Air France Flight from Paris to Los Angeles Suffers Engine Failure Over Greenland

An AirFrance Airbus 380 flight from Paris to LAX suffered a major engine problem over Greenland on September 30th, but was able to land safely in Canada.

On 30 September, Air France flight 66 en route from Paris to Los Angeles suffered an engine failure over Greenland. The aircraft, an Airbus A380-861 powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines, suffered a failure of the number 4 engine-the outer, right engine. https://blog.flightradar24.com/blog/air-france-flight-af66-suffers-engine-failure-over-greenland/

"The entire plane shook and we heard a sickening thud," tweeted one female passenger, once the Airbus had landed.

Helicopter search crews located the parts of the airplane on October 6th. Their photos are more than a little dramatic. They show both the damaged engine, and pieces of the right wing engine sticking out of the snow.

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by European manufacturer Airbus.

It is the world's largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it. It was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and entered commercial service on 25 October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. An improved version, the A380plus, is under development.

The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft. This gives the A380-800's cabin almost 6000 square feet of usable floor space, 40% more than the next largest airliner, the Boeing 747-8, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy class configuration.

The A380-800 has a design range of 8,500 nautical miles, serving the second- and third-longest non-stop scheduled flights in the world (as of February 2017), and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h, 560 mph or 490 kt at cruising altitude).

On 30 September 2017, Air France Flight 66, an Engine Alliance GP7270 powered Airbus A380, registration F-HPJE, suffered an apparent uncontained engine failure while operating from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. The aircraft safely diverted to CFB Goose Bay, Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380#Incidents_and_accidents