It’s been a bad month to be Boeing as a series of incidents have led to several emergency landings.
A Boeing 747 cargo plane began shooting sparks shortly after taking off from Miami International Airport Thursday night and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Atlas Air said the incident was due to an “engine malfunction soon after departure” and confirmed that the aircraft landed safely with no injuries. The plane was headed to Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico.
Related: Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Japan After Window Cracks on Boeing Aircraft
Melanie Adaros, who witnessed the incident and took the video footage that has since gone viral on social media, said she saw the plane “swerving” and wondered whether or not it was going to fall or explode.
NEW: Atlas Air Boeing 747-8 cargo plane forced to make an emergency landing at Miami International Airport after an engine appeared to catch fire.
What is going on with Boeing?
The plane took off at 10:32pm and immediately circled back to land.
It landed back at the airport 14… pic.twitter.com/ketYYzNCOz
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 19, 2024
“There’s always planes flying overhead, but they’re little planes,” Adaros told the Associated Press. “But this didn’t sound like a little plane. It sounded very low, so I turned … You always see a plane going up or going down. This one was just at a steady level and it was shooting sparks. It was very surreal.”
In a post-flight inspection, the FAA said that it found a “softball-sized hole” near the second engine of the plane.
“We can confirm that Flight 5Y095, a 747-8 cargo aircraft, has landed safely after experiencing an engine malfunction soon after departure from Miami International Airport (MIA),” Atlas Air told local outlet FOX 35 in a statement. “The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned to MIA. At Atlas, safety is always our top priority and we will be conducting a thorough inspection.”
This is the third incident with a Boeing plane this year.
Earlier this month, an Alaska Airlines plane was forced to emergency land after an emergency door panel blew out of the plane mid-flight.
Just days ago, another Boeing plane had to emergency land in Japan after a crack was found in the cockpit window 40 minutes into the flight.
Boeing was down just under 19% in a one-month period as of Friday afternoon.
