“Boeing-737” S7 made an emergency landing in Novosibirsk due to engine problems

A Boeing 737 of the S7 airline, flying from Novosibirsk to Moscow, made an emergency landing a few minutes after takeoff. There were 176 people on board, none of them were injured, Baza reports. The board is removed from operation, the passengers are accommodated in the airport building.

According to the data of the Eastern Interregional Transport Investigation Department, the plane had an engine surge — a violation of the gas-dynamic stability of its operation, RIA Novosti reports.

Among the possible causes of surging are engine wear or foreign objects falling into it, for example, birds.

In the first reports about the incident, it was said that the plane’s engines caught fire, but later this information was not confirmed.

One of the passengers told the NGS that the fire occurred in both engines of the plane. “The right engine, next to which I was sitting, caught fire on the runway, several tongues of flame erupted, then we left the ground, it flashed once every 10-20 seconds. Then the second one was connected, they flashed simultaneously. There were 12 flashes, then they stopped, it was clear that we were turning around,” said another passenger.

“When accelerating on the runway, the turbines began to crackle and flames appeared on two turbines when there were cracks – the power dropped. Then the plane somehow took off, but it periodically fell down, then normalized. The plane was returned to the airfield anyway, the brakes burned during landing, so that he was then towed,” said the passenger of the flight.

Eyewitnesses noted that there was no panic on board. The plane was towed, and the passengers were escorted to the terminal.

In the last day, this is the second report about the forced landing of the plane due to engine surge. The day before, the Tu-204 cargo plane’s engine caught fire when it took off from the Ulan-Ude airport. The plane landed safely, the five people on board were not injured.

• According to information on October 10, the Novosibirsk airline S7 Airlines does not use about 20% of its fleet due to difficulties with the maintenance of liners, “Kommersant” calculated. This is 21 aircraft. The company’s autumn-winter schedule was planned to be reduced by 10-15% compared to last year due to difficulties with servicing the Airbus A320/A321neo narrow-body airliners and the American Pratt & Whitney engines installed on them.