On Friday, a Rossiya Airlines Boeing 777 cargo plane had to make an emergency landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The airline later said the 777 was experiencing a problem with an engine control sensor and that all passengers were safely evacuated. The incident raises questions about whether a Russian company will be able to repair the 777, which has General Electric engines. The 777 was flying from Hong Kong to Madrid, and the Russian news agency Interfax reported that the pilot saw an instrument warning light indicating engine failure.
The airline later told AFP that the flight had been diverted to Sheremetyevo because of a “failure of one of the left engine control channels.” It was still not clear whether the engine actually failed.
Rossiya Airlines, part of Aeroflot’s fleet, flies a number of Boeing 777 aircraft on long-haul flights between Europe and Asia and to remote regions in Russia. The 777-300ER presented here, EI-XLP, was delivered to the airline in 1999. It is configured with 373 seats, 18 in business class and 355 in economy. It has been fitted with the new inflight entertainment system that is currently in use by all Aeroflot group airlines. This system provides access to quite a broad range of movies, games, music and more.
It is possible that the https://143.198.211.51 might have been flying with Pratt & Whitney engines at the time of its emergency diversion to Moscow. But a flight-tracking website shows that this aircraft, with registration VT-ALH, is equipped with GE90-115B engines. These are a different type from the GE PW4000 engines aboard a United Airlines Boeing 777 that shed an engine on its approach to San Francisco last week and prompted the U.S. to suspend operations of planes powered by that type.
Replacing a GE90-115B engine on a 777 requires heavy maintenance, and that’s a challenge under any circumstances. But it’s even more difficult when an aircraft is diverted to a country subject to export restrictions on the types of spare parts needed for such maintenance.
The Air India 777-200LR that made its diversion to Magadan is a fourteen-year-old aircraft with the registration VT-ALH, and it appears that the airline owns it outright. The 777 is scheduled to fly again on Wednesday, this time on the route between Delhi and San Francisco. If it makes that trip, it will be the first time that this aircraft has flown with passengers since last June. Air India chose to keep passenger names and passport numbers confidential for the duration of the diversion, in case there was a risk of retaliation from Russia. The company did say it would send a ferry flight to Magadan to bring food and other necessities to the passengers in their makeshift accommodation. Air India is also providing free airfare on future flights for those on the stranded aircraft. That’s a nice gesture, but it doesn’t really address the issue of the passengers being trapped in Magadan with no way to get home for several days or weeks.
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