January 21, 2024, 06:47 PM
An Atlas Air Boeing 747 cargo plane encountered an engine problem shortly after take-off, which caused an engine fire to break out and streaks of fire to spew across the night sky.
The plane made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport in Florida, U.S. without injuries to the crew.
A "softball sized hole" above the engine was found to be the cause of the engine failure.
Turned back less than 10 minutes into the flight
Flight 5Y095 left Miami International Airport at 10pm on Jan 18 at 10:22pm Eastern Time (11:22am on Jan. 19 Singapore time) and was headed for Puerto Rice, The Washington Post and NBC reported.
One of its engine experience a failure and the flight turned around.
Videos of the incident showed a plane ablaze in the air. It spewed a trail of yellow and red fire in its wake.
The Boeing 747 cargo plane whose engine caught on fire in Miami last night was pretty new, with the flight certificate issued by the FAA in November 2015. A softball sized hole was found above engine number 2. Flight 5Y95 landed safely back at Miami 14 mins after takeoff. pic.twitter.com/lgAnwavTej
— Ryan Petersen (@typesfast) January 19, 2024
It landed back at Miami International Airport at 10:30pm Eastern Time. The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said that there was no fire when the plane landed.
“The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned” to the airport, an Atlas Air spokesperson said in a statement.
Preliminary investigations revealed that "a softball-sized hole" above the second engine caused the failure.
Boeing faces scrutiny
This incident comes as Boeing faces scrutiny over the safety of its planes after a spate of recent incidents.
On Jan. 6, a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane's fuselage panel blew off in midair less than 20 minutes into its flight.
Subsequently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the temporary grounding of "certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operated by US airlines or in US territory" via an Emergency Airworthiness Directive.
The FAA issued another statement saying that it will look into the latest incident on the Atlas Air flight, Reuters reported.
Top photo via Ryan Petersen/X
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