The Brazilian airline Total Linhas Aereas had an incident with one of its Boeing 727 freighters when it was performing a flight between Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo and Galeao International Airport in Rio de Janeiro.

What happened?

Total Linhas Aereas has a fleet of nine aircraft. It has five Boeing 727-200 freighters and four ATR-42-500 for passenger and cargo operations.

One Boeing 727-200, registration PR-TTP, was flying between Guarulhos and Rio de Janeiro. According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was on route, above 19,000 feet, when it felt two strong jolts. The crew, two pilots and one flight engineer, checked their instruments and identified that the second engine’s parameters, located in the tail, had changed.

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After this discovery, the crew decided to shut the engine down and continue the flight to Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft landed, without any more issues, 20 minutes later.

The Aeronautical Accidents, Investigation, and Prevention Center (CENIPA in Portuguese) reported the incident.

Total Linhas Aereas
The aircraft that had the incident is the one in this picture. Photo: aeroprints.com via Wikimedia Commons.

A brief history of Total Linhas Aereas

When we talk about Brazilian carriers, we often think of three airlines: GOL, Azul, and LATAM. Nowadays, we also think about current start-ups, Ita Linhas Aereas and Nella Linhas Aereas.

But, in reality, Brazil has many more airlines. For instance, the Brazilian aviation regulator says there are ten domestic airlines transporting passengers. These are GOL, LATAM, Azul, Passaredo, MAP, Two Flex, Total Linhas Aereas, Omni, Asta, and Sideral. Plus, there are three cargo-only carriers called Connect Cargo Linhas Aereas (which went bankrupt earlier this year), Absa, and Modern.

Total Linhas Aereas has its base in Belo Horizonte. It started operations in 1988 as an air taxi company. In 2007, it merged with TRIP Linhas Aereas, maintaining its name.

It mainly operates charter passenger flights, mostly for Petrobras in the Amazonian region, while transporting cargo across the country.

In 2020, it has transported 8,718 passengers and 11,388 tons of cargo, according to the Brazilian Government stats. Last year, it transported 63,422 passengers and carried more than 16,000 tons of cargo.

Total Linhas Aereas
Engine #2 of the Boeing 727-200 failed. The engine is located on the tail of the aircraft. Photo: Rafael Luiz Canossa via Wikimedia Commons.

A brief history of PR-TTP

The Boeing 727-2M7 is 42 years old. It was first delivered in April 1978 to Hughes Airwest, an airline that mainly operated out of San Francisco. Hughes Airwest ceased operations in 1980 when Republic acquired it.

Meanwhile, the Boeing 727 went to Philippine Airlines in 1979, leased, according to JetPhotos.com. In 1981, Republic Airways used the aircraft after acquiring Hughes Airways and maintained it until 1986. Then, Norwest Airlines got the aircraft after it merged with Republic.

The B727-200 became a freighter in 1996 when it left the US for South America. Ecuatoriana de Aviación acquired the aircraft and kept it for four years. Then, the US carrier Express One International leased the aircraft for a few years before Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano acquired it in 2003.

Finally, Total Linhas Aereas got the B727-200 in 2008.

Simple Flying tried contacting Total Linhas Aereas through its website but couldn’t. We also reached CENIPA. We haven’t received a response at the publication date, but we’ll update you if that changes.

What do you think of the incident? Let us know in the comments.