EL AL Matmid - Engine fire causes flight 318 to make an emergency landing at London Heathrow

Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/el-al-flight-makes-emergency-landing-in-u-k-after-mid-air-engine-fire-1.448997): An El-Al flight heading from London to Tel Aviv was forced to perform an emergency landing in Heathrow airport on Thursday, after one of its engines caught fire minutes following takeoff.

The incident occurred about 20 minutes after flight 318 took off from the U.K. airport with 411 people aboard, around 1 A.M. Israeli time, when a loud thump was heard on the right side of the Boeing 747-400 airliner.

A strong smell was then reported in the cabin, with the jetliner losing thrust. The pilots, headed by captain Ilan Margalit then redirected the plane toward Heathrow, where emergency crews were deployed ahead of the unscheduled landing.

The crew began to undertake emergency procedures, during which a trail of fire was seen coming out of the engine, causing much alarm among the passengers.

Eventually, however, the pilots were able to safely land the plane with only three engines.

Anybody know which aircraft was involved? (I assume one of those old birds they recently purchased from top class airlines who considered them not fit for their service).

Anybody know which aircraft was involved? (I assume one of those old birds they recently purchased from top class airlines who considered them not fit for their service).You might be right of course, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume...

You might be right of course, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume...

Compared to ELAL fleets size, the amount of emergency landings and aircraft going tech, seems to be sky rocketing high!

Starting to seriously question heir maintenance and safety!

Any European carrier anytime over ELAL.

You might be right of course, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume...

You seem to be right, as ELD seems to be the culprit.

http://heathrowcam.net/index.php?page=16&view=1&photo=215351&mode=2
http://www.acarsd.org/flsearch.html?reg=&flight=ly0317

Well done to the pilots

Compared to ELAL fleets size, the amount of emergency landings and aircraft going tech, seems to be sky rocketing high!
Does seem to be high recently, I agree.

You seem to be right, as ELD seems to be the culprit.

http://heathrowcam.net/index.php?page=16&view=1&photo=215351&mode=2
http://www.acarsd.org/flsearch.html?reg=&flight=ly0317

Yet, 4X-ELD is the youngest 744, built in 1999 IIRC, so it is not old

Does anyone know what the issue was?

Globes has alot of details including an interview with the pilot
http://http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000763042&fid=1725

Compared to ELAL fleets size, the amount of emergency landings and aircraft going tech, seems to be sky rocketing high!

Starting to seriously question heir maintenance and safety!

Any European carrier anytime over ELAL.
Any actual stats on this? I'd be curious to see how ElAl compares to other carriers.

Globes has alot of details including an interview with the pilot
http://http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000763042&fid=1725

Correct link:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000763042&fid=1725

Any idea how long ELD is going to be out of service?
Interesting that there don't seem to be all that many ripple effects on the schedule (which there usually are when a plane goes tech at LY). So far they delayed a flight to and from Paris and moved the sat nite 008, from JFK, up by half an hour. . . How can it be that there is such a minimal effect, especially in the heat of the summer rush?

Globes has alot of details including an interview with the pilot
http://http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000763042&fid=1725

Wow, that was a very interesting interview. He seems worried about the reaction to his "mayday" call and also tried to talk himself up quite a bit. Wonder if he caught some flak for declaring an emergency for an engine failure (though I personally have no issue with it)

Only one passenger in panic? That's about how many there are on a normal flight :)

He seems worried about the reaction to his "mayday" call and also tried to talk himself up quite a bit. Wonder if he caught some flak for declaring an emergency for an engine failure (though I personally have no issue with it)

Would be interesting to hear from the aviation experts if this is something very out of the usual.

Photo of the captain in Heathrow after landing. (http://ladaat.net/article.aspx?artid=1311)

A little scary

Photo of the captain in Heathrow after landing. (http://ladaat.net/article.aspx?artid=1311)

Today A Israir flight from Eilat to "Sedeh Dov" made an emergency landing at Ben Gurion due ta a engine failure.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/384/022.html?hp=1&cat=402&loc=50

Maariv video (http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/383/897.html), iterviewing captin and co-pilot and passengers upon their arrival at TLV.

It seems that the passengers were flown to TLV on a special flight from Luton Thursday night operated by a B777

Any idea how long ELD is going to be out of service?

It seems to have left London tonight.
http://www.acarsd.org/flsearch.html?reg=&flight=ly1318

It seems that the passengers were flown to TLV on a special flight from Luton Thursday night operated by a B777

From Luton? Haven't they been punished enough?

Today A Israir flight from Eilat to "Sedeh Dov" made an emergency landing at Ben Gurion due ta a engine failure.

Hmm, I wonder if the pilot lives in shoham or something :)

It seems to have left London tonight.
http://www.acarsd.org/flsearch.html?reg=&flight=ly1318

Aircraft is back in service, operated LY317 yesterday (08/07).

Someone just posted the following to a mailing list I'm on. I've removed personal details, and the bolding is mine also.


What can one do to get compensation from the following scenario? An airliner had technical issues where the engine caught on fire in flight (yes, VERY scary). The engine was eventually shut off and the fire went out. The pilot decided to turn around and landed back where they took off (Heathrow) despite being over (France?). Since it was 12am when they landed, no one was in the airport to get the people off the plane after the fire dept.came to inspect it for safety. So they passengers had to remain onboard for 2 hours. (They did serve the meals that were intended for the flight, then).

At about 2am or so they found someone who could put the "stairs" next to the plane and a bus or two to transport the passengers back to the terminal. But since there was only 1 or 2 busses, Most of the 400+ passengers got off more like 3am and got to a hotel by 4am. It took forever to wait on line to "check in" all those passengers in the hotel so when all said and done, most got to sleep after 5am.

In the end, they had to remain for 24 hours in England near Heathrow until another plane could take them? They lost a day hanging around a hotel awaiting news when/how they would be flown to their destination and how to get the luggage. (it was too long to get to any tourist attractions as the hotel was not far from the runway of Heathrow.

<snip>

When the passengers got to Ben Gurion a few employees were waiting with cupcakes (yes you read correctly) to give and an apology for the mishap.




This was just added:


I hear you thoughts but FYI I and probably 100 or more others in the back rows of the plane watched 20-40 foot flames coming out of the right side of the plane for no less than 10 seconds perhaps a lot longer (it felt that way).

I like cupcakes...

I think we need more info before we can determine if the folks were properly taken care or not...I guess we really need to start with ---were they muffins or cupcakes?
Because I don't recall seeing cupcakes all that often when im in Israel.
Were they mini cupcakes with sprinkles or American size style? :D
Is the op upset that he didnt get Jelly donuts?

All kidding aside, they could contact El AL offices directly and find out what they are entitled to. They did get a hotel room (im assuming meals were covered). Im sure they will get some Matmid points (:rolleyes:) or a discount voucher for a future flight. In general, all airlines have these types of issues, and from the sounds of it, the experience with El AL after the incident seemed somewhat orderly on their part (not on part of the Airport though).

Its a tough situation, but Im sure the airline will do the right thing in the end. I dont think that the gesture was meant to put salt on a wound or anything of the sort.

I wonder if the cupcakes had a little flaming plane on top of them.

...
Is the op upset that he didnt get Jelly donuts?


If OP wanted jelly donuts s/he should have traveled during Hanukkah.

"New information has surfaced regarding the El Al jet that was forced to return to London for an emergency landing shortly after taking off for Tel Aviv two weeks ago. A preliminary finding by the Transportation Ministry shows that the crew decided to continue with the flight even though it was aware of possible engine problems......
......
Ministry investigators say the crew received alerts regarding the overheating engine during the previous flight from Tel Aviv to London; lights went off on the pilots' instrument panel, but the pilots decided to make the return flight anyway.
El Al said that the examination is complete, and that it "will not comment on the matter."

http://www.haaretz.com/business/probe-finds-el-al-crew-knew-of-engine-troubles-1.451839

I take most thing I read in the press with a pinch of salt, but if this is true and the investigation finds the pilots decided to take a risk and continue to TLV despite having engine issues on the inbound, they should be sacked.

Here we go again
elal 737 from Tel Aviv to Brussels had to stop at Budapest
do to suspected fuel Valve Issue
sorry could not find English link

http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000769912