Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/16/not-again-another-boeing-plane-catches-fire-makes-emergency-landing-in-indonesia-video.html
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To be fair, that’s the venerable 747 and not the troubled 737 Max or 787 that’s wrecked Boeing’s reputation. Also it might be a bit much to state that it “catches fire” when this looks like a bird strike or bird ingested into a turbine.
Not that Boeing aren’t making deeply flawed aircraft, they are, but the 747 predates today’s troubled Shareholder Profits company masquerading as a manufacturer of aircraft.
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And Garuda isn’t exactly keeping a stellar record for safety. (Back in the late 90s, it was on at least one “thanks, but I think I’ll walk instead” list.)
Oddly, wikipedia’s list of Garuda’s current fleet doesn’t include any 747s in Garuda’s current fleet. So it may be that they leased an old plane for the Hajj–from a potentially dubious owner.
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Problematic company continues to be problematic.
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The Boeing pile-on is getting a little ridiculous. There are 3 different engine configurations available on a 747-400…GE, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce. This plane appears to be leased from another company so without knowing the specifics of what caused the fire (such as a bird strike) it’s either a maintenance issue with the plane’s owner or an engine failure…neither of which has anything to do with Boeing other than the model of plane involved.
Update: Digging in a bit found that this particular plane is owned and operated by Terra Avia, a charter airline from Moldova with 4 PW4000 engines and this plane has been in operation since 2001 with Singapore Airlines and it’s mostly been in storage prior to 2022.
The fact that the flight circled for another 90 mins to burn off fuel before returning to the airport indicates this was not an uncontained engine failure - most likely a series of compressor stalls. These can produce a very dramatic looking flame out the back but it’s a far, far cry from “Boeing plane catches fire OMG!!”
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Here we go again! This is an AIRLINE MAINTENANCE problem, not a Boeing problem. The 747 was first launched in 1968. Who knows how old and how flogged this plane was… Not Carla Sinclair! But it sure is fun to post these I bet.
I can’t think of a topic other than Boeing problems that attracts so many posters stating with total certainty that they know the root cause of failures that they cannot possibly know. Not to mention the underlying bigotry of immediately assuming non-Western airlines have dangerous lack of maintenance.
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All useful information, thanks for doing the work that probably should have gone into the original story.
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Seconded. The NTSB hasn’t even started looking at this; and there are many causes or aircraft engine fires. Or their local agency.
Even if it was a foreign object sucked into the engine- there’s a lot of said objects. If memory serves; the last one here was hail. In Indonesia.
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I assume you’re referring to the flagged comment. Truth is, aircraft maintenance outside of 1st world English-speaking countries is problematic as the manuals are written in English, never mind the race to the bottom regarding the cost-cutting that drives airlines to cut corners and send aircraft to third world nations for work that used to be done under FAA guidelines in N America. Quoting from an outdated Vanity Fair article (it’s gotten worse since then):
According to regulations, in order to receive F.A.A. certification as a mechanic, a worker needs to be able to “read, speak, write, and comprehend spoken English.” Most of the mechanics in El Salvador and some other developing countries who take apart the big jets and then put them back together are unable to meet this standard.
Feel free to categorize this comment under a new thread like “Is it bigoted to want your Boeing 747 serviced by FAA certified, English speaking mechanics?” if you deem that necessary.
This topic is temporarily closed for at least 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
Seriously? You don’t think Boeing manuals have been translated to French, the predominant language in Senegal? You don’t think they could find aircraft mechanics who speak English in Indonesia, where 40% of the population speaks English?
C’mon. At least examine your own biases on this.
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Oh, come on. How could someone from…one moment, let me check…Québec possibly know that non-majority-anglophone places might still have people capable of reading English?
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This topic was automatically opened after 36 hours.
I’ve worked in a Scottish airport and we managed to muddle through.
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What you clearly wrote is
Would you really have said finding people proficient in English would be a problem with the province where you live, or say Germany then if you want somewhere unrelated?
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The FAA is not the only (or arguably even best) civil aviation authority in the world. Both Indonesia and Saudi Arabia (I bring these two up to get back on topic) have their own authorities with equivalent functions, rules and standards. The key word here is equivalent.
Mechanics in other countries may not have FAA certification (why would they?), but it is not right to assume that they are not competent to maintain aircraft just because they are following a different country’s equivalent rules in other languages.
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“Bringing up my citizenship is neither germane nor polite.”
Indonesia shakes its head.
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Airlines operating in Indonesia require certification and high level English proficiency of its aircraft mechanics. Like other international carriers in large countries.
These guys aren’t changing your oil at Jiffy Lube. They’re highly skilled professionals. Additionally, 30% of the country speaks English. That number would obviously be higher in larger cities and tourist/business destinations. And airlines & airports highly prefer multilingual employees. And keep lists of their employees and what languages they speak. Their number of employees with English competency would be quite high given these factors.
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Plus, in a lot of cases, the ground crews are also multinational, so they are going to be using English in their day-to-day work as well.
Still, I have met many very professional and talented individuals who can barely get through a sentence in English, so I do not worry about whether the ground crew has FAA certification in English or the local equivalent in the local language when flying. I know that they have been trained and that they know what they are doing.
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