Engine Shutdown Forces Alaska Boeing 737-700 to Divert
Joe Cortez August 26, 2024
The San Francisco Chronicle reports one of the carrier’s flights was forced to return back to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on Sunday, August 25, 2024, after an engine shutdown after takeoff.
Alaska Investigating What Caused Midair Engine Shutdown
According to data from FlightRadar24, Alaska Airlines Flight 1240 left Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 1:03 p.m. Pacific Time bound for Oakland, just over an hour after its scheduled departure time. Shortly after takeoff, the airline confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that one of the engines on the Boeing 737-700 aircraft shut down. Witnesses on the plane told the newspaper they “heard a loud noise and felt a jarring jump” when the incident took place.
Data shows the aircraft circled the Seattle area before landing at SEA nearly one hour later without further incident. There were no injuries reported as a result of the incident, and the flyers continued to their destination later in the day.
In a statement to Seattle CBS Affiliate KIRO 7, the airline gave credit to the crew for “following standard procedures for this situation.” They went on to apologize to the flyers for the inconvenience.
Alaska has not put out a public statement offering an update to the incident.
The incident is among major issues the carrier has faced with their all-Boeing fleet from the beginning of the year. In January 2024, an Alaska flight was forced to return to its departure airport after a door plug blew out after takeoff. Although there were no injuries, it sparked investigations of Boeing from both Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration over quality control issues on delivered aircraft.
Stay up to date with all things Alaska Airlines on the FlyerTalk forums.
Feature image courtesy: Huy Do via V1Images Aviation Media.
Ed. note: The aircraft depicted above is an image of the aircraft involved in the incident, taken at a different time.
I think the point the author was trying to make was that Alaska is all Boeing, hence the 'challenging year', not necessarily that it's another 737.
Exactly. Sensationalism may cause more clicks, but your credibility takes a hit.
Sounds like compressor stall in the engine causing the failure. I wouldn't say this is a Boeing airframe issue like with the MAX models (and this is a -700, not a max)... its an issue with the engine.
Its an engine issue, I 've had j-79's on an Phantom airfrom stall they didn't ground the birds because of an engine issue. I am not in anyway defending Boeing just prefer the truth or real reasons. BA is on my you know what list as it is