Summary
- A United Airlines Boeing 757-300 encountered an engine failure over the Pacific Ocean before landing safely.
- The plane has remained out of service for over 36 hours, with a brand new aircraft being deployed on the HNL-SFO route.
- The incident stays under investigation, with no details available regarding the reason behind the engine failure.
On 4 March 2024, a United Airlines Boeing 757-300 experienced an engine failure while flying over the Pacific Ocean on a scheduled flight from Hawaii to California. The aircraft arrived safely in California despite the mechanical issue, and no passenger injuries or fatalities resulted from the incident.
The aircraft was completing United Airlines Flight 214, a frequently scheduled fight between Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in the favored leisure destination of Honolulu and the carrier’s primary transpacific hub at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The flight departed as scheduled around 10:00 local time and experienced the engine failure around 4 hours into the flight, touching down in San Francisco about an hour later at around 17:00 local time.
Photo: Theodore Trimmer | Shutterstock
This aircraft was inspected thoroughly after landing and remained out of service for over 36 hours after landing, as engine issues can require lengthy repairs. Within the meantime, the airline has placed one other 757-300 on its HNL-SFO route, and no flights were reported as canceled.
The incident specifics
While relatively limited details can be found regarding how the incident occurred, sources have revealed more specifics about what happened. In line with The Aviation Herald, the 757-300 in query bears registration N57869 and departed from HNL at exactly 10:09 Hawaii Standard Time.
Photo: Nathan Klemstein I Shutterstock
Upon takeoff, the aircraft ascended to its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet around 22 minutes into the flight and reached its cruising speed of around 580 miles per hour. When the plane was around 270 nautical miles from the coast of California, the jet experienced a failure of its right-hand engine, after which era the pilots descended the aircraft all the way down to around 24,000 feet, in response to data from FlightAware.
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The plane had only been in service for 2 weeks.
Eventually, the aircraft landed safely in San Francisco on runway 28R after around 50 minutes of flying with only a single functional engine. Shortly after landing, the plane vacated the runway and was immediately inspected by the airport’s emergency services, later being granted permission to taxi.
ETOPS and engine failures
While this week’s incident stays under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), engine failures like this one should not out of the abnormal and are rarely dangerous. Nearly all of twin-engine aircraft are given a rating for Prolonged-Range Twin-Engine Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS), which indicates the longest range that regulators imagine a plane can safely fly with one operational engine.
Photo: United Airlines
The Boeing 757-300, the aircraft involved in Monday’s incident, is rated at ETOPS 180, in response to Airline Reporter. This rating allows the jet to perform flights as much as 180 minutes from a diversion airport, allowing for transatlantic service and flights to and from Hawaii.
Within the incident of Flight 214, the aircraft was lower than 60 minutes from the closest diversion airport in San Francisco and, in consequence, barely needed to push the bounds of its ETOPS qualifications. In line with Rolls-Royce, the best ETOPS rating in operation today was issued to the Airbus A350XWB, allowing the jet to fly almost in every single place except directly over the South Pole.