Sunday, September 2, 2007
ALL 202 passengers onboard Royal Brunei Airlines flight BI98 disembarked safely from the aircraft which had to turn around mid-air due to technical snag in one of its engines on Friday at London's Heathrow Airport.
The technical problem resulted in a closure of London Heathrow's northern runway, which lasted for approximately 110 minutes, according to a British Airports Authority (BAA) spokesperson. "We can confirm that one of the runways at Heathrow Airport was temporarily closed for a period of approximately 110 minutes, as a precautionary measure, whilst airport staff carried out a runway inspection, following the safe landing of the aircraft with a suspected technical difficulty."
She added that this was "standard safety procedure" and that the airport remained open, with other aircraft being able to land and depart from the remaining runways.
The Boeing 767-300ER that took off, but was forced to return due to suspected engine trouble, also caused flight delays of up to two hours in addition to bringing about the cancellations of 19 short-haul flights.
A spokesperson of the Royal Brunei Airlines, said, "We can confirm that one of our airlines' flights, BI98 to Dubai and Brunei, experienced a suspected technical difficulty shortly after take-off today. The aircraft safely landed with all 202 passengers safely disembarked."
"We have been working with BAA and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Following precautionary inspection on the runway and aircraft, the runway has since been reopened and the incident has been stood down. We are working with our staff and engineers to ensure this does not happen again."
In a travel agent advisory notice that warned of operational disruption, British Airways said the incident involved an RBA aircraft which suffered engine failure on take-off and left debris on runway 27R.
The RBA spokesperson confirmed that there was an engine problem, but was unable to comment on whether debris was left on the runway.
According to personnel from the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), the Pratt and Whitney PW4000-powered engine is owned by the Royal Brunei Airlines, and was manufactured in 1992.
The runway has since been re-opened, and operations are gradually returning to normal, according to BAA.
Was the engine failure due to wear-and-tear? Or due to negligent pre-flight engine inspection by ground engineers at Heathrow?
According to an aviation engineer, "There's normally a checklist that we go through, before takeoff and landing."
He said that during emergencies they also run through that same checklist, and the pilots have to refer to it to root the source of the problem.
He added that the ground engineers who inspect the plane have to make sure there are no defects.
"The aircraft must be fully serviceable," he said.
Previously in August 2005, RBA experienced a similar incidents with one of their jets carrying 146 passengers making an emergency landing in Manila after one of its two engines stopped working.
The Airbus 320 was on its flight from Hong Kong to Bandar Seri Begawan, when it developed engine trouble, forcing it to land at the nearest airport, Manila airport assistant manager Octavio Lina said.
"The plane's number two engine shut off for unexplained reasons while it was airborne," said the assistant manager.
The 139 passengers and seven crew members disembarked normally from the plane and were booked on another regular commercial flight and continued back to Brunei safely.
The Brunei Times
The technical problem resulted in a closure of London Heathrow's northern runway, which lasted for approximately 110 minutes, according to a British Airports Authority (BAA) spokesperson. "We can confirm that one of the runways at Heathrow Airport was temporarily closed for a period of approximately 110 minutes, as a precautionary measure, whilst airport staff carried out a runway inspection, following the safe landing of the aircraft with a suspected technical difficulty."
She added that this was "standard safety procedure" and that the airport remained open, with other aircraft being able to land and depart from the remaining runways.
The Boeing 767-300ER that took off, but was forced to return due to suspected engine trouble, also caused flight delays of up to two hours in addition to bringing about the cancellations of 19 short-haul flights.
A spokesperson of the Royal Brunei Airlines, said, "We can confirm that one of our airlines' flights, BI98 to Dubai and Brunei, experienced a suspected technical difficulty shortly after take-off today. The aircraft safely landed with all 202 passengers safely disembarked."
"We have been working with BAA and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Following precautionary inspection on the runway and aircraft, the runway has since been reopened and the incident has been stood down. We are working with our staff and engineers to ensure this does not happen again."
In a travel agent advisory notice that warned of operational disruption, British Airways said the incident involved an RBA aircraft which suffered engine failure on take-off and left debris on runway 27R.
The RBA spokesperson confirmed that there was an engine problem, but was unable to comment on whether debris was left on the runway.
According to personnel from the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), the Pratt and Whitney PW4000-powered engine is owned by the Royal Brunei Airlines, and was manufactured in 1992.
The runway has since been re-opened, and operations are gradually returning to normal, according to BAA.
Was the engine failure due to wear-and-tear? Or due to negligent pre-flight engine inspection by ground engineers at Heathrow?
According to an aviation engineer, "There's normally a checklist that we go through, before takeoff and landing."
He said that during emergencies they also run through that same checklist, and the pilots have to refer to it to root the source of the problem.
He added that the ground engineers who inspect the plane have to make sure there are no defects.
"The aircraft must be fully serviceable," he said.
Previously in August 2005, RBA experienced a similar incidents with one of their jets carrying 146 passengers making an emergency landing in Manila after one of its two engines stopped working.
The Airbus 320 was on its flight from Hong Kong to Bandar Seri Begawan, when it developed engine trouble, forcing it to land at the nearest airport, Manila airport assistant manager Octavio Lina said.
"The plane's number two engine shut off for unexplained reasons while it was airborne," said the assistant manager.
The 139 passengers and seven crew members disembarked normally from the plane and were booked on another regular commercial flight and continued back to Brunei safely.
The Brunei Times