Smoke Forces Dreamliner to Make Emergency Landing
Joe Cortez September 26, 2014
A Dreamliner jet landed at Glasgow after declaring an emergency due to a possible fire onboard.
A Boeing 787-8 was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday after pilots received a warning about a potential fire in the cargo hold. According to Scotland’s Evening Times, LOT Polish Airlines Flight 4 made an emergency landing at Glasgow International Airport (GLA) while en route from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW).
LO4 took off from ORD Thursday night and was expected to land at WAW Friday afternoon. According to Reuters, pilots were alerted to a potential issue in the baggage hold midflight by the fire protection system. The Evening Times reports that the pilots and passengers could smell smoke on the aircraft. The warning signs caused the pilots to declare an emergency and land the aircraft at GLA.
The Dreamliner landed without incident at approximately 5:30 a.m. ET on Friday, according to Reuters. Passengers were quickly evacuated, and none of the 260 people onboard was injured.
The incident comes as Boeing continues to receive scrutiny for problems associated with the Dreamliner. Reuters reports that the FAA recently discovered that some 787-8 aircraft did not have their fire-suppression plugs installed correctly. The fire-suppression problem was identified on 88 of the aircraft, and the FAA is giving domestic carriers one year to make the required fixes.
After being cleared by safety officials and technicians at GLA, the aircraft was allowed to resume operations more than five hours after landing. A spokesperson for LOT told Reuters that the incident was caused by “a glitch in the fire protection system.”
Boeing released a statement to Reuters saying that the company is aware of the emergency and is in the process of “working with customer to assess the situation.”
[Photo: iStock]
