More than a month after a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in Ahmedabad, the same aircraft model operated by United Airlines experienced a major engine failure, prompting the pilots of the Munich-bound UA108 flight to declare a ‘Mayday’ shortly after taking off from Washington Dulles International Airport.
According to popular flight tracking website, Flightradar 24, the aircraft circled in the air for 2 hours and 38 minutes at 6,000 feet, dumping fuel before making a safe landing at the US airport.
Fuel dumping is typically done at an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet when a commercial aircraft needs to jettison fuel for an emergency landing after takeoff. This is done to reduce the aircraft’s weight below its Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) to ensure a safe landing.
That explains why the plane was circling at an altitude of above 5,000 feet for more than two hours—to allow the jet fuel to evaporate before reaching the ground.
Moments after taking off at around 5:40 pm local time on July 25, the left engine of the flight failed.
The pilots’ ‘Mayday’ call alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC). They then requested the ATC for fuel dumping while maintaining the requisite altitude.
The ATC guided the pilots to a safe zone away from surrounding air traffic as the aircraft proceeded to dump fuel. After completing the fuel dumping process, the airline requested clearance to land via the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach.
After constant to and fro chatter, the ATC finally gave the pilot clearance to safely approach the runway for landing. There were no injuries reported.
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