extramileage

This one is for the avgeeks. Nothing that exciting other than photos of engine swap at YYZ.

On 20 July 2019, A6-EDO operating EK 242 (YYZ-DXB) reported engine trouble about an hour after take off and turned back to YYZ. Landed with no issues. A6-EOF was sent to pick up the passengers, who departed the next day. A6-EDO is still in Toronto as of July 25.

Engine change on Emirates A380 that suffered engine failure on flight EK242? ? News In Flight

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...6-edo#215dc73f

g289t

Would immigration complications prevent considering a diversion to JFK? Emirates operates three A380 flights per day to JFK, plus many other airlines operate transatlantic flights there. I would think that re-accommodating passengers might have been a bit simpler.

skywardhunter

Accommodating pax is pretty much the lowest priority in such an emergency

g289t

Agreed. But there were a number of major airports closer than YYZ from where they turned around. YUL, BOS, JFK, and EWR were all closer. It doesn't seem to have been a get-on-the-ground-as-soon-as-possible emergency.

Either way, I'm not second guessing the decision to return to Toronto. I'm sure they did the right thing under the circumstances. I have no idea what was going on other than what I read. I was just trying to think of possible reasons why they wouldn't land somewhere like JFK with high Emirates traffic. Immigration was one thing that came to mind.

skywardhunter

Also paperwork. The aircraft may not be registered to fly to the US or they didn't have other required documents. Immigration obviously is a factor. Also a single engine failure on a 4-engine plane isn't a very urgent issue but there'd be other factors such as weight and possible fuel dumping meaning the nearest airport isn't the most practical, or basically there's no downside to going to one further away when there are procedures and troubleshooting that are carried out enroute that prevent an earlier landing anyway. And ultimately it's just easier, the pilots would have briefed an approach to YYZ in case of an engine failure after V1 on take off etc, have all the charts and frequencies ready and better locational awareness of the airfields layout etc. As they'd just been there.

g289t

I remember years ago reading about a BA 747 that lost an engine sometime after takeoff. I don't remember the precise details, but I believe it departed from the US West Coast. It headed for LHR anyway, but had to stop and refuel somewhere en route because of the extra drag of the dead engine.