On Monday, a Belavia Boeing 737-800 en route from Minsk in Belarus to Antalya in Turkey sent out an emergency signal, after which it diverted to Moscow. The plane landed safely but with only one functioning engine at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport at 11:46 local time.

Flight B29215 from Minsk to Antalya

Belavia Flight B29215 was carrying 197 passengers and seven crew members when it sent out an SOS signal while passing over the Belgorod region in Russia, rounding Ukrainian airspace. At first, the pilots seem to have been planning to land at Voronezh.

However, they needed to use up more fuel for a safe landing. As such, the plane then continued at a lower altitude towards Domodedovo Airport, which is located 36 km to the south of Moscow.

Belarusian flag carrier Belavia is yet to release any statement regarding the incident. However, a source confirmed to Russian news agency TASS that the plane had landed without any incident but with only one engine running. Meanwhile, Domodedovo's press service shared the following statement with Simple Flying,

"A Belavia aircraft on its way from Minsk to Antalya landed safely at Domodedovo Airport at 11:46 am. The plane has cleared the runway and is at the parking lot now. Passengers will be delivered to the terminal." 

The airport continues to function according to normal operations. No other information as to the nature of the engine failure had yet been forthcoming by the time of publication. There is also, as of yet, no estimation of when the passengers will be able to continue on their journey.

The plane continued on to the northeast and Moscow past Voronezh to spend more fuel for an emergency landing. Photo: RadarBox.com

Plane powered by CFM engines

The Belavia plane involved in Monday's diversion is a five-year-old Boeing 737-800 registered as EW-455PA. It was delivered to the airline from the manufacturer's facilities in Renton, Washington, in August 2016. It is powered by CFM International CFM56-7B engines.

CFM is a joint venture between French powerplant makers Safran Aircraft Engines and American GE aviation. The CFM56 powers the Airbus A320 family as well as Classic and Next-Generation Boeing 737s. It has a shut-down rate of one incident in 333,333 hours.

Southwest 737
San Francisco is one of 85 Southwest routes from Denver. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

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Other incidents with the engines

In August 2017, a 16-year-old Southwest 737-700 powered by CFM56 engines suffered a severed fan blade with an uncontained engine failure as a result. Fortunately, despite damage to the fuselage resulting in loss of cabin pressure, none of the plane's 104 occupants were injured.

Events came to a more tragic end in 2018 when another Southwest 737-700 with CFM56-7B powerplants suffered an uncontained engine failure that resulted in the cowl breaking. Debris from the damage punctured a window, killing one passenger and injuring several others in the process. The plane performed a successful emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport.

Have you ever been on a flight that was diverted? What was the experience like? Please scroll down to the comment section and tell us about it.