A Boeing 747 cargo plane made an emergency landing Thursday night after it was seen spewing flames in the night sky over Miami.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is already investigating Boeing after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing when a door plug fell off the fuselage midair this month, said in a statement Friday that it will look into the latest incident on an Atlas Air flight.
The airlines said in a statement that Flight 5Y095, headed for Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico, “landed safely after experiencing an engine malfunction soon after departure from Miami International Airport.”
“The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned to MIA. At Atlas, safety is always our top priority and we will be conducting a thorough inspection to determine the cause,” Atlas Air said.
The plane took off at 10:22 p.m. ET Thursday and returned to Miami at 10:30 p.m., the FAA said.
A source familiar with the investigation told NBC News on Friday that the preliminary examination of the Atlas Air engine revealed “a softball sized hole above the #2 engine.”
Cellphone video uploaded to Instagram by a Miami resident late Thursday shows a plane fly across the sky with what appears to be a trail of fire behind it.
“Oh, my God, it’s on fire! Oh, my God,” the person filming the clip is heard saying as the plane leaves a line of bright yellow and red in its wake.
The incident in Miami is the latest in a history of issues involving Boeing. The news comes two weeks after the Alaska Airlines flight incident, which prompted the FAA to ground certain Boeing 737 Max 9 planes across the U.S. That move thrust the nation’s air travel into chaos and caused numerous flight cancellations.
Inspections of 40 of the 171 grounded planes have been completed, the FAA said Wednesday.
“The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning these aircraft to service,” the agency said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the Atlas Air incident.
In a statement on the Miami mishap, Boeing said it is “supporting our customer and will support the NTSB investigation into this incident.”
