This has now hit the national news, I saw it on ABC last night, so, we may as well talk about it here.
United Airlines, 787-9, GE GenX Engines. Sunday, 25 July, 2025. Flight 108 from Washington Dulles to Munich.
Here is the ATC audio from that flight. The radio call sign is “United 108 Heavy” - heavy is used with ATC for aircraft that exceed 255,000#, which is true for this airplane.
As the title says, the engine failed at approximately 1000 feet when the crew was switching from tower to departure. The engine temperature and speed were climbing, even as the thrust was dropping. The engine failed, but the failure was complex.
In the 35 minutes between the engine failure and a safe landing - the crew was extraordinarily busy. The 787 has electronic checklists. The nature of this engine failure forced the crew to complete the engine overheat checklist, the engine over speed checklist, the engine failure checklist, and the overweight landing checklist before getting to the single engine landing checklist.
In general, the protocol has the Captain complete the checklists, coordinate with dispatch and operations for the recovery of the aircraft, and coordinate with the flight attendants for the nature of the landing, how long until landing, and whether or not an evacuation would be required. The captain maintains overall command, but is very busy.
The voice you hear on the radio is the voice of the first officer, who is both flying the airplane, and talking on the radio. A lot of work on his part.
Any hesitation you hear in his voice is because there is coordination between the Captain and FO taking place inside the cockpit before replying with a course of action. For brevity’s sake - the FO frequently skips the full callsign. That’s solely to communicate more rapidly - the controller is focused on this flight, both parties know who is talking and why. This is the mark of an experienced pilot - what needs to be said and nothing more. The communication is often clipped and precise - again, the mark of an experienced pilot communicating quickly.
The crew elected to jettison fuel before landing. The 787 has a sophisticated jettison system, where you simply set the landing weight that you want, and the airplane takes care of getting rid of the excess fuel.
The minimum altitude for jettisoning fuel is 5000 feet, but that is above ground level, and the terrain around Washington Dulles is a few hundred feet. So the crew elected to climb to 6000 feet. One of the points of coordination is that ATC told them they were OK to dump, but the crew saw that they were over a very populated area and elected to wait a bit to minimize any risk with the jettison. Great Situational Awareness on the part of the crew.
Some of the YouTube comments that I’ve read have to be from the dumbest people on the planet. I say that, sincerely. People are commenting on a complex scenario without understanding any of the factors that go into the decisions that affect the outcome of the scenario.
ATC was extraordinarily helpful in this. But some of the YouTube commentators think that ATC talked too much.
The crew was extremely busy, but some of the YouTube commenters thought that the crew took too long to land. Those commenters are inexperienced - they haven’t ever had to manage an airliner and accomplish all that this crew accomplished. 25 minutes is a very short time, to manage the engine, run the checklists, jettison the fuel, set up and brief the approach, coordinate with operations for the recovery and tow in, and thence to land the plane.
The crew was extremely calm, but some of the YouTube commenters thought otherwise. ICAO requires that “Mayday” be said 3 times in the event of an emergency - and an engine failure constitutes an emergency, so, no, the pilot wasn’t panicked, he was following procedure.
I have seen literally hundreds of crews manage similar problems in training. It’s what I do. I am an evaluator, I put crews into complex, difficult situations, like an engine failure, in the simulator, and I evaluate their performance.
In my considered, experienced, and professional opinion this crew did a magnificent job. They were calm. They coordinated everything brilliantly. They got it all done quickly, precisely, and professionally, they didn’t miss a thing, and the airplane landed gently and safely back in Washington, Dulles 35 minutes after it took off.
This crew, and this FO in particular, did a outstanding job - that’s why it took over a week to hit the national news - an engine failed, the crew handled it, and then the airplane landed uneventfully.
200+ people were in great hands on Sunday night.
United Airlines, 787-9, GE GenX Engines. Sunday, 25 July, 2025. Flight 108 from Washington Dulles to Munich.
Here is the ATC audio from that flight. The radio call sign is “United 108 Heavy” - heavy is used with ATC for aircraft that exceed 255,000#, which is true for this airplane.
As the title says, the engine failed at approximately 1000 feet when the crew was switching from tower to departure. The engine temperature and speed were climbing, even as the thrust was dropping. The engine failed, but the failure was complex.
In the 35 minutes between the engine failure and a safe landing - the crew was extraordinarily busy. The 787 has electronic checklists. The nature of this engine failure forced the crew to complete the engine overheat checklist, the engine over speed checklist, the engine failure checklist, and the overweight landing checklist before getting to the single engine landing checklist.
In general, the protocol has the Captain complete the checklists, coordinate with dispatch and operations for the recovery of the aircraft, and coordinate with the flight attendants for the nature of the landing, how long until landing, and whether or not an evacuation would be required. The captain maintains overall command, but is very busy.
The voice you hear on the radio is the voice of the first officer, who is both flying the airplane, and talking on the radio. A lot of work on his part.
Any hesitation you hear in his voice is because there is coordination between the Captain and FO taking place inside the cockpit before replying with a course of action. For brevity’s sake - the FO frequently skips the full callsign. That’s solely to communicate more rapidly - the controller is focused on this flight, both parties know who is talking and why. This is the mark of an experienced pilot - what needs to be said and nothing more. The communication is often clipped and precise - again, the mark of an experienced pilot communicating quickly.
The crew elected to jettison fuel before landing. The 787 has a sophisticated jettison system, where you simply set the landing weight that you want, and the airplane takes care of getting rid of the excess fuel.
The minimum altitude for jettisoning fuel is 5000 feet, but that is above ground level, and the terrain around Washington Dulles is a few hundred feet. So the crew elected to climb to 6000 feet. One of the points of coordination is that ATC told them they were OK to dump, but the crew saw that they were over a very populated area and elected to wait a bit to minimize any risk with the jettison. Great Situational Awareness on the part of the crew.
Some of the YouTube comments that I’ve read have to be from the dumbest people on the planet. I say that, sincerely. People are commenting on a complex scenario without understanding any of the factors that go into the decisions that affect the outcome of the scenario.
ATC was extraordinarily helpful in this. But some of the YouTube commentators think that ATC talked too much.
The crew was extremely busy, but some of the YouTube commenters thought that the crew took too long to land. Those commenters are inexperienced - they haven’t ever had to manage an airliner and accomplish all that this crew accomplished. 25 minutes is a very short time, to manage the engine, run the checklists, jettison the fuel, set up and brief the approach, coordinate with operations for the recovery and tow in, and thence to land the plane.
The crew was extremely calm, but some of the YouTube commenters thought otherwise. ICAO requires that “Mayday” be said 3 times in the event of an emergency - and an engine failure constitutes an emergency, so, no, the pilot wasn’t panicked, he was following procedure.
I have seen literally hundreds of crews manage similar problems in training. It’s what I do. I am an evaluator, I put crews into complex, difficult situations, like an engine failure, in the simulator, and I evaluate their performance.
In my considered, experienced, and professional opinion this crew did a magnificent job. They were calm. They coordinated everything brilliantly. They got it all done quickly, precisely, and professionally, they didn’t miss a thing, and the airplane landed gently and safely back in Washington, Dulles 35 minutes after it took off.
This crew, and this FO in particular, did a outstanding job - that’s why it took over a week to hit the national news - an engine failed, the crew handled it, and then the airplane landed uneventfully.
200+ people were in great hands on Sunday night.
