On Monday, a United Airlines Hawaii flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, onboard a Boeing 757-300, suffered an engine failure mid-flight while en route. The crew declared an emergency. The flight, which left Hawaii on time, experienced the failure after four hours of travel. It was about one hour away from San Francisco, over the Pacific, when the incident occurred.
The twin-engine plane, about 22 years old, appears to still be at United’s San Francisco maintenance facility two days after the problem arose.
First reported by incident website Aviation Herald, the problem occurred while cruising at 33,000 feet, about 311 miles from the California coast, when the plane’s right-hand engine failed. The flight then descended to 24,000 feet and dropped further when making its approach. It landed safely on SFO’s runway 28R, where it was met by emergency personnel who performed a first inspection. It was determined that it was safe to taxi to the terminal, and passengers then disembarked via the jet bridge.
Engine failures like Monday aren’t unheard of and can pose dangers. Hawaii has some of the world’s longest overwater flights without diversion points. All planes to Hawaii are ETOPS-certified to operate safely up to three hours from the nearest diversion airport with just one engine. It was well within that range in this case.
An investigation is underway.
Have you ever been on a flight that had an engine failure? While it may typically be dangerous, it undoubtedly was scary.
This is getting old but there were actually 2 UAL incidents Fri… A United flight SFO to MEX had to emergency divert to LAX due to hydraulic failure…
I’m definitely avoiding UAL right now…
Best Regards
United just had Another incident this morning at IAH. Max 8 skidded off the runway and ended on it belly. What is going on at UAL???
Best Regards
Another United Flight mishap.. lost tire on takeoff. From SFO to Japan but rerouted to LAX. Another Boeing issue?!! What is going on in the maintenance department with the airlines?? Scary!!
Why would a popular ontime and safe airline like Hawaiian Air risk their reputation by pairing up with one of the worst unsafe airlines like Alaska Air.
I’ve been flying Hawaiian, and love them, for over 25 years and hope to continue without using Alaska Air!!
How exactly is Alaska one of the worst, unsafe airlines out there?
You may want to revisit that statement Janet…
Best Regards
United just had another mid air incident. 737 engine caught fire in flight just after leaving IAH. Returned safely but a very rough ride.
What’s going On here???
Maybe not the same but 1980, first jump at Airborne School Ft Benning Ga. We were jumping a 1950’s vintage C-123 (The plane in the movie ConAir). 2 prop engines, 2 jets. One of the jets failed on takeoff. We were heavily loaded and barely made altitude. We couldn’t land either – too heavy. Sooooo we just went ahead and jumped all the trainees quickly (I was lucky to be among the first), so they could land. Never felt in danger. Same aircraft jumped us that afternoon…. Ahhh Memories!
Best Regards
Back in 1979 had a bird strike on a TWA 747. About 5 seconds after take off from LAX. Loud bang, plane juddered and there was smoky stuff coming out of engine 2. Dumped fuel (flight to London) over the Ocean and landed again. All very calm and professional. Had a few tasty beverages in the hotel bar though afterwards.
Hi Rich.
Thanks. We relate!
Aloha.
My husband and I were on a HA flight from Sacramento to Maui about 6 years ago and a hawk flew into our engine and damaged 4 blades, disabling that engine. The pilot came over the speaker and very calmly said we were turning around to go back to the terminal. While we were waiting to find out what will happen with that flight, we saw the flight crew coming off the plane so my husband told me to call Hawaiian Airlines ASAP to get us on the next flight out the next day.We didn’t know what happened until the next day when a gate agent showed me a photo and he told me landing a plane with a full tank of gas is difficult and commended the pilot for doing so safely. Lost a day of vacation, but glad we were safe.