go.

mlg,
@mlg@lemmy.world avatar

Don’t worry if it’s an Airbus (highly possible) or maybe a smaller jet like Bombardier, you have nothing to worry about.

Otherwise if it’s a Boeing, gg no re lol

Cylusthevirus,
Cylusthevirus avatar

Hey, it'll be ok. Let me show you a reassuring article. https://simpleflying.com/2023-aviation-safety/

It was actually a pretty safe year for aviation. Yeah, there have been problems, but you're more likely to be inconvenienced than anything. Hope you have an excellent vacation!

NegativeInf,

Listen to some Alanis Morissette to calm your nerves.

HappycamperNZ,

You’re not nice

Tremble,

Isn’t it ironic?

Pacmanlives, (edited )

I wonder if this is a bird strike. Engines on those planes are actually really well made. They just doing like when they suck in a bird into their spinning turbines at 10-25k rpm’s. Also happens at take off and landing more often

youtu.be/619fct0KTPI?si=tPuYetQMzMYGm0A6

wahming,

What is with the first paragraph of the summary?

crystalmerchant,

Looks like OP copy pasted the article including the photo text and their captions. I bet the last two sentences of the first paragraph are a photo caption

Potatos_are_not_friends,

I’m doing my part. I rescheduled all my flights involving 747s.

Surprisingly, when I talked to customer service, they said, “Absolutely understandable” as if they’ve been getting called left and right.

riodoro1,

How many have you had scheduled?

Noedel,

I thought the 737 max 9 was the fishy one?

spider, (edited )

Have a look at this:

ED PIERSON

Former Boeing 737 Program Senior Manager

Director, Foundation for Aviation Safety

GiddyGap,

Not a good few years for Boeing.

Space_Racer,
@Space_Racer@lemm.ee avatar

To be fair, the engines are usually made by General Electric or Rolls Royce.

GiddyGap,

Sure, but they were still on a Boeing aircraft.

Space_Racer,
@Space_Racer@lemm.ee avatar

Tell me you know nothing about aviation management without telling me you know nothing about aviation management.

Imagine blaming your car manufacturer for a flat tire when you hit a pothole or something. Or you didn’t pay attention to the tire pressure light.

Engine failure could be caused by ingesting things or poor maintenance. There’s zero chance Boeing has anything to do with it.

Smoogs,

Few? Add to that The max was also grounded a few more years during Covid and not because of pandemic reasons.

NigelFrobisher,

The only reason you’d land in Florida.

shalafi,

So is this like the train derailment thing that blew up last year? In other words, a common event that’s overreported due to a single story kicking it off?

I’m guessing it’s not unusual, given thousands and thousands of daily flights, that some planes have to go to ground for safety reasons. LOL, don’t know about engine fires though. That video is pretty dramatic!

Frozengyro,

Returning for issues is common, engines malfunctions with flames shooting out is very uncommon.

shalafi,

Heh, I gathered that. Wild video caught on this one.

Rivalarrival,

Watch some videos on the RealATC or VASAviation channels on YouTube.

Yes, mechanical emergencies are fairly common, but are rarely serious enough to cause significant danger.

homesweethomeMrL,

Train infrastructure being dilapidated and railroad engineers being forced to work in unsafe conditions so the company can make even more profit and corporations destroying the environment - are not overreported.

It’s ah, y’know. Still going on. No, uh, no news.

shalafi,

C’mon, you know what I mean. After that disastrous derailment in Ohio (2023), every single derailment was front page news, no matter how minor. And then news and social media just dropped it because we got saturated.

Merely pointing that out means I approve of all this!

Is that what you wish? Report every issue with everything, everywhere, all the time? Because people will burn out and not care.

Reporting is akin to political capital. You only have so much to spend, yet people want to fight for ALL the things.

Rivalarrival,

ATC communication from this incident

1stTime4MeInMCU,

Thank you. Everyone is very calm lol

Rivalarrival, (edited )

Yeah, losing an engine is not uncommon. Pilots train for much more serious issues than losing the left inboard engine of a lightly-loaded 4-engine aircraft in calm, clear weather.

Here’s a similar situation from awhile back, where the pilot felt the situation didn’t even warrant an “emergency” declaration.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

Isn’t there a requirement that aircraft have to be able to make an unpowered landing?

Rivalarrival,

Definitely.

There’s various ways to do it. Most large aircraft have a tiny turbine engine in the tail called an Auxiliary Power Unit they can turn on to provide power and hydraulic pressure to control the plane in the event all engines are lost.

Even if they don’t have an APU available, all large aircraft have a Ram Air Turbine, which is basically a windmill that pops out of the fuselage. The RAT spins in the airstream, providing power and hydraulic pressure.

Read up on the “Gimli Glider” and “Cactus 1549” for two prominent examples of jets becoming gliders.

HobbitFoot,

It is easy to lose one engine when you’ve got three more.

JustZ, (edited )

Oh well there’s the problem right there, the engine is spraying out flames.

E: Wow that’s really burning. Any pilots know why it seems so on fire? Why didn’t the fire extinguishers work?

Tremble,

I’m no engineer but it’s probably got something to do with the softball sized hole in the engine near the fuselage. And I think you’re right about the flames that are spraying out being part of the problem. I mean it looks cool, but it can’t be safe to fly your plane around like that.

shalafi,

Critically, is the hole from something punching in or out?

HappycamperNZ,

I would assume out as there aren’t many frozen turkeys that far up

FiskFisk33, (edited )

I’d say that’s quite likely to be a turbine blade punching out, whatever the initial reason for the failure was.

Tremble,

Most likely. Great observation.

AFLYINTOASTER,

This guy is definitely an experienced engineer. Nobody else dodges bullshit like this.

FiskFisk33,

not an expert either, but I dont think the hole nor the flames are supposed to be there

theyoyomaster,

It depends on what causes the fire. There is a shutoff valve at the top of the pylon that should cut fuel and hydraulic lines to prevent anything combustible going into it. If the fire is caused by a fuel issue outside of that, such as a leak above the valve, the halon will not be able to extinguish it. The halon also discharges into the cowling so if the cowling is compromised it can’t extinguish it, or if the fire is inside the core or in the tailpipe it won’t make a difference. Finally, it’s designed so that in the worst case that pylon will simply burn clean off the wing leaving the rest of the plane and 3 other engines to continue flying. If I had a fire like that in a mountainous region I wouldn’t even touch the fire handle until after I get to a safe altitude. So long as the engine is producing thrust the fire spitting out behind it doesn’t really concern me that much for a short while.

HappycamperNZ,

Gotta love sacrificial parts

Burning, multi ton engine falling from the sky is indefinitely safer than the other 3 and the attached passanger plane coming down, but sucks to be the person it hits.

theyoyomaster,

If it’s somewhere I need the trust for climb gradient it’s unlikely to land on anything important. A small chance of one tragedy is far better than a large chance of another.

HappycamperNZ,

Oh, im not being sarcastic.

Like how the mounting bolts are designed in such a way the engine falls off without taking the important parts of the wing with it - sucks to be on the receiving end but it beats the shit out of the other options.

Buddahriffic,

If you see a plane having issues in the sky, try to move away perpendicular to its path. If it goes down, it’ll be hard to predict where it will end up since it can change direction as it dives, but anything falling off of it should generally follow its inertia. Though with thrusters, if there’s even a bit of thrust still when it detaches, it can also wildly change its momentum.

Another thing to remember is that if something is falling but it doesn’t look like it’s moving, it’s falling towards you. Again, move to the side and keep going until it looks like it is drifting to one side or another. Odds are very low that it will hit you even if you stand still, but that can help your odds if that makes you feel any better about it.

HappycamperNZ,

Oh, being hit by an aircraft engine is one of those thing where if it happens - sorry the universe was involved in that one. My tombstone would probably say something like “doesn’t like planes as much as he used to” or “here lies most of happy camper and a turbine blade we think has a smear or two”.

ivanafterall,
ivanafterall avatar

What the hell.

TransplantedSconie,

Gotta get the shareholders profits up. Fuck safety. Safety cost money and money goes to the shareholders.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

That’s not how commercial aviation works.

maynarkh,

It shouldn’t, but it seems it does for Boeing, hence news. That said, I expect Boeing failures to be overreported for a while now.

Space_Racer,
@Space_Racer@lemm.ee avatar

Boeing doesn’t make the engines.

Rivalarrival,

It’s a GE engine, maintained by Atlas Air, and the whole thing could be explained by ingesting a bird or drone.

Gonna have to rule out a lot of more likely suspects to lay this at Boeing’s feet.

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