Posted on 03/03/2005 11:06:24 PM PST by BurbankKarl
The same British Airways 747 that flew from Los Angeles to England on only three of its four engines had a repeat occurrence on its next round trip: It lost an engine en route from Singapore to London, but the crew continued, flying 11 hours with a dead engine.
British Airways said Flight 18 left Singapore with 356 passengers shortly after 11:35 p.m. local time on Friday and suffered an engine failure three-and-half hours into the flight. As in the Los Angeles incident, the crew communicated with the airline's operations center in London and decided to continue. About 11 hours later, the flight landed uneventfully at London's Heathrow Airport, only about 15 minutes late, a British Airways spokeswoman said.
"It's perfectly safe to fly with three engines," the spokeswoman, Diana Fung, said.
Many pilots and aviation experts have questioned whether it is prudent to fly a Boeing 747 over long distances after one engine fails, because it narrows the safety margin should something else go wrong. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it had "concerns" about the Los Angeles flight. Yesterday, an FAA spokesman, Les Dorr, said the agency is still investigating, as is the British Civil Aviation Authority.
On Feb. 19, British Airways Flight 268, with 351 passengers, lost its No. 2 engine as the jumbo jet lifted off from Los Angeles International Airport. Witnesses saw sparks flying out of the engine and heard loud pops.
The crew circled over Santa Monica Bay for about 20 minutes, then decided to continue the 5,450-mile trip across the Atlantic to London. By the time it got to England, the plane was running short on fuel and made an emergency landing in Manchester.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ping
"Witnesses saw sparks flying out of the engine and heard loud pops"
--> Come on folks, Nothing to see here, Move along!
What is the joke about twin-engine planes... that the first engine failure will take you all the way to the crash site.
Singapore to London, I've flown that several times. It would be a real bummer to attempt an emergency landing in Iran.
British Airways Ping
British Airways Action Attracts FAA Questions Washington Post ^ | March 1, 2005 | Sara Kehaulani Goo
Bump.
It is interesting that they lied about the mishap in England....the Boeing instruction is that if you are an hour into the flight, and have attained cruising altitude, you could continue.....wonder how this latest incident will be reported..
BA initially claimed that the engine had failed an hour into the flight. But the airline admitted yesterday that the problem had occurred a few seconds after take-off when the Boeing 747 was only 100ft above the ground.
Take that, Air Bus!
How do you lose an engine?? Did they misplace it?? Did they hide it under a rock in the Canary Islands?
100ft above the ground?? YIKES!!!
Adds a new meaning to "non-stop" flights.
I only fly single engine airplanes. Seems to me, a twin engine aircraft is exactly twice as likely to lose an engine as a single.
bump!
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