A Boeing 777-200ER operated by KLM was flying from Bangkok to Amsterdam when it
experienced an engine failure. Resulting in a shutdown, the aircraft diverted to
Dubai where it has remained for nearly a week! Let’s look at what happened in today’s video.
On Friday, May 26th, KLM flight KL876 departed Bangkok with 286 passengers and 12 crew. The
777-200ER was passing through Iranian airspace when a failure occurred for one of its GE90
engines - leading to a shutdown. The jet was about 540 NM (1,000 km) northeast of Dubai,
with the crew deciding to divert to the UAE city rather than a suitable airport within Iran.
The aircraft, registered PH-BQL, descended from an altitude of flight level three-forty
to flight level two hundred, enroute to Dubai International Airport. There,
it landed without further incident, some 105 minutes after initiating the diversion.
At the time of this video’s production, some five days after the incident,
the nearly 17-and-a-half year-old 777-200ER remains on the ground at Dubai.
Due to the length of time spent on the ground, it’s obvious that
passengers would have been eventually put on different flights to Amsterdam.
KLM serves Dubai once daily with a wide variety of aircraft types:
The Boeing 777-200ER, 777-300ER, and 787-10. Less often, the 787-9 is also deployed on this route.
As we've already seen with a number of Air France-KLM 777 engine failures, crews have
opted not to fly to the nearest suitable airport. On May 9th, a KLM 777 flying to São Paulo had an
engine fail over Southwest England, resulting in a diversion to Amsterdam. On January 4th, an Air
France 777 flying to Los Angeles returned to Paris after an engine failed whilst flying over London.
With these situations, the airlines made the calculated decision to fly a little further
and bring their aircraft back to 'home base,' rather than a foreign airport.
So in May 26th’s incident, why did the crew chose to divert to Dubai rather than
land at a closer airport such as Mashhad, Iran's second-busiest airport? After all,
the facility has two asphalt runways, with its longest being 12,877 feet, or 3,925 meters.
To answer this, we only need to look at Norwegian's 737 diversion incident
at the end of 2018 to learn why an emergency landing in Iran should be avoided, if possible.
The 737 MAX, intending to fly from Dubai to Oslo, had to divert to Shiraz in Iran due to technical
issues. The aircraft was stranded there for two months. The reason for the extended grounding is
that Iran was (and continues to be) subject to US and other Western sanctions. Thus, the export
of any sensitive technology, such as aircraft engines, is strictly prohibited. Additionally,
Iranian regulations on importing aircraft engines would have added further complexity.
Making things worse at the time was the fact that the US suffered a government shutdown
during discussions on waiving sanctions. Long story short: A diversion to Iran can add
layers of political, bureaucratic, and diplomatic complexity that airlines would be happy to avoid.
What do you think of this incident? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment!