A Saudia 787 has run into engine problems en route to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and has been forced to land in Bangladesh. A Boeing 777-300ER was sent to pick up the passengers and delivered them home the following day.
What are the details?
Flight SV-885, operated by a Saudia Arabian Airlines Boeing 787-9 (tail number HZ-ARA) was flying just fine from Guangzhou China to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when it ran into engine troubles over Myanmar.
The specifics of the engine problems are not entirely clear, only that the flight crew had to shut down the right-hand engine (which for those readers who ask for engine details, a GEnx).
The aircraft requested permission to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh and managed to get to the ground safely with one engine about 75 minutes later. It was able to taxi to the terminal and offload passengers. The aircraft was carrying 299 people.
A replacement Boeing 777-300ER was sent to pick up the passengers (who landed at 15:00 local time and didn't depart till 4.30 AM the following day), who finally got home 24 hours later.
The Boeing 787-9 is still sitting on the ground in Bangladesh over 58 hours later. It is forcing Saudia to cancel flights that were scheduled with the aircraft.
What caused the problem?
At this stage, it is not clear what is wrong with the engine. Unlike other incidences that involve a bird hitting the blades or contained engine failure, this just seems like that the powerplant failed.
There have been no reports of a fire or smoke, and perhaps it means that come component that operates the engine simply failed. Simple Flying reached out to Saudia for comment.
Who is Saudia Arabian Airlines?
Saudia for short is an international carrier that operates to 95 destinations from their hub King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. They do have two secondary hub airports, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
Interestingly, they are the third biggest middle eastern airline behind Emirates and Qatar in terms of revenue, and easily in the top five biggest fleets in the region.
Specifically, they have a fleet of 160 aircraft, 10 of which are part of their cargo fleet. Of their fleet, 46 aircraft are short-range A320 aircraft used for domestic flights and linking nearby neighbors. In terms of their long-haul fleet, they have 32 A330-300s, seven Boeing 747-400s, 33 Boeing 777-300ERs, and 14 Boeing 787s (one of which is a 787-10).
But that's not all, the airline has 72 aircraft on order. They are expanding their short-haul fleet with a range of A320neo variants (including 15 Airbus A321XLRs) as well as nine more Boeing 787-10s.
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