Air France plane makes emergency landing after engine suffers ‘serious damage’

Twitter/DanMcneely (NEW YORK) — An Air France flight from Paris to Los Angeles was forced to divert to eastern Canada on Saturday after one of its four engines failed over the Atlantic.

The Airbus A380 flight AF66 landed safely at Goose Bay Airport in Labrador at 3:42 p.m. GMT. Air France confirmed 497 passengers were on board the flight and “being assisted by teams dispatched to the location.”

There were no injuries, according to the BBC.

Air France said in a statement the plane was forced to divert after “serious damage” to the engine. The airline added “the regularly trained pilots and cabin crew handled this serious incident perfectly.”

Passengers tweeted photos showing severe damage to the engine.  One traveler, Rick Engebretsen, said on Twitter there was a “loud thud and a lot of vibration.”

 

Inflight pictures. Loud thud and a lot of vibration. pic.twitter.com/s9GFIyssrh

— Rick Engebretsen (@RickEngebretsen) September 30, 2017

 

Arrangements were being made for two flights from Goose Bay to Los Angeles, according to Air France on Saturday night.

“For now, the two flights are scheduled to leave Goose Bay at 04h15 (local time). One flight will be aboard an Air France B777-300, and the other aboard a B737, an aircraft specially chartered by Air France,” the airline said.

ABC News contributor and former Marine Corps fighter pilot Steve Ganyard said there are two reasons why this particular engine, which he said “has had a very checkered record over time,” failed mid-flight.

“One is a loss of oil pressure– the loss of oil pressure means that a lot of heat builds up either in the turbine or the gear box and that heat leads to metal failure,” he said. “The other can be metal fatigue that comes over time, or it could be some sort of a manufacturing defect.”

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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