Boeing Emergency Landing in Miami After 'Engine Malfunction' | Hacker News Reader

Boeing Emergency Landing in Miami After 'Engine Malfunction'

nytimes.com

19 pointsarcastroe18 comments

I was curious how common fires are on flights. Searching NTSB data for the keyword "fire" on part 121 flights (ie regular scheduled air carrier flights, this excludes general aviation, private jets etc)

  Year | # accidents
  -------------------
  2023 | 6
  2022 | 0
  2021 | 4
  2020 | 3
  2019 | 5
  2018 | 3

So rare but not super rare.

[1] https://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/ResultsV2.aspx?queryId=262a5b32-9...

They very first report I randomly clicked in your linked page was for a hydraulic failure that very clearly states at the end "Aircraft Fire: None" so I'm not sure your query, or at least the link you supplied, is very correct in searching for "fires".

The latest 2 out of 3 for 2023 did not have fires. They had mentions of the word "fire" for fire department and fire trucks, where a fire truck was dispatched for a plane hitting the tow truck on taxi after pushback. The one fire-related was an engine reporting a fire.

Atlas Air Flight 5Y095 is a Boeing 747-8.

This is likely a complete nothing burger, that plane is going to be quite old and unrelated to other Boeing issues.

The flames were a nice touch.

The newest Atlas 747-8 is less than 3 years old.

Boeing is still making 747s?

The "final" 747-8 was delivered about a year ago. Demand has been low since the turn of the century but there had been a small backlog and trickle of orders from cargo carriers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#End_of_production

Interesting, has anyone found the tail number of this one?

The one with the burning engines? N859GT

The last 747-8 off the assembly line? N863GT

Its a 747–8, the 8 referencing the Dreamliner plane that is the backbone of a lot of Boeing's current fleet. These planes are relatively new and cost over 400 million a piece dwarfing the 737 Max 9s 120 million. They are really something to look at if you ever get the opportunity but given their enormous size and air travels recent trials and tribulations, a lot of airlines opted for smaller and cheaper planes so this monster is used for cargo mostly. Not an old plane or second class by any stretch of the imagination though. Its probably the plane I enjoyed looking into more than any other out of Boeing's current fleet.

The Dreamliner is the 787, the 747 is the old four-engine jumbo, the 747-8 being the last generation of it.

The number 8 at the end of is a reference to the 787 because the 787 contributed a lot of technology to the 747-8. The 747-8 is not an old 747.

> The Atlas Boeing 747-8 is eight years old, according to the FAA

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/atlas-air-says-cargo-aircra...

How are the model numbers decided?

I would naively -- and probably incorrectly-- assume higher is newer (747 newer than 737)

It seems like no one really knows

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Commercial_Airplanes#Mo...

The model numbers dont have anything to do with age in general, they were supposed to refer to tht type of aircraft but when Boeing was feeling confident it would give its future jets bigger numbers to imply improvement or advancement but then when the newer jets started having issues they would adopt modifications of older naming schemes to reassure customers. Over the years that left the whole scheme in tatters.

https://archive.is/5Popx

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