Boeing 777 engine trouble forces emergency landing in Moscow

Third incident involving US manufacturer since a Boeing 777 engine disintegrated over Denver last week

A Rossiya Airlines Boeing 777 airliner at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. TASS via Getty Images

A Boeing 777 aircraft operated by Rossiya Airlines made an emergency landing in Moscow on Friday morning because of engine trouble, less than a week after a similar aircraft flown by United Airlines suffered a dramatic blowout over Denver, shedding debris on residential areas below.

State-owned Rossiya Airlines said the crew had registered the "incorrect operation of the engine control sensor" on a cargo flight from Hong Kong to Madrid and "decided to make an emergency landing in Moscow".

The airline said the unscheduled landing went ahead without incident and that no one was injured. The plane was due to continue its onward journey to Madrid after a delay of several hours, it added.

Last Saturday’s incident in the US state of Colorado involved a PW4077 engine made by Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies. A preliminary examination of fragments from the engine suggested the failure was caused by a crack that grew gradually over time. The incident led to groundings of all the Boeing 777s around the world that use the engine.

Rossiya told AFP later Friday that the Boeing 777 that made the emergency landing in Moscow was fitted with a different make of engine to the plane that shed engine parts in the United States last week.

In another incident, on February 20, a Boeing 747-400 cargo jet operated by Longtail Aviation suffered a failure with its Pratt & Whitney engine shortly after take-off from Maastricht in the Netherlands. That failure was contained, meaning debris did not escape laterally and damage the body of the plane, but two people on the ground were injured. The engine was from the same PW4000 family as the United flight.