A Boeing 747-400 with 468 people aboard was forced to make an emergency landing in Indonesia on Wednesday after one of its engines caught fire and began shooting out flames during takeoff.
The Garuda Indonesia flight was bound for Medina, Saudi Arabia, which is the entry point for many Muslims making their pilgrimage to Mecca. It left from Indonesia’s international airport in Makassar, where clips showed one of the plane’s four engines becoming engulfed in flames during takeoff on Wednesday evening.
Videos of the engine fire were shared online by JACDEC, a plane crash data evaluation firm, which showed that the flames began just as the plane had lifted from the runway.
The last 747-400 passenger plane rolled off the production line in 2005. This is either going to be a maintenance issue or the engine ingesting debris or a bird, not faulty construction. Boeing doesn’t even make the engines, it’s either GE, Pratt & Whitney, or Rolls Royce, depending on the original owner’s preference.
Garuda has an abysmal safety record. I’m banking it wasn’t a design or production issue with the 747.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Garuda_Indonesia_incidents_and_accidents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia#European_ban_(2007–2009)
There’s about 100,000 flights a day in the world. Until very recently Boeing was the largest provider of commercial aircraft, and it’s still second largest next to airbus. It’s basically a duopoly with those two manufacturers providing the vast majority of planes. Even with the small rate of accidents, with so many flights every day involving Boeing planes there’s going to be a few.
Editors know anything relating to an airline accident and Boeing right now will get lots of clicks, they just throw that it’s a Boeing aircraft in the headline, then bury relevant facts indicating there’s really no way this could have anything to do with Boeing quality control in the article. And many of these are about events that happen from time to time anyways but wouldn’t normally make any sort of splash in the international news media, so suddenly it feels like you’re being bombarded with Boeing news. If the headline writer put GE or Rolls Royce airplane engine fire due to likely accidental bird collision, or Garuda Indonesia airline repair standards are subpar or something, it wouldn’t get any clicks.
Ok but how does this stuff keep happening to Boeing planes?
Shit happens to lots of planes. You just hear about the Boeing ones because reporting on them is in vogue.
I recently set up FlightRadar24 to alert me whenever a plane anywhere in the world starts squawking 7700, the emergency code. It’s REMARKABLE how often it happens. At least a few times per day, it seems like. There are well over 100,000 flights every day, and occasionally stuff goes wrong.
(And yet, whenever a fatal commercial air incident occurs it’s global news, because those are still exceptionally rare.)
Why would it being a maintenance problem make it any better at all?
“Don’t worry guys, the planes aren’t inherently defective, we’re just not maintaining them correctly!”
Super comforting.
This is another article that claimed a jet engine burst into flames, when all that happened was an engine surge. The engine didn’t catch fire, the engine did the jet version of a backfire, and only once during the takeoff roll.
But but but muh clicks! Muh ad revenue!! Who the hell cares about my affect on society!? I need muh clicks!
I’d personally say it was useful. It’s a commentary on the article itself about the problem. Yes, Boeing has a HUGE problem lately, but is it actually worse than any other flying plane or jet manufacturer or is media hyping some of it up more because of recent events?
I haven’t looked, but I would love to see stats of incidents of each airline compared to their entire running fleet. It may be like crimes per capita where yes there may be a lot reported, but really minor and small compared to the inventory actually flying.
Is this an airline problem? A build problem? I am not an aviation aficionado so I honestly have no clue. I am not saying let Boeing off the hook for the shit they’ve pulled, but I want to know more in general about the aviation industry and safety.
Improper maintenance or birdstrike I’d assume
- Bird in for service
Bird mechanic sucks teeth: well, the wings are out of alignment and some cowboy’s got the quack valve out of alignment. I can fix it, but it isn’t going to be cheep. Mind you, if you fly it like this you’re likely to have a nasty accident.
Customer: I know your tricks! Stop trying to up-sell me. I only brought it in for a beak polish. I’m going and I’m going to leave a bad review on twitter!
Bird takes off, immediately veers into the path of a plane, which promptly bursts into flames.
Bird mechanic: Told you.
Or a surge: https://youtu.be/8D5AqAxE330 ( title one the video is wrong)
Bird ingestion, or other foreign object damage can cause engine surges. Youtube video shows a 757 surging immediately after a bird strike. Looks very similar to the footage of this incident.
The 757’s engine continues to surge during the climbout. The footage linked by this article only shows the takeoff roll.
Looks like the last passenger 747-400 was made in 2005. I think I’m willing to give Boeing a pass on this one. I get the feeling that Boeing personnel probably haven’t been anywhere near this plane in at least five, maybe ten years.
Indonesian air travel has been notorious for incidents over recent decades. Each of the country’s airlines were banned over E.U. and U.S. airspace in 2007 but were reinstated in 2016 and 2018. Since then, Garuda has joined the SkyTeam airline alliance, which includes North American carriers Delta Air Lines and Aeroméxico.
Maybe all of the passengers are whistle blowers…
