Earlier this week, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 bound for Phoenix had to turn back to Oakland due to an engine cowling becoming damaged.
More information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Southwest Airlines Flight WN8507 – Oakland to Phoenix…
Southwest Airlines flight WN8507 is a routine scheduled flight between Oakland and Phoenix.
The aircraft operating the affected flight was registered as N788SA.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N788SA is a 23.6 year old Boeing 737-700 that was delivered to the airline in November 2000.
Of the 737-700 variant, Southwest Airlines has 379 of them in the fleet.
Furthermore, of that 379, all but 14 are in active service, offering an average fleet age of 18.7 years.
WN8507 departed Oakland at 0720 local time on May 22 and initially climbed out towards Phoenix.
However, minutes after departure, the crew mentioned that they needed to return back to the airport.
After a grand total of 27 minutes in the air, Southwest Airlines flight WN8507 landed safely back into Oakland.
Reporting from The Aviation Herald states the reason for the return was due to an engine cowling becoming damaged.
Grounded for Four Days…
N788SA, the Southwest Airlines 737-700 involved in the incident in Oakland, is still grounded at the time of writing (24/5/24 @ 1950 UK time).
Data from RadarBox states that the aircraft will be back in service tomorrow (May 26).
It is expected to operate flights to the following two destinations:
- Los Angeles
- Reno
All eyes will be on whether the aircraft will be fixed in time in order to perform those flights.
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