Yesterday, December 1st, a Gulf Air Boeing 787 between Bahrain and Manchester declared an emergency with a major issue onboard the aircraft.
Information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand, which we will get into.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Gulf Air Flight GF5 – Bahrain to Manchester…
Gulf Air flight GF5, the Boeing 787 which declared the emergency, is a routine scheduled flight between Bahrain and Manchester.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was A9C-FB.
As per data from Planespotters.net, A9C-FB is a 6.5 year old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that was delivered to the airline in June 2018.
Of the 787-9 variant, Gulf Air has 10 of them.
Moreover, of that 10, all but two are in active service.
GF5 departed Bahrain at 0119 local time on December 1 and initially climbed out towards Manchester.
Around an hour into the flight, the aircraft started descending and turned south, whilst declaring an emergency.
From there, it was decided that Kuwait City would be the diversion field.
The aircraft landed safely without further incident.
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood this was due to the left hand engine requiring a shutdown.
A passenger account stated that the engine caught fire and emitted smoke as a result.
Aircraft Still Grounded Following the Emergency…
As a result onboard the Gulf Air Boeing 787 operating GF5 Bahrain-Manchester, A9C-FB still remains grounded in Kuwait City.
It is understood a replacement aircraft was sent to take the passengers onwards to the UK, with a delay of a whopping 25 hours as a result.
At this stage, it is unclear when A9C-FB will be back in commercial service.
Maintenance technicians will need to assess the damage to the engine as a result of the shutdown.
As soon as we have more information on this, we will update you accordingly.
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