Atlas Air Boeing 747 engine catches fire midflight

An Atlas Air Boeing 747-8 suffered an in flight engine fire on the 18th January 2024. The aircraft had climbed to 2000ft from Miami, Florida, bound for San Juan in Puerto Rico, when its number 2 engine (left inboard) caught fire.

The crew immediately declared a mayday, leveled off at 3000ft and returned for a successful emergency landing at runway 09 in Miami.

Atlas Air is a cargo airline based in the USA. No passengers were aboard. All five crew members safely returned with no injuries.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating, as a post flight inspection showed a softball sized hole above the engine - something that could imply an "uncontained engine failure", where the problem with the engine had not fully been contained within the cowling, opening up the possibilty for further damage whilst in flight. An engine is designed to contain a blade seperation for safety purposes.

This Boeing aircraft is eight years old.

The fact that this aircraft returned safely with no injuries, goes to show how safe the airline industry is. Well done to the pilots.