Engine of a Boeing 777 catches fire after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport Nov. 24, 2019 at 11:18 am Updated Nov. 24, 2019 at 12:41 pm By Lori Aratani The Washington Post A Philippine Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after on of the engines on the Boeing 777 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday.
Witnesses on the ground reported seeing flames coming from one of the plane’s engines.
Andrew Ames was headed west on the 105 freeway near the airport when he spotted the plane in the sky.
“From where I was, I could see the back of the plane and it looked like it was backfiring,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘I’ve never seen backfire on a plane.’ It was just flame, flame, flame.”
Ames watched as the plane turned left very quickly back in the direction of the airport.
The plane took off from LAX at around 11:45 a.m., but was quickly forced to turn around. Airline officials characterized the issue as a “technical problem” with one of the engines. The plane was back on the ground by noon.
ADVERTISING “All 342 passengers and 18 crew members are safe and were able to disembark from the airplane using regular airstairs,” the airline said in a statement posted on its website. “We greatly appreciate the calmness and patience of our PR113 passengers, who cooperated well with our cabin crew during the flight and the emergency landing.”
It was not clear what caused the incident. Reuters reported that GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, which manufactures the engines for the 777 aircraft, is working with the airline to determine the cause of the failure.
In September, another Boeing 777 plane operated by Air China was forced to return to Dulles International Airport after reporting an engine fire. No injuries were reported in the incident.
FAA officials said they are looking into Thursday’s incident but that it’s too early to determine whether the two incidents are related.
“While both involved Boeing planes, it doesn’t automatically mean the underlying causes of the reported problem were identical,” spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. “The FAA closely monitors engine performance and reliability and takes steps to address anything that might point to a trend in the larger fleet.”
The airline credited the “calm professionalism” of its flight and cabin crews in executing the unscheduled landing.
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