An Airbus A380 superjumbo jet with 497 passengers aboard Air France flight 66 from Paris to Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing Saturday in Canada after one of the jet’s four engines failed as the plane cruised at 37,000 feet over the west coast of Greenland. The plane landed safely and there were no reports of injuries to passengers or crew.
The aircraft, an Airbus 380-800 with registration number F-HPJE, lost the entire front of engine #4 (right side, farthest from fuselage) including the fan and casing. There are no obvious signs of a fire.
The plane’s engines were manufactured by Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTC). An hour after the plane landed, Engine Alliance tweeted that it was “aware of, and looking into reports of an issue involving Air France flight #AF66 from [Charles de Gaulle] to [Los Angeles International] that was diverted to [Goose Bay].”
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The airplane landed at Goose Bay, Newfoundland, at 11:42 a.m. ET Saturday. A passenger on the flight posted the following inflight photos of the damage on Twitter.
Air France is leasing the plane — serial number 52 — from an unnamed lessor according to Planespotters.net. The aircraft was delivered in May of 2011.
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