Firefighters extinguished an engine fire on a United Airlines 737-900 after it made an emergency landing in Wichita, Kansas.
United 737-900 Diverts To Wichita After Engine Fire
UA551 took off from Newark (EWR) on Thursday, December 14, bound for Denver (DEN). The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-900, registration number N62892, with 199 passengers onboard. As the plane neared Kansas, one of the engines caught fire.
The flight descended from 34,000 feet to 28,000 feet, then to 24,000 before flight attendants prepared the cabin for an emergency landing at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT).
The visible flames understandably freaked out many of the passengers onboard, with some sending “goodbye” text messages to their loved ones. Paul Wilder told KWCH:
“We could see some of the flames coming out and the smoke. I don’t want to go out that way, but I thought it for sure, and told the people I love, I love them.”
Wilder added that as flight attendants prepared the cabin for landing, “The tone in their voice was a little freakish.”
Thankfully, the plane landed safely at ICT at 5:42 pm CT where it was met by fire crews that extinguished the flames. There were no injuries.
United sent a rescue aircraft, also a 737-900 (registration N61886), from Denver, which picked up the passengers and crew and transported them to Denver (also operating as UA551). That flight left Wichita at 9:19 pm CT and arrived in Denver at 9:59 pm MT.
United blamed the issue on a mechanical problem, but did not provide specific details:
“United Airlines flight 551 from EWR to DEN diverted to Wichita (ICT) due to a mechanical issue with the right engine. The aircraft landed safely and was met by Airport emergency services. Passengers deplaned normally at the gate and no injuries were reported.”
The aircraft remains on the ground in Wichita.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that an engine fire is a scary thing. While we don’t know what caused the problem in the first place, I am thankful this was just another textbook case of an emergency landing after an engine fire. That said, if I was on that flight, even with all the flying that I do, my heart would have been pounding too.
image: @FlyICT / X
Welcome to Wichita!
Good for UA sending a plane right away, or as reasonably as expected.
Thanks for sharing, but the max passenger capacity of a UA 737-900 is 179 (20/159), not 199.
+20 lap babies? It IS the holiday travel season.
Even of you add in crew, there aren’t 20 jump seats . . .
Well, historically, an engine fire happens when the turbofan throws a compressor blade. The high energy blade rids into the surrounding engine cowling, severing anything it encounters and is hopfully “Contained” by the cowling.
If you have to have an engine loss, best to have it at altitude like this one did and go downhill all the way to the nearest suitable airport.