Boeing Cargo Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Miami After 'Engine Malfunction' (nytimes.com) 29
A Boeing cargo plane headed for Puerto Rico was diverted Thursday night after taking off from Miami International Airport because of engine trouble, according to an official and flight data. From a report: Atlas Air Flight 5Y095 landed safely after experiencing an "engine malfunction" shortly after departure, the airline said early Friday. It was unclear what kind of cargo the plane was carrying. Data collected by FlightAware, a flight tracking company, showed the aircraft was a Boeing 747-8 that left its gate at Miami International at 10:11 p.m. on Thursday and returned to the airport about 50 minutes later. The website also showed that the plane traveled 60 miles in total. Reuters adds: The Atlas Air Flight 5Y095 was on its way to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Miami International Airport on late Thursday evening. The pilot made a Mayday call around 0333 GMT to report an engine fire and requested to return back to the airport, according to multi-channel recordings of conversations between the air traffic control and the plane available on liveatc.net. "We have a engine fire," one of the plane crew said, disclosing that there were five people on board.
Don't jump to conclusions (Score:3)
Re:Don't jump to conclusions (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly, don't jump to conclusions.
It could be the result of a bird strike, ground (or flight!) crew error, or any number of "routine" hazards outside the control of Boeing or maintenance personnel.
(I should also point out that Boeing is _not_ the manufacturer or maintenance of the engines; I think those are exclusively GE's GEnx on the 747-8)
Re: (Score:2)
There's a decent chance this is maintenance and not manufacturing related. Still, it could be either and is still negligent.
This, but we should wait until the report to determine the cause. Could be anything, point is that the plane made it safely onto the ground. I suspect it's quite an old B744 which complicates matters.
Re: 60 miles in total. (Score:4, Insightful)
Today we learn what averages are. It left the gate at 10:11, it still has to taxi, get clearance, and take off. That could be another 15 minutes. The rotation (liftoff) speed is around 170 knots or 180mph. Landing is usually 150 knots or 160mph for the last 5 miles. I will let you perform the correct math to figure out the average speed of the plane
Re:60 miles in total. (Score:5, Funny)
Can it land at the Walmart parking lot too?
Yes, but only once.
Re: (Score:2)
The vertical loads of a landing aircraft are pretty substantial - particularly one with a payload on board, and tanks loaded to the start of the planned flight (plus safety margins).
Getting the aircraft back to a repair facility ... a challenge. The bulk of the wings are removable, so have them off. The engines come of even more easily, before you attack the wings. Ditto remove large parts of the tail assembly. The rest - between half and 2/3 of the aircraft's weight -
Could have been many things (Score:3, Informative)
Before everyone flies off the handle at Boeing, consider the following:
1) There are any number of things that can cause an engine fire, including bird ingestion, foreign object ingestion, etc, that are NOT the result of lack of maintenance or a manufacturing defect
2) Boeing does not make aircraft engines. The Engines on the 747-8 are made by GE.
3) It is up to the Airline, not Boeing, to ensure that engines are maintained according to GE's requirements.
Re:Could have been many things (Score:4, Interesting)
I find it funny that two of the first three replies are jumping to Boeing's defense, and nobody's really accusing Boeing of anything. What a weird world we live in.
Re: (Score:2)
The title makes it seem like it's another Boeing issue.
Re: (Score:2)
The title makes it seem like it's another Boeing issue.
The media are a bunch of flame-stoking hacks. That should be the real story.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes and No (Score:1)
This on its own would be a (more or less) non-event. Engines fail from time to time, and planes land because of it - it happens. No one dies, and apart from adding several hours to their journeys, not much to report by the passengers. This was cargo, so no passengers to even tweet about it.
However, it's Boeing - their goose is pretty well cooked at this point, and the great galactic chef if just basting it a few last times before taking it out of the oven. Dodgy metaphors aside, the media is circling around
Crap reporting (Score:2)
If just one of these news sources bothered to get the tail number of the aircraft, either from a picture of the plane or from someone with an upgraded Flightaware account, the age of the aircraft could be determined from the FAA lookup database.
It is possibly a manufacturing problem if the plane was the last one ever produced, which was bought by Atlas Air, and is just under a year old. It is very unlikely to be a manufacturing problem if the aircraft is a dozen years old and the engines have been overhaule
Re: (Score:2)
AgTiger posted a link to LiveATC in another thread [slashdot.org]. It was an Atlas Air aircraft, manufactured in 2015.
Re: (Score:2)
For those who don't know their aviation TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms - a simplified form of QCAWs(footnote)), an alternative spelling is "Concorde".
(footnoteQCAW - Quarto-Character Abbreviated Words.)
Story, ASN Incident report, Radio Traffic links (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Just noticed I forgot to trim the PHP session ID from the LiveATC forum link. Not sure if that will work for others, so here is a corrected link: LiveATC forum post (try 2) [liveatc.net]
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I remember watching Top Gun with my uncle. His main gripe about the aircraft scenes was how panicky and talky the pilots were over the radios.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And it was probably not the first time he'd experienced an actual engine loss in the ascent phase. They are relatively common. And minor. I've sat (seat-belted, of course) t
Re: (Score:2)
Boeing does not make engines (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
The plane is young, engines are GE (Score:2)
The plane is relatively young, was delivered ~ 8 years ago. The engines are GEnx type. Only type alowed for this variation of the 747.
While the probability is high that this is related to either bad maintenance or defects in the engine itself, is not a good look for American manufacturing or technical prowess.
Having said that, the article is clickbaity, as it puts boeing front and centre, from the title onwards, when in reality, atlas air and/or GE are the most likely culprits.
So what? (Score:2)
So what? This is a daily occurrence and affects Airbus as well as other mfrs all the time.
low hanging fruit (Score:2)
this happens every day, all over the world. It's only front page news because it has "Boeing" in the name. Likely this airframe is older than the karma whore who posted it.
complete nothingburger.