Air China A320 Suffers Engine Fire, Emergency Lands in Singapore

September 10, 2023

BREAKING NEWS | An Air China Airbus A320neo has perfomed an emergency landing at Singapore's Changi Airport after its left engine suffered an engine fire, and its cabin was engulfed in smoke. There has been no casualties so far, and all 146 and 9 crew passengers have evacuated safely. However, this has led to the closure of Runway 02R/20L at the airport, causing massive disruptions as the airport has to rely on single-runway operations.

At 1602hrs local time, flight CA403 from Chengdu declared an emergency onboard after squawking 7700 (general emergency transponder code) after smoke was reported in the cabin in its forward cargo hold and lavatory on its way to Singapore. On its final approach, a left engine fire was reported, and the smoke had entered into the cabin. The 4.8-year-old Airbus A320neo with registration B-305J then touched down safely at Singapore 's Changi Airport at 1614hrs local time, whereafter it was safely evacuated with no reported casualties so far aside from 9 passengers suffering minor injuries due to smoke inhalation and abrasions. The airport's fire department has since put out the fire in the left engine.

Videos have also emerged online of the evacuation via the aircraft's evacuation slides on the runway, as shown below:

#CA403 TFU-SIN emergency landing pic.twitter.com/gq43LbYOxx

— ChinaAviationReview (@ChinaAvReview) September 10, 2023

Immediately after the emergency landing, there were major disruptions to the airport as 2 of the 3 runways were closed, leaving single-runway operations as the only option. 02C/20C had been closed for renovation works, and 02R/20L had been closed temporarily after the incident, and finally reopened 3 hours later at 7pm local time. Numerous flights have been cancelled, and almost all of the departures since 1615hrs have been delayed significantly. On the other hand, arrivals have been only minimally impacted with the remaining runway prioritised for landing.

Notably, the engine that caught fire was manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, which had recalled the engine type for manufacturing defects, and this incident is speculated to be caused by its design flaws with the engine as stated above.

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Written by: Sohail Sawlani
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Sources

- Planespotters.net
- FlightRadar24
- The Straits Times
- China Aviation Review