This evening, SpaceX launched another rocket from Florida, but this vehicle took a very different kind of path than most flights from the East Coast. Rather than head eastward after launch as most Florida missions do, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket headed south after liftoff, skirting over Florida’s southeast coast and heading over Cuba.
That’s because this mission was headed to what is known as a polar orbit — a path that runs mostly north-to-south over the Earth’s poles. It’s a type of mission you don’t normally see taking place from Florida. In fact, this will be the first time since 1969 that a rocket taking off from Florida heads southward.
Up until now, most polar launches in the US have taken place from the southern coast of California. That way, the rockets fly over open ocean when they head southward and not over populated land. Rockets that launch from Florida head eastward toward the equator, so that they also fly over mostly open ocean before getting to space.
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An Air Canada Boeing 767 aircraft made a safe emergency landing at Madrid’s Adolfo Suarez-Barajas International Airport after part of the jets landing gear reportedly fell off and entered its engines.
The Toronto-bound flight touched down shortly after 7.10pm Monday evening with fire engines lining the runway.
A passenger tweeted out video of the safe emergency landing. Click the link below to view!
(Reuters) – Nine people were killed and three were injured in an airplane crash in the U.S. state of South Dakota, the Associated Press reported late on Saturday, citing authorities.
The aircraft, a Pilatus PC-12, carrying 12 people on board, was bound for Idaho from South Dakota before it crashed around noon on Saturday, the news agency said, citing National Transportation Safety Board’s Peter Knudson.
The cause for the crash has not yet been determined, the report said.
Reporting by Akshay Balan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Raju Gopalakrishnan
* All 347 passengers, 18 crew members safe – airline
* Flames, smoke came out of right engine – video
* Cause of engine failure not yet clear (Adds Boeing comment in 9th paragraph)
Nov 21 (Reuters) – A Philippine Airlines flight bound for Manila suffered an apparent engine failure on Thursday shortly after takeoff from Los Angeles and made an emergency landing, authorities said.
All 347 passengers and 18 crew aboard Flight 113, a Boeing Company 777 widebody, are safe, an airline spokeswoman said.
Pilots of flight 113 declared an emergency and reported a possible engine failure, Los Angeles International Airport said.
A witness on the ground described “bursts of flames” coming out of an engine.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said the plane returned and landed safely. Television station ABC-7 in Los Angeles aired video of the aircraft after takeoff that showed flames and smoke coming out of the right engine.
The plane landed around noon local time (2000 GMT) and was met by the Los Angeles Fire Department, the airport said. The emergency landing did not affect other flights.
Although the cause of the apparent engine failure was not immediately clear, it comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny over twin deadly crashes involving its 737 MAX single-aisle jetliner. The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide since March.
GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, which makes the GE90 engine for the 777 twin-aisle jetliner, said it was aware of the incident and was “working with the airline to determine the cause of the event and to promptly return the aircraft to service”.
Boeing said it was aware of an incident regarding Philippine Airlines and was closely monitoring the situation.
“You saw bursts of flames, little flames shooting out from the engine,” said Andrew Ames, a 36-year-old fitness professional in Los Angeles, who watched as the 777 ascended over the ocean after takeoff. “It almost looked like backfire flames from a motorcycle or car.”
“I had never seen a plane spew flames repeatedly. Then it stopped. As soon as it stopped, I saw the plane bank left, like it was heading back to airport,” Ames said.
The Philippine Airlines spokeswoman said the flight crew noticed smoke in the plane’s second engine, declared an emergency and returned safely to the airport.
“All passengers are safe and sound,” spokeswoman Cielo Villaluna said. “They are all being assisted to another flight.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Martin Petty in Manila and Jamie Freed in Hong Kong; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Rosalba O’Brien, Himani Sarkar and Gerry Doyle)
PARIS/ZURICH (Reuters) – U.S. engine maker Pratt & Whitney faces new checks on engines for small jetliners after an engine failure forced a Geneva-bound Swiss jet to divert to Paris and prompted a brief grounding of the rest of the airline’s Airbus A220 fleet.
French air crash investigators classified the problem that disrupted the Swiss flight shortly after departure from London Heathrow on Tuesday as a “serious incident” and said it would be investigated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
It was the third engine incident involving the same airline and model of jet in as many months and resulted in a small amount of debris being scattered as the aircraft landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle, an airport source told Reuters.
It came just hours after France’s BEA agency launched an unusual appeal for 150 volunteers to scour an uninhabited wood in eastern France for a titanium engine part dating from the first blowout in July, which affected a Geneva-London flight.
A second incident in September caused a Swiss A220 to divert to Geneva, but on that occasion the engine’s housing contained fragments torn loose from the engine, the BEA said.
Swiss, owned by Germany’s Lufthansa <DLAKY>, said after Tuesday’s incident it had initially grounded its fleet of Airbus <EADSY> A220 jets for a “comprehensive inspection” of their engines.
Late on Tuesday, it said the first aircraft had already returned to service but that the inspections had forced it to cancel 100 flights, affecting 10,000 passengers.
Operations are expected to return to normal from Thursday.
ADDITIONAL CHECKS
Tuesday’s incident highlighted scrutiny of the performance of new-generation Geared Turbofan engines developed by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp <UTX>.
A spokesman for the engine maker said it was recommending additional checks for versions of the engine that power the Airbus A220 – an engine known as the PW1500G – and a rival Brazilian jet, the Embraer 190/195-E2.
A similar engine for the larger A320neo family, Airbus’ most-sold aircraft, was not affected.
“Pratt & Whitney and our airframe OEMs (manufacturers), working in coordination with the regulatory authorities, have recommended additional inspections of the low-pressure compressor for PW1500G and PW1900G engines to keep the fleet operational,” a spokesman said.
“The engines continue to meet all criteria for continued airworthiness. We are working closely with our customers to minimise disruption to their operations.”
Prompted by the earlier incidents in July and September, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections on the same engine part in A220s and some Embraer jets in September.
On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines <DAL> said its A220 jets were flying as normal.
Air Baltic, which also flies the A220, said it was closely following Pratt’s latest recommendations but that it used a different version of the PW1500G engine from Swiss.
A total of 90 of the 110-130-seat A220 aircraft have been delivered, initially by Canada’s Bombardier <BDRBF> which designed the carbon-fibre jet, and later by Airbus, which bought the loss-making programme last year.
Airbus said it was working with Pratt & Whitneyand would co-operate with any investigation.
In Brazil, Embraer <ERJ> had no immediate comment.
The company uses Pratt’s PW1900G engine in larger versions of its upgraded 80-120-seat E2 jets.
It has delivered six E190-E2 planes split between Norwegian carrier Wideroe and lessor Aercap <AER>, and one E195-E2, which is not yet in commercial service but has been delivered to Brazilian airline Azul SA <AZUL>.
Azul said its operations were not affected.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, John Revill in Zurich, Michael Shields in Vienna, Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paulo, Allison Lampert in Montreal, Laurence Frost in Paris; Editing by Jane Merriman and Matthew Lewis)
