Southwest, scheduled to fly from Phoenix International Airport to Hollywood Burbank Airport, returned to Phoenix after the crew had to turn off their left engine.
There were 116 passengers and crew members on board. Having risen to a height of 3650 meters, the crew reported that the left engine had failed, and they needed to “turn it off”. The commander then requested a return to Phoenix and landed just eight minutes after takeoff. Inspection of the aircraft upon return revealed oil leaking from the left engine.
The flight from Phoenix to Burbank on Friday afternoon was expected to operate as follows:
The passengers were re-placed on the same flight and departed Phoenix at 2:35 p.m. Travel time to Burbank is 1 hour 8 minutes.
Aircraft with defective engine — 16 year old Boeing 737–700 — remained in Phoenix for three days after the incident and returned to flying after repairs.
Other airlines also failed to avoid emergency landings in March. On March 3, a SpiceJet flying between Delhi and Patna was forced to divert to Varanasi after pilots discovered problems with its braking system. The plane almost reached its destination, but the pilots diverted it to Varanasi, where the runway is longer.
WestJet also had trouble — flight WS3252 was forced to change course and divert to Kelowna International Airport due to an engine failure shortly after takeoff. The Dash 8-Q400 was flying from Kamloops to Calgary.
After climbing to cruising — 7 300 meters — the right engine caught fire and then failed. The crew immediately turned off Pratt & Whitney PW150 and descended to a height of 3 000 meters.