Yesterday I wrote about a pretty costly mistake that happened while a heavy jet was taxiing. We now have video footage of the incident, and it gives us a clear sense of how this situation unfolded.
American Boeing 787 has ground incident in Chicago
This incident happened on the afternoon of Thursday, October 17, 2024, and was first flagged by @xJonNYC. It (indirectly) involves two aircraft, both of which were taxiing to Terminal 5 after completing international flights:
- A six-year-old American Boeing 787-9 with the registration code N834AA, which had landed at the airport at 2:50PM, after operating a 7hr37min flight from London Heathrow (LHR)
- A brand new Air France Airbus A350-900 with the registration code F-HUVG, which had landed at the airport at 2:49PM, after operating a 7hr53min flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
Long story short, while on a taxiway enroute to Terminal 5, the American 787 ingested a cargo container into its number two engine, causing damage to the aircraft. CCTV footage shows exactly how this played out.
There’s an airport vehicle service road connecting Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, which crosses the taxiway where the two jets were taxiing. Based on the video footage, it appears that both jets were temporarily not moving, and some vehicles decided to pass between them on the service road.
However, clearly the Air France A350 started to taxi again, and the jet blast from the engines sent one of the cargo containers flying.
It’ll be interesting to see what an investigation determines. Ultimately airport vehicles are supposed to operate around aircraft, and always err on the side of caution. It’s possible that the American pilot had “waved” for the ground workers to pass, but it’s up to the drivers to assess risks, as situations exactly like this can happen.
It remains to be seen if the Air France pilots applying more than the standard amount of thrust for taxiing somehow played into this as well.
As you can see below, @WindyCityDriver has some awesome insights on the situation, from the perspective of someone who has worked on the ramp.
VASAviation also has an excellent video about the incident, including the air traffic control audio.
The good news is that no one was injured, and it also appears that the container was empty at the time of the incident.
I’m curious how long this plane stays out of service
American states that this Boeing 787 has been taken out of service to be inspected. However, I imagine that more than just an inspection is required, as there’s visible damage to the engine.
Engines are the most expensive parts of aircraft, and they can cost tens of millions of dollars. I’m curious if this engine needs to be fully replaced, or if the blades are mostly fine, and it’s just the cowling with substantial damage. After all, the engines are pretty powerful, and can ingest quite some things without any major damage.
Regardless, given American’s shortage of wide body aircraft, this isn’t ideal. Then again, at least this is happening going into the winter season, rather than going into the peak summer season, where American desperately needs every one of its long haul aircraft.
Bottom line
On Thursday, an American Boeing 787 had a pretty unfortunate incident in Chicago, when a cargo container was sucked into an engine. This happened after a service vehicle passed between two heavy jets on a taxiway, and the jet blast from an Air France Airbus A350 caused the container to go flying. Of course it’s on the driver of vehicles to ensure that they operate safely around planes, and clearly that wasn’t happening here.
What do you make of this incident at O’Hare?
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