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.

  • @shalafi
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    -411 months ago

    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!

    • Optional
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      1311 months ago

      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
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        010 months ago

        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.

    • @Frozengyro
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      1211 months ago

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

      • @shalafi
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        010 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      310 months ago

      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.