Another Boeing engine catches fire, dropping parts over Netherlands and injuring 2
- The explosion on the 747 aircraft took place on the same day as a similar incident on a 777 model in the US
- One widely circulated photo of the destruction shows what appears to be a part of an engine blade wedged in the roof of a car
A Boeing 747 plane’s engine exploded in mid-air on Saturday over the Netherlands, dropping metal debris that injured two people, according to Dutch authorities.
The cargo plane operated by charter company Longtail Aviation, began experiencing engine problems shortly after it took off from the town of Maastricht in the Netherlands, bound for New York, CNN reported.
Witnesses heard explosions, and air traffic control informed the pilot that one of the plane’s engines was on fire. The plane scattered parts over the Dutch town of Meerssen, injuring two people and damaging property.
One widely circulated photo of the destruction shows what appears to be a part of an engine blade wedged in the roof of a car like a knife stuck in a block of butter.
The plane made an emergency landing at Liege Airport, in Belgium.
The Boeing 747-400 freighter was powered by a smaller version of the same engines on the United Airlines Boeing 777 involved in a similar incident in Denver, also on Saturday, in which an engine exploded on a United Airlines flight bound for Honolulu, raining debris on Denver suburbs.
However, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) the incident involving the 747 plane was unrelated to the 777 engine issue in the US.
Japan grounds Boeing 777s after US airline’s jet engine failure
EASA said that even though the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine type was the same in both aeroplanes the Boeing 777 “variant is very specific to this particular aircraft. Nothing in the failure and root analysis show any similarity (between the two incidents) at this stage.”
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered immediate stepped-up inspections of Boeing 777-200 aeroplanes equipped with those engines.
Following recommendations from Boeing, airlines in the US and Japan on Sunday grounded 777 aircraft using older Pratt & Whitney engines. All 777s built since 2004 are powered exclusively by GE-90 engines.
Two other engine blowouts, on a United flight three years ago and a Japan Airlines plane in December, have occurred on aircraft with the same Pratt & Whitney engine.
Boeing has only recently emerged from the nearly two-year grounding of its bestselling 737 MAX after fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
A Boeing spokesperson referred questions about the company’s 747 planes to the Dutch Safety Board and US National Transportation Safety Board, which are investigating the incident in the Netherlands.
Additional reporting by Reuters
