A Russia’s Boeing 777 had an emergency landing on Friday in Moscow after an engine problem less than a week after a stunning reactor accident involving a similar plane in the United States.
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“During cargo flight No. 4520 between Hong Kong and Madrid, a malfunction was detected in the engine control sensor,” the company said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse, adding that “the crew decided to make an emergency landing” at Moscow airport in Sheremetyevo.
“The landing process proceeded normally. The plane will resume its flight to Madrid after 12:00 (9:00 GMT),” added a Russian subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Aeroflot.
According to flight tracking websites, the aircraft in question was a Boeing 777-300ER.
Russia told AFP later that all of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft are equipped with GE90 engines from General Electric of America, a model different from those that participated in the plane crash last week in the United States.
The reactor of a Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines caught fire shortly after taking off from Denver (western USA) and lost its good looks. As the plane was on its way back to the airport, a rain of debris fell on a residential area on the outskirts of Denver.
More than 120 Boeing 777s with specific Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines were frozen worldwide after this spectacular accident, and only American, Japanese and Korean companies were interested, according to Boeing.
The accident represents another blow to Boeing, whose reputation has been severely affected by setbacks to the new medium-range aircraft, the 737 MAX, which was involved in two close accidents that killed 346 people and were banned from flying for nearly two years.
Engine failures are common in civil aviation, and the devices have been certified to fly for several hours on a single engine during arrival at the airport. Especially potential danger arises in the event of an engine explosion, as debris could damage the rest of the aircraft.
