Newsstand - United plane makes emergency landing in Brazil

Thursday June 21, 7:24 am Eastern Time

United plane makes emergency landing in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil, June 21 (Reuters) - A United Airlines (NYSE:UAL - news) flight bound for New York from Rio de Janeiro was forced to dump its fuel into the Atlantic Ocean and make an emergency landing in Sao Paulo early on Thursday after an engine caught fire, local media said.

CBN radio said none of the 160 passengers and 13 crew were hurt, although some were apparently struck with terror when a jet engine burst into flames soon after take-off from Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport, where the Boeing 767 (NYSE:BA - news) had made a stopover on Wednesday night.

``The worst part was the fire. When I saw it I said, it's going to hit the fuel tank and explode and we're all going to die,'' passenger Patricia Oliveira told Globo TV.

No one at United Airlines' offices in Sao Paulo was immediately available for comment.

****... I have to fly that route tomorrow !!! now I am not looking forward.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Dont worry RedRobin. Statistically, the chances of UA having a mechanical problem in such a short timeframe are practically zero.

Gaucho

Sim and nao... yes and no...

I figure that since the flight had problems on wed night.. it got serviced yesterday and today? is the flight out?... I wonder how to find out the nose number of that flight with the accident and look tonight for the nose number...

it's certainly not pleasant to know that I am flying in the "fire skies" of UAL....

oh well.. let's hope at least that they open 2 NC's for me...

Rgds

RedRobin

RRobin-- even if it would be the same bird, remember that it will have a new engine.
Relax and have a great trip!!

Statistically, you are more in danger getting to the airport.

Have a nice flight RedRobin, nothing's gonna happen to you.

Statistically, just like when flipping a coin or rolling dice, each flip/roll/flight/or other event, is independent of those that have gone on before, and the probability of a particular event, such as an engine fire, has nothing to do with what happened yesterday. Statistics provides a means of characterizing a large number of events over time, and does not particularly help in predicting whether a particular thing will or will not happen at some particular time.

Yes & No. In theory, you are 100% correct, but in practice I beg to differ. Chances are the aircraft that suffered the problem got either a new or recently serviced engine to replace the one that had the mishap. A new(er) engine has statistically less chances of failing.

So if 1000 people collectively take penicillin to be treated, say for the "clap" and report a successful course of therapy and no discernable side effects, then if I'm to be treaed with the same medication for the same disease, we cant make any predictions regarding the likely eventual outcome? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The outcome was..

..it was not the same plane.

I spoke with the purser on the gig-gru flight and she told me that they had flown an engine to be be substituted, but it was still in the works.

from gru to jfk flight was smooth. capt. siad he would have chn 9 on../ then he turned off... and at some point we had really bad turbulence. FA's had to take their seat in the middle of dinner.

I had a "C" seat and the beef.. wht is it that all the time GRU loads beef on UAL it tastes bad!!! they could get better.

Hot towels and S&P shakers where available, but no godiva chocolate.

ahh last but not least.. they upgraded two SA's b4 closing the door to business from coach. (pissed me off.. since I was trying to upgrade my wife!)

oh well..