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Engine flames force jet back to Logan

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smooshfacekitty

Active member
Joined
May 16, 2002
Posts
29
This B737 was only one year old...........Thank goodness no one was hurt.


Alaska Airlines flight had 160 people aboard

Three minutes after takeoff from Logan International Airport, Emilie Soisson froze in fear as she looked out the window at flames shooting from the left engine of the Alaska Airlines jet about 6:30 p.m. yesterday.

Soisson was one of the dozens of passengers who worried that they would never make it to Seattle, as the Boeing 737 shuddered several times and at least nine fireballs shot out of the engine, lighting up the cabin.

''It was like a big fireball,'' said Soisson, a 24-year-old hospital employee from Brighton.

''I was scared,'' she said. ''I was hyperventilating.''

Flight 15, with 160 people on board, had climbed less than 3,000 feet when it turned around and landed safely back at Logan about 15 minutes after takeoff.

The pilot never had to shut down the engine, said Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Early accounts from crew members indicate blades in the engine might have failed, interfering with air compression and prompting the explosions, he said.

Meanwhile, rush-hour commuters in Revere and East Boston were able to stare at the flaming jet passing overhead.

Hundreds of people flocked to open areas such as Revere Beach to see if the plane would make it back safely.

''You feel the plane shaking and you look out the window and see red sparks from the left-hand side,'' said passenger Mike Gillette, 31, of Waltham.

''You're just hoping that the plane doesn't nosedive or something. You're just like, `Keep steady, keep steady, keep steady ... just get me on the ground.''

A number of Alaska Airlines flights have had problems in the last few years.

On May 31, another Alaska Airlines jet flying from Boston to Seattle was forced to abort the trip twice within 24 hours because of problems with the wing flaps.

In January 2000, an Alaska Airlines MD-80 crashed off the coast of California and killed all 88 people on board.

Airline spokesman Jack Walsh told the Associated Press last night that the engine itself never caught fire, and that the explosions were essentially a backfiring.

The aircraft used for Flight 15 yesterday is one year old, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. No maintenance records on it were available last night.

The FAA is investigating the incident.

Last night, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said compression stalls, while not typical, are also not that unusual. If the engine had quit, he said, the plane would have been able to safely land with just one functioning engine.

Although some of the 154 passengers and six crew members were even unaware of what was happening, pedestrians and commuters heading home from work saw the flames.

Michael Sforza, 26, of Revere, said he heard what sounded like gunshots before he looked up and saw flames bursting from a jet.

''I've been watching planes for 13 years from the same spot,'' Sforza said. ''I looked and saw a flash and I thought it was the light reflecting off - but it wasn't - it was the flames shooting out. Huge orange flames.

''I looked again and it was doing it even worse. I saw the pilot turn and I thought it was going to crash into the ocean. It was crazy.''

John Tieuli, 35, of Reading, said he and hundreds of others drove to Winthrop Beach to see if the plane had landed safely.

''There were people running from the hills to see if the plane crashed,'' Tieuli said.

''I think everyone was a lot more aware because of 9/11.''

Tieuli congratulated the pilot.

The landing ''was textbook,'' he said. ''He never came back over land until he landed.''

By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff and Jenny Jiang, Globe Correspondent, 8/8/2002
 
I wish the media would stop trying to put fear into people and say "Look here folks, even if something bad happens, our pilots are skillful enough too get us back safely."
 
The Fox infobabe said that passengers saw that "the engine was on fire" and that officials said the problem was a "compression stall". Nothing like using a reporter that knows next to nothing about aviation.

I miss the days when these reports were handled by science correspondents like Jules Bergman, who covered all of the manned space missions through Apollo.
 
News media hype...

To be in the news industry you have to know two words... Wonk and Blah. A really skilled and seasoned news professional will add a few other words to their vocabulary - important words like Yap and Zoinks.
Put them all together and you have- Wonk, wonk, Yap, yap, Blah, blah, Zoinks! Now, didn't that sound just like the 5 O'clock news?

The only reason I watch the news it to see the weather, and they even get that wrong 50% of the time!
 
They'll call the movie "Compressor Stall at 3000 Feet". It will star Connie Selleca as the heroic captain who is able, through skill, cunning, and a little luck, to wrestle the crippled jet back around to the airport. If you miss the movie the first time around, no worries- it will live forever in reruns on the Lifetime Network.

Television for Women....and fearful airline travellers.
 
Re: News media hype...

AK737FO said:
To be in the news industry you have to know two words... Wonk and Blah. A really skilled and seasoned news professional will add a few other words to their vocabulary - important words like Yap and Zoinks.
Put them all together and you have- Wonk, wonk, Yap, yap, Blah, blah, Zoinks! Now, didn't that sound just like the 5 O'clock news?

The only reason I watch the news it to see the weather, and they even get that wrong 50% of the time!

AK737FO:

I'll give you one good reason to watch the news if you live in Seattle: Leslie Miller, Q13 FOX News's resident fox!
 
I've been watching the reports on this. O'Reilly discussed it at the end of his program tonight. I have noticed that there hasn't been one mention of how well the flight crew handled the situation and safely returned to BOS. Not one reporter said, "Thanks to the professionalism and skill of a well qualified crew, there were no injuries or fatalities and this whole incident ended with a safe landing."

It would be nice to hear a reporter say something like that, but who do I think I am kidding? (and people in hell want a glass of ice water) I guess pilots are still a bunch of drunk, lazy, underworked and overpaid bums who have too much time off and have multiple wives scattered throughout the country.

Whatever.
:rolleyes:
 
The left engine on the aircraft looked like it got a little toasty..

It was parked at the US Airways terminal around 7pm when I taxed in and saw it stripped down to a bare engine. I don't know what the engine is supposed to look like on the 737, but it was scorched. Looked like someone had a bon fire going in there.
 
I am a future reporter/ photographer, who wants to be the best aviation correspondant, and trust me, i will give a lot of praise to the flight crews. After all- arn't pax required to follow all flight crew instructions?


I was watching fox this afternoon and i had to say to myself- why in the world is she saying this- So, mr. xxxxx, when you saw the fires, were there thoughts of terrorism in your head? and that was her FIRST question.
 

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