We all have read by now how SQ 368 was on the way to Milan had to turn back and land at Changi where it caught fire on landing. From the various news reports, it was mentioned that the plane was 2 hours into the flight when the pilot came on the intercom and announced that there was a oil leak in one of the engines. The Boeing 777-300ER with 241 souls on board was turned round and returned to singapore. One hour after that, passengers said they started smelling fuel in the plane.
My question to SQ was, that knowing that there was an engine problem, why did it not divert to the nearest airport instead of trying to fly on a defective engine for another 2 hours. By this time, they were already over the Bay of bengal. Diverting to Bangkok would have been much closer, as well as Subang. Also, Penang International was probably the closest airport with a long enough runway to accomodate them. This is a crazy and unnecessary risk to continue back to singapore. I always thought that if there was a bad problem, the plane should be put down at the nearest airport ASAP.
The fuel smell in the plane could be attributed to the fact that they were already dumping fuel. And some of the smell might have gotten into the cabin. If that was not the case, then there was a fuel leak in addition to whatever check engine light came on. This is not a good thing. The plane's wing catching fire on landing could be the residual fuel left on the wing that got set on fire when sparks from the undercarriage hit it on landing. But this would be unusual. many planes make emergency landing and dump fuel before doing that. If that resulted in fire all the time, no one would dump fuel. But that is not the case, something suspicious here.
But it really is very shocking to me that they would not set the plane down at the nearest airport for such an emergency. Very dangerous in my eyes to have this king of pilots flying for you.
My question to SQ was, that knowing that there was an engine problem, why did it not divert to the nearest airport instead of trying to fly on a defective engine for another 2 hours. By this time, they were already over the Bay of bengal. Diverting to Bangkok would have been much closer, as well as Subang. Also, Penang International was probably the closest airport with a long enough runway to accomodate them. This is a crazy and unnecessary risk to continue back to singapore. I always thought that if there was a bad problem, the plane should be put down at the nearest airport ASAP.
The fuel smell in the plane could be attributed to the fact that they were already dumping fuel. And some of the smell might have gotten into the cabin. If that was not the case, then there was a fuel leak in addition to whatever check engine light came on. This is not a good thing. The plane's wing catching fire on landing could be the residual fuel left on the wing that got set on fire when sparks from the undercarriage hit it on landing. But this would be unusual. many planes make emergency landing and dump fuel before doing that. If that resulted in fire all the time, no one would dump fuel. But that is not the case, something suspicious here.
But it really is very shocking to me that they would not set the plane down at the nearest airport for such an emergency. Very dangerous in my eyes to have this king of pilots flying for you.
