United Airlines Boeing 777 lands safely in Denver after engine failure

[webfact]

United Airlines Boeing 777 lands safely in Denver after engine failure

By David Shepardson

 

United Airlines flight UA328, carrying 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, returns to Denver International Airport with its starboard engine on fire after it called a Mayday alert, over Denver, Colorado, U.S. February 20, 2021. Hayden Smith/@speedbird5280/Handout via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A United Airlines flight landed safely at Denver International Airport on Saturday after its right engine failed, the Federal Aviation Administration said, with dramatic images showing debris from the plane scattered on the ground.

 

The Boeing 777-200 plane, with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, was heading to Honolulu when it suffered an engine failure soon after takeoff, the airline said.

 

There were no reports of injuries, either on the plane or the ground.

 

Images posted by police in Broomfield, Colorado showed significant plane debris on the ground, including an engine cowling scattered outside a home and what appeared to be other parts in a field. Police tape was used to cordon off the debris.

 

One video taken from what appeared to be inside the United plane showed an engine on fire.

 

Another video on social media showed a cloud of black smoke being left by a plane.

 

A United Airlines flight bound for Honolulu suffered a right engine failure on Saturday shortly after departing Denver International Airport, scattering debris but returning safely to the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

 

"Something blew up," a man on the video can be heard saying.

 

In an audio recording, a United pilot could be heard making a mayday call to air traffic control.

 

"Mayday, aircraft just experienced engine failure, need to turn immediately," according to audio from the monitoring website liveatc.net which was reviewed by Reuters.

 

The FAA said it and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB said it had opened an investigation.

 

"If you find debris PLEASE don't touch it or move it. The @NTSB wants all debris to remain in place for investigation," the Broomfield police department said on Twitter.

 

The 26-year-old 777 was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. Investigators will focus on what caused the accident and will look at whether a fan blade failed.

 

Boeing said its technical advisers would assist the NTSB with its investigation, while United pledged to "work with federal agencies investigating this incident."

 

United said most of the passengers on Flight 328 took off on a new flight to Honolulu late Saturday.

 

Engine failures are rare but are potentially dangerous whenever rotating parts pierce the outer casing - an event known as an uncontained engine failure.

 

In February 2018, an older Boeing 777 operated by United and bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure when a cowling fell off about 30 minutes before the plane landed safely. The NTSB determined that incident was the result of a full-length fan blade fracture.

 

Because of the United fan blade separation incident, Pratt & Whitney, which is unit of Raytheon, reviewed inspection records for all previously inspected PW4000 fan blades, the NTSB said. The FAA in March 2019 issued a directive requiring initial and recurring inspections of the fan blades on the PW4000 engines.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Paul Simao and Gerry Doyle)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-22

 

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[bluesofa]

I'm glad everyone is safe.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by onthedarkside
off topic comment and disallowed social media video removed

[Tug]

The engine threw a compressor blade that took out one more Japan airlines are grounding all planes with the same engine American Airlines is doing the same glad there was no loss of life the aircraft remained under control a good design imo hope they were passing out new underwear after landing lol 

[meechai]

Something I hope we don't start seeing more of if/when many planes get back in the air after having been parked for so long

[jollyhangmon]

Apparently similar stunt just Saturday in the Netherlands ...

 

> ... Not a freak accident - 

Meanwhile, a similar incident, also involving a Boeing plane, took place on Saturday in the Netherlands.

Shortly after take-off from Maastricht Aachen Airport, a fire broke out in one of the plane's four engines, again causing debris to fall from the sky.

Several pieces of metal fell to the ground over Meerssen, a district in the north of Dutch city Maastricht ... <

 

https://www.dw.com/en/boeing-united-airlines-jet-debris-rains-on-us-suburb/a-56638669

 

[GinBoy2]

6 hours ago, jollyhangmon said:

Apparently similar stunt just Saturday in the Netherlands ...

 

> ... Not a freak accident - 

Meanwhile, a similar incident, also involving a Boeing plane, took place on Saturday in the Netherlands.

Shortly after take-off from Maastricht Aachen Airport, a fire broke out in one of the plane's four engines, again causing debris to fall from the sky.

Several pieces of metal fell to the ground over Meerssen, a district in the north of Dutch city Maastricht ... <

 

https://www.dw.com/en/boeing-united-airlines-jet-debris-rains-on-us-suburb/a-56638669

 

Please don't jump on to the 'it's a Boeing fault' bandwagon, they don't manufacture the engines, and the airlines choose the engines from either PW, GE or RR

 

This is an engine issue, for the 772 in Denver I think it's either a PW or GE engine, I don't think there is an RR option for the 777-200. For the 74X in the Netherlands it could be one of PW, GE or RR engines.

 

All that being said, the video of the incident in Denver was one of the scarier uncontained engine explosions I've seen

[Pique Dard]

 i read somewhere it isn't boeing fault, right because united airlines should check the engines on a regular basis, but they put profit ahead of passenger's security because they choose not to control the engines

[GinBoy2]

8 minutes ago, Pique Dard said:

 i read somewhere it isn't boeing fault, right because united airlines should check the engines on a regular basis, but they put profit ahead of passenger's security because they choose not to control the engines

Thats somewhat BS.

 

Engine maintenance is generally contracted out to the engine manufacturer, and there are very tight requirements to ensure that maintenance is conducted on schedule

 

None of us know yet what caused this very severe uncontained explosion yet.

 

It could have been some bird ingestion since it was at low altitude, or a fan blade failure, but we just don't know.

 

It was lucky that this happened at fairly low altitude, much higher and the debris could quite well have punctured the fuselage and then this might well have been far far more serious

[ozfarang]

Both the latest incidents, in Denver and Maastricht, the aircraft involved were powered by PW

[GinBoy2]

12 minutes ago, ozfarang said:

Both the latest incidents, in Denver and Maastricht, the aircraft involved were powered by PW

Yeah, I just read that the Denver event was a PW 4000-112, haven't seen much on the Maastricht event yet

[billd766]

18 minutes ago, Pique Dard said:

 i read somewhere it isn't boeing fault, right because united airlines should check the engines on a regular basis, but they put profit ahead of passenger's security because they choose not to control the engines

Do you have any idea how airlines carry out maintenance?

Before every flight the aircraft is inspected by specialist and qualified engineers of different trades.

The airframe gets a regular service according to the number of landings and hours flown, and the engines are treated on the number of hours running/flown.

 

If it was a turbine blade failure (and at this point nobody knows what happened) it could be a 3rd, 4th, 5th row blade which is difficult to see.

 

It could have been caused by a bird strike, a stone picked up on take off, even a small nut or bolt sheared off would cause damage like this.

 

Both engines will be removed from the aircraft under the close supervision of the NTSB, Boeing, the airline and the engine manufacturers to identify the cause.

 

This link may give you some idea.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Transportation_Safety_Board

 

[ozfarang]

Notam issued by Japan

 

 

EAD issued by the FAA

 

[ozfarang]

Some damage to the fuselage at the wing root.

 

[GinBoy2]

5 hours ago, ozfarang said:

Some damage to the fuselage at the wing root.

 

I saw that picture, and it is disturbing, but thankfully again since this was low altitude it didn't penetrate the main cabin.

 

This engine type has been in service for years which tends to make me think it's an ingestion failure, but then again I know KDEN and large birds aren't common and would have had to be a flock of something.

But looking at the picture the fanblade at the 6 o'clock position is clearly broken

 

But all that will be determined by the investigators. 

 

What I would say however is that the person who took that amazing video probably doesn't  realize how lucky he/she was that there wasn't a main cabin penetration

Edited February 22, 2021 by GinBoy2

[StevieAus]

On 2/22/2021 at 7:49 AM, meechai said:

Something I hope we don't start seeing more of if/when many planes get back in the air after having been parked for so long

What has being parked on the ground got to do with it.?

Read the post by Bild766 and perhaps you will have a better understanding...

Edited February 23, 2021 by onthedarkside
personal comment removed

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, StevieAus said:

What has being parked on the ground got to do with it.?

 

In the case of UA 328? No clue if that airframe was parked. Seen reports that 24 are in service and 28 are parked. If I had to guess N772UA as probably not parked, or at least not parke recently, but who knows?

 

At last four reported 737 incidents I think, last year.

 

Alaska Airlines ALK.N said one of its aircraft is likely one of the four incidents, noting a recent engine shutdown issue.

 

U.S. FAA issues emergency directive on 2,000 Boeing 737s parked in pandemic

 

WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday issued an emergency airworthiness directive for 2,000 U.S.-registered Boeing 737 NG and Classic aircraft, warning of possible corrosion on parked planes that could lead to a dual-engine failure.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737ng-idUSKCN24P1KS

 

 

Simply amazing no one on the ground was killed.

[John Drake]

The entire industry in the US is untrustworthy and dangerous. Garbage planes, from wheels to wings. Can't trust the avionics, the engines, or the fuselages. And sure as heck can't trust the airlines for high quality maintenance and supervision/training. Good to know that more H1B coders are on the way from India to Boeing, though.

[Captain Monday]

On 2/22/2021 at 10:19 AM, jollyhangmon said:

Apparently similar stunt just Saturday in the Netherlands ...

 

> ... Not a freak accident - 

Meanwhile, a similar incident, also involving a Boeing plane, took place on Saturday in the Netherlands.

Shortly after take-off from Maastricht Aachen Airport, a fire broke out in one of the plane's four engines, again causing debris to fall from the sky.

Several pieces of metal fell to the ground over Meerssen, a district in the north of Dutch city Maastricht ... <

 

https://www.dw.com/en/boeing-united-airlines-jet-debris-rains-on-us-suburb/a-56638669

 

A different type. The PW4000 is only on older 777 and has been flying in service since 1993 or so. 

[tgw]

19 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Please don't jump on to the 'it's a Boeing fault' bandwagon, they don't manufacture the engines, and the airlines choose the engines from either PW, GE or RR

 

This is an engine issue, for the 772 in Denver I think it's either a PW or GE engine, I don't think there is an RR option for the 777-200. For the 74X in the Netherlands it could be one of PW, GE or RR engines.

 

All that being said, the video of the incident in Denver was one of the scarier uncontained engine explosions I've seen

 

surely Boeing deserves some more years of that treatment after the badmouthing Americans have baselessly put Airbus through.

[Moonlover]

There's a more complete report in USA Today, which seems to confirm what I suspected. That this was the result of a fan blade failure as seen in the photograph earlier.

 

USA Today United flight 328 engine failure-boeing-777

Edited February 23, 2021 by onthedarkside
misinfo claim removed

[onthedarkside]

A misinformation claim and related reply have been removed.