Reuters
A smoking engine forced a Delta Air Lines Inc. flight bound for London to return to Atlanta shortly after takeoff Wednesday afternoon, hours after another Delta takeoff was aborted due to engine trouble.
Firefighters at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport doused the plane’s engine, and no injuries were reported, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Passengers and bystanders posted images of the smoking engine on social media:
#delta airline plane on fire at #Atlanta arport pic.twitter.com/wmW4EkfOis
— paul egas (@EgasPaul) April 18, 2018
A small fire occurred 20-30 after take off on @Delta 30 from Atlanta to London...here is some of the smoke that came from that engine @FOX5Atlanta pic.twitter.com/HlEJrlyU65
— Aiun Nettles (@AiunFox5) April 18, 2018
Pictures from Passengers emerging of an Engine Fire on board Delta Airlines flight bound for London Heathrow.
— Flight Alerts ⚠ (@FlightAlerts777) April 18, 2018
Flames visible on the aircraft once it landed back at Atlanta pic.twitter.com/vMgj9PLdOa
WTH is going on with these planes? My girl was headed to London from Atlanta on @Delta and the engine caught on fire. pic.twitter.com/nYqTtye43z
— Ayisha W (@adw424) April 18, 2018
One passenger tweeted: “Very cool job by the @delta pilots. Everything went smoothly on our quick return to Atlanta.”
Hartsfield-Jackson is Atlanta-based Delta’s largest hub, and the busiest airport in the world.
It was the second scary incident for Delta on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, a Delta flight from Providence, R.I., to Atlanta was forced to abort takeoff after it experienced engine trouble, according to WPRI News. No one was hurt in that incident either.
On Tuesday, a passenger was killed on a Southwest Airlines Co. flight from New York to Dallas after an engine blew out mid-flight. It was the first passenger death in Southwest’s history, and the first fatality on a U.S. commercial flight since 2009.
Southwest said Wednesday it was accelerating inspections of CFM56 engines on its Boeing 737 planes. It was not immediately clear if the same engines were at fault in the Delta incidents.