Washington, D.C.: Shortly after taking off from Washington Dulles International Airport, a United Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner headed to Munich encountered a serious mid-air emergency, forcing the flight crew to issue a “MAYDAY” call because of an engine failure.
Pilots had just reached 5,000 feet on United Airlines flight UA108 when the left engine failed, prompting them to declare an emergency. Northwest of Washington, the plane went into a holding pattern as the crew worked with air traffic control to control the situation and protect the passengers.
The crew emptied the fuel at 6,000 feet in order to lower the landing weight, and the aircraft stayed in the air for 2 hours and 38 minutes, according to FlightAware data. The aircraft was kept safely apart from other planes in the vicinity by air traffic controllers.
The crew used the ILS approach to safely return to Runway 19C at Dulles after finishing the fuel dump. But because the engine failed, the plane had to be towed off the runway, and as of Monday, it was still grounded at the airport.
Neither the crew nor the passengers were reported injured. A technical investigation into the engine failure has been initiated by United Airlines and aviation authorities.
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