A Boeing jet was involved in yet another terrifying incident this week when the engine of an Air Canada flight with nearly 400 passengers on board caught fire just moments after takeoff. And the scary incident was caught on video before the plane was able to turn around and safely make an emergency landing.
According to CTV News, the Boeing 777 aircraft had just departed Toronto Pearson International Airport for Paris on Wednesday night when it experienced an “engine issue” shortly after it left the runway. Data from the flight tracking service FlightAware shows that the flight AC872 left the gate just after 8:45 p.m. and landed back at Pearson at 9:50 p.m.
In video footage taken at the airport, the plane is seen dramatically sparking as it lifts into the sky, while an employee can be overheard exclaiming, “Holy crap! It’s got an engine fire!”
While taking-off from the Runway 23 of Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), the 2008 built Air Canada Boeing 777-333(ER) aircraft (C-FIUV), powered by GE90-115BL2 engines, started spitting flames from its Right engine leading to an air turn back and safe landing on the… pic.twitter.com/qevJV55nNe
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Air Canada later confirmed the incident in a statement and said that there had been 389 passengers on board at the time.
“After the aircraft landed, it was inspected by airport response vehicles as per normal operating processes, and it taxied to the gate on its own. The aircraft will be taken out of service for further evaluation by our maintenance and engineering professionals,” the statement said, adding that passengers were accommodated on another aircraft departing Toronto later that night
The rescheduled flight reportedly embarked to Paris a few hours later, at 1:32 a.m. on Thursday.
The Toronto engine fire is just the latest in a scary string of recent incidents involving Boeing aircraft. Just weeks ago, a Boeing 747-400 operated by Garuda Indonesia was forced to make an emergency landing after suffering a similar engine fire. In April, the engine of another Boeing 737-800 aircraft traveling from Denver to Houston was ripped to pieces shortly after takeoff, as passengers filmed the harrowing ordeal.
But of course, those incidents pale in comparison to what passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight experienced earlier this year when a section of the fuselage separated from the plane, blowing out the door plug. Thankfully, no one was injured, but had everyone not been safely wearing their seatbelts, it might have been a different story.
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