Boeing Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Engine Bursts Into Flames With 450 Passengers On Board

A Garuda Indonesia planePhoto: NurPhoto / Contributor (Getty Images)

This really just hasn’t been Boeing’s year. It’s currently facing criminal charges over the Justice Department’s claim that it violated the terms of a previous agreement related to two 737 Max crashes, and of course, you can’t forget about the door plug blowing out mid-flight. Now, it has a new incident on its hands after the New York Post reports a 747-400’s engine caught fire shortly after it took off.

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The Garuda Indonesia plane took off from Makassar, Indonesia and was headed to Saudi Arabia. Almost as soon as the wheels were off the tarmac, one of the engines burst into flames. The pilot eventually returned to make an emergency landing, but that still meant the 450 passengers and 18 crew members on board spent about 90 minutes on a plane with an engine that had caught on fire. While we’re sure that was an incredibly stressful time for them, no injures have been reported.

“The decision was made by the pilot in command immediately after take-off, considering engine problems that required further examination after sparks of fire were observed in one of the engines,” Garuda president Irfan Setiaputra said.

It’s reportedly still not clear what exactly caused the engine fire, and the plane has been grounded until they can figure out what went wrong. As Yahoo News points out, Indonesia’s airline industry doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation. Since 1945, 106 crashes have led to the deaths of 2,305 people, and both the U.S. and EU banned Indonesian airlines back in 2007. Those bans have since been lifted, in 2016 and 2018 respectively.

Earlier this year, Batik Air, another Indonesian airline made news when both pilots fell asleep at the same time for about 30 minutes. That caused the plane to go off course, although they were still able to safely land the plane once they woke up. In response, the airline grounded both pilots.