Last month, on July 29th, a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 767-300 experienced a "loud bang" coming from one of its engines as it climbed out of its hub in Kyiv. Following the occurrence, the engine was shut down and the aircraft returned to Kyiv.
Incident details
The UIA Boeing 767-300 had registration UR-GEC and was performing flight PS271 from Kyiv, Ukraine to Bangkok, Thailand. According to Aviation Herald, the aircraft had reached an altitude of 4000 feet when a loud bang was heard from the right-hand engine.
Post-incident investigation results
The aircraft and the UIA fleet
The aircraft involved, UR-GEC, is a 26.9-year-old Boeing 767-300ER. According to SeatGuru, the aircraft is configured to offer three classes of seating: 12 in business, 38 premium economy, and 211 in economy.
According to Wikipedia, the UIA fleet is relatively small. The airline has another three 767-300ER aircraft as well as:
- Three Boeing 777-200ERs
- 24 Boeing 737-800s
- Three Boeing 737-900s
In addition to this, for smaller regional jets, UIA uses seven Embraer E190/195 jets. There are also three Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets on order for the airline.
The Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 itself is a fairly old model of aircraft no longer in production for passenger travel (not the case for cargo/freighter variants). In fact, British Airways retired its last 767 last November.
All three U.S. airlines still utilize the aircraft. Despite their age, there are investments going into extending their lives. Delta’s fleet of Boeing 767-400s are getting refurbished and these new cabins will roll out this coming November. United Airlines is in the process of retrofitting its Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with as many as 46 Polaris Business class seats.
Conclusion
We reached out to both Ukraine International Airlines as well as General Electric for comment on the situation. However, at the time of publishing, we have yet to hear back from either company. We'll update this article should we get any response.
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