An SAS A330 en route from Stockholm (ESSA | ARN) to Miami (KMIA | MIA) encountered severe turbulence just off the east coast of Greenland on 14 November resulting in the automatic shutdown of one of the aircraft’s engines. The pilots were able to restart the affected engine and divert safely to Copenhagen.
Turbulence hit just east of Greenland and lasted a very short time. Thankfully, no one on board among the 254 passengers nor crew reported any serious injuries.
In the granular data snapshot below, it is possible to see the effects of the turbulence and also the pilots’ reacting to the engine shutdown by beginning their descent to single engine operating altitude. The climb back to 36,000 feet demonstrates how the crew was able to restart the engine.
Per SAS, following severe turbulence an inspection of the aircraft is required. Since the airline does not have the necessary facilities and staff for such a detailed inspection at Miami, it was decided to divert to Copenhagen. The aircraft landed safely in Copenhagen after 10 hours 6 minutes in the air.
Aircraft details
SK957 was operated by an A330-343 registered LN-RKS (MSN 1665). The aircraft was delivered new to SAS in September 2015. It is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-60 engines.
22 Responses
Why fly all the way back to Copenhagen when they could have diverted to Keflavik, Iceland?
Why back to Copenhagen??. Shannon nearer or Dublin or Uk Airport especially had there been a bigger issue!. Not worried about impact on atmosphere or fuel consumption then !.
Vrey nice
Is it part of standard engine functionality to shut down after severe turbulence? Is there risk that both engines could experience this in certain scenarios? Is this automatic or something th pilot initiate? Sounds like the former?
Hi Ian,
I’m shocked that SAS placed it’s priority on servicing the aircraft in Denmark over the safety of it’s passengers.
JP.
Why wouldn’t they divert to Iceland which was closer?
Mycket bra agerat av besättningen ombord på flyget till MIA
So, what was the actual cause of the engine shut down?
Hallo, I have made the PPL in July of 1969 with a
fly by a Piper J 3 C without any communication. If I see the tecnical installations today, I wonder myself for all. So I am very interested to see
all, what going on by regarding Flightradar24.com.
Thank You.
Sinserely
Günter
It was an automatic engine shutdown of one engine. Was the software logic programmed so that both could not be automatically shutdown. I hope so.
Very interesting article…why did the engine shut off automatically?. Congratulations to reporter Ian.
That’s why the check list says Ignition to Automatic for all Icing and turbulent operation.
I was in this flight. It was horrible, my next seat passenger hurt herself very badly, she “jumped”to the ceiling. Her head got injured. People were in shock, screaming. SAS is lying. And the decision was not in passengers best interest, to fly back over the ocean. We could feel the plane was out of order. People were crying all the way back, scared to death. We are going to start the lawsuit against SAS.
What’s priority when this happens? Get to the nearest airport and get the passengers off aircraft first! Then have technicians come over to do an initial assessment on the cause before making further decisions to move the aircraft to another location enabled with required facilities. Gladly nothing got worse
Stupid and concerning that an engine automatically shuts down with turbulence
So, they were an hour from Gander, Newfoundland and chose to fly 5 hours back?
Why to create more inconveniences for passengers diverting to Denmark? At that point going back to Stockholm was the same
The motor shut down because the oil pressure dropped to near zero, I read they shut it down, they diverted the plane to where a full inspection could be done as apparently the airframe was subjected to a very high g load, and the don’t have facilities in gander, or iceland or greenland to do that.
It is really not in the paying passengers interest to fly more than 5 hours back to home base. As some passengers were injured a medical priority should be first to treat any possible injuries. Land the possibly damaged plane first, treat passengers and then fly where ever is needed. It is a shame that headquarters ordered the plane back to home port where for them its most covienient and cheapest for inspection and technical work. Who cares about passengers.
I must say I find this disconcerting. I understand that services are unavailable to some extent, but I’d rather be dropped off at the nearest airport, sleep in a cheap motel, sip a drink (at my own cost) and wait for a replacement plane than double the flight time. Hell, I’ll even pay for my own food! Which is what I’ll be doing anyway back home waiting for the next flight.
There are probably several reasons why an engine would go into automatic shutdown. It would be to protect itself from a catastrophic failure. The aircraft experienced high negative g-loading. During extreme turbulence the plane n coming airstream is disrupted. There could have been a significant drop in oil pressure (lubrication for rotating components) or a compressor stall caused by disrupted airflow.
People can armchair quarterback what the pilots on board decided in communication with SAS, but let’s leave safety decisions to the professionals that you entrust your life to.
Since the entire aircraft experienced turbulence why didn’t both engines shut down or is this a design flaw in the fuel supply system ?