(New York) On Friday, pilots of a US Boeing 737 MAX decided to shut down one of the aircraft’s engines in an emergency situation during a Miami flight to New York due to a “potential mechanical problem” before landing safely.
A company spokesman said Flight 2555 on board the main Boeing aircraft, which was grounded for nearly two years after two fatal accidents, arrived “safely and quietly” at Newark Airport and was flown unaided to the gate.
According to the spokesperson, it was an issue with pressing the engine oil or a problem with the volume indicator.
It confirmed that the MCAS pilot assistance program, which was involved in the crash of Lion Air in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in 2019, did not participate.
The US agency overseeing flight, the Federal Aviation Administration, which is planning to investigate the accident, said the plane from Miami landed “after pilots reported that one of the engines had been switched off during the flight.”
American Airlines was the first company to reintegrate the 737 MAX into its flight program at the end of December 2020, just a few weeks after the green light from US authorities.
The latter required many modifications to the aircraft, in particular to the MCAS program, as well as new training for pilots.
Federal Aviation Administration Director Steve Dixon warned at the time that it was “inevitable” that mechanical or suspected problems would arise at some point and that the 737 MAX would have to return to the airport during its flight. Aircraft models.
Boeing, which has set up an operations center that monitors all 737 MAX flights in real time, said on Friday it was “aware” of the accident, without making further comment.