The engine of a commercial airplane ingested a luggage truck and ripped it apart in a terrifying episode at an airport.
American Airlines Flight 47 departed London Heathrow and landed around 3pm on Thursday at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, where the weird incident unfolded.
CCTV footage shows a cargo driver moving a train with four containers in front of the Boeing 787 sitting on the tarmac.
As it goes past the nose of the plane and in front of the right wing, a couple of the containers blow off onto the tarmac and a third gets sucked into the engine. Pieces of debris go flying as the engine shreds the container to pieces.
No one was injured, but the engine was badly damaged, Aviation A2Z reported. The shredded container was an AKE Unit Load Device that is a typical cargo container for moving luggage and other goods.
Crew members reportedly said the vehicle drove in between two taxiing planes and that the jet blast from one of them pushed the containers toward Flight 47.
‘The crew of American Airlines Flight 47 reported an engine issue while taxiing to the gate at Chicago O’Hare International Airport around 4pm local time,’ stated the Federal Aviation Administration, adding that ‘passengers deplaned normally’.
According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, 283 passengers and a dozen crew members safely got off at Terminal 5 and ‘there were no significant impacts to airport operations’.
An American Airlines spokesperson stated that Flight 47 had damage to its engine while taxiing to a gate and that it had been taken out of service for the maintenance team to inspect.
‘Safety is our top priority, and we thank our team members for their professionalism and our customers for their understanding,’ stated the airline spokesperson.
It is the latest incident involving a plane engine in the US.
In June 2023, a San Antonio International Airport employee was ‘ingested’ by the engine of Delta Flight 1111 after landing there from Los Angeles. He died from blunt and sharp force injuries and it was later determined that he killed himself.
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