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Kuwait Airways engine explodes!

Delayed

I just got the following in my email from a passenger on a Kuwait Airways flight who’s currently stuck at the Cairo Airport. This incident just happened awhile ago:

Hey Mark –

I wanted to contact you for a [potentially] new post you might want to write. First off, what I’m gonna write about isn’t in the news yet but it will almost definitely be in the morning, so you get the insights before they do.

I was on Kuwait Airways flight 542 from Cairo to Kuwait today with my family. Basically, after the plane left the gates and was on the runway, we stopped and the crews opened up the doors claiming there was an apparently major technical problem with one of the engines. About a half hour later, they said it was fine and we could be on our way. Plane taxis once again, but I noticed that the ride was strangely bumpy.

We took off, and about 20 seconds after take off with the plane going up rapidly, the right engine exploded. The plane shook hard, another explosion went off with another hard shake, and then one final boom and the plane dipped. Passengers in the back started screaming that fire was coming out of the engine and the plane began to lose altitude freakishly quickly. People were screaming, panicking, praying and getting out of their seats. I was flying first, but even from there, I managed to see flames and smoke billowing out of the engine. Mix all that together, and voilà, a scene from Hell. I thought it was all over, and clearly, so did the 200+ others on that nightmare flight.

Lucky for us, after thirty minutes or so spinning around in the air, the pilot managed to stabilize the plane and we made an emergency landing at Cairo International again, complete with fire trucks and ambulances. The plane stops just off the runway, they offload everyone and the airline offered to set us up in a hotel. Things got a bit messy on the ground when a passenger blacked out and collapsed on the runway, but I hope he’ll be fine.

Definitely adds to Kuwait Airways’ stellar reputation lately, don’t you think?

I’m on the next Kuwait Airways flight out of Cairo in an hour or so. Wish me luck.

I hope to hear back from you.

– Khaled

Thats really freaky, I am never going to fly Kuwait Airways again. I just checked the Kuwait Airport website and it’s showing the plane as currently being delayed. This is crazy!

Update: I couldn’t find a mention of this incident in the Arab Times but the Kuwait Times have written about it. [Link]

81 replies on “Kuwait Airways engine explodes!”

I have flights paranoia, i never expect that this problem will face kuwait airways, i thought its good airways, anyway i am not going to fly through it again..

kuwait airways is basically a desperate attempt to provide anything from a meal to entertainment….. it sux . i seriously prefer traveling economy plus on jazeera then first on ka. sell ka to wataniya and let them make something out of NOTHING

my last memories of Kuwait airways were years ago a flight from Cairo to Kuwait that kept in delaying, delaying, delaying, had us on the plane then get us out of the plane totaling to 7 hours stuck in the airport and that was (it) for that lame excuse of an airline!
I wouldn’t choose it with an active brain, two years back I had to take a quick flight an it was the only one available, on the return flight they canceled my reservation for a ticket I’ve already paid for! For a 48 hour trip they wanted a 72 hour conformation!!!
I’m just wondering WTH are they waiting for to clean up their act?! A disaster!?!?

Pussies!
First of all, i would never blame Kuwait airways! I would blame the techies and mechanics working at CAIRO airport. I mean you won’t trust an Egyptian would your BMW? would you trust an Egyptian with an airbus or Boeing.
Fair enough though.. Some might say why jump to the conclusion and start discriminating against others? Well… you tell me. Kuwait airways always sucked however they at least have a heart. Twice they moved me from economy to FIRST class for free… In fact i wont be surprised if they still do that. Compare that to other airlines like Qatar who rape you with extra KG’s and expensive tickets.

Shit happens..move on

Someday, I was on a flight out of Cairo few years ago where there was a technical problem and flight was delayed till the next day. The next day the same plane had 2 problems back to back while taxiing. I was one of 20 people who managed to get off the plane before Egyptian police forced everyone on the stairs to get back on the plane. Total disaster! Everyone on that plane was afraid for their lives.

Just yesterday I was ranting to a friend about Kuwait Airways and I actually insisted that the government would never do something about KAC until a disaster occurs. Well hopefully this was is and there won’t be a need for fatalities, other than the demise of KAC.

Baziz you said shit happens move on as if the guy was complaining about the onflight entertainment system not working. THE FUCKING ENGINE BLEW UP! thats not a minor thing.

Kuwait Airways has a heart because of free upgrades?? I’d give up all the free upgrades in the world for a plane that can actually fly from point A to B safely. I just think you’re intentionally being provocative, Baziz, so I’m happy to oblige. “Shit happens” is lame.

Habibi, you are one lucky dude.! I can’t even begin to imagine the horrible scenes on board.
But how did the crew react? Were they the first ones to head for the nearest exit?
I have to admire you for still flying with KU.
Bon voyage.

And like they say ..just take away the ‘K’ and you get…’U WAIT’ airways.

P.S. ..you might try taking a lottery ticket.

Baziz I flew Kuwait Airways last year and the flight was delayed for 12 hours, we boarded, the plane got on the run way and then we were left in the plane for an hour without air conditioning then told to leave the plane. After 9 hours of uncertainty they told us the plane would leave in 30 minutes and then we had to wait another 3 hours. This all happened in Kuwait Airport. The personnel were extremely rude, unhelpful and very arrogant. But it’s ok lets blame the Egyptians for everything that goes on in life, you aren’t the first and won’t be the last.

Kuwait airways suck ? why ?? ask yourself why is it going down hill and no one is doing anything about it ??

here is the key Question !

if it was doing good, or if it actually got it act together, would be acquired or privatized ? NO so off course ! to kill that brand, drain it ! disgrace it, and make it a reason to become private or even acquired by Wataniya airlines..

ana baziz ! off-course shit happens when s#it-heads like you defend an appalling airline like kuwait airways ! once upon a time kuwait airways was the best, but there wasn’t any plans to privatize it 😉 Hint Hint

Khaled-

Thank God all of you are alive and in one peice.

I do agree that Kuwait airways sucks and had frozen in time, whether you’re flying first or not, in Kuwait airways it doesn’t make much of a difference.

To be fair though, The plane was leaving Cairo airport whose reputation is no better than Kuwait airways’. The plane is supposed to be well checked and maintained before any take off, obviously it wasn’t.

Try flying to sharm il sheikh from Cairo airport…the plane door wouldn’t close and electricity goes out!

I think Arabs in general need to wake up and stop being so bloody lazy.

@ jessyz

ta7ya masr! ta7ya masr! MASR OM ILDUNYA!

You know why we always blame the Egyptians? Because after having such a wonderful and advanced ancient civilization, Nobel prize winners, elegant black and white movies, legendary singers, we wonder how you went down hill so steeply?

this is the stupidest news ever, i swear..
whoever post the news, they hv no idea how do the aircraft operate..
what do the duty of the cabin crew, and there is sumthin called enginer, the only person who can fix the problem..
opening the door n closing it its not dat simple.. n there is sumthin call slide raft too..
so its all bullshit..
next time make a better lie okie.. 😛
be smart.. LOL

AS A PILOT THAT FLIES FOR KUWAIT AIRWAYS i’ll tell you one thing people.. its not the mechanics.. its not the pilots.. its not any of the staff or even the company… ITS THE FRIGGIN’ GOVERNMENT… just look at the state of all the ministries and government offices .. they’re sh*****t… all that the officials do is steal people.. we have millions and billions.. no need to privatise.. just buy some new damn planes.. its something we’ve been asking for on and on and on and on as pilots.. but the government would rather sit on the money instead of investing it in new aircrafts and giving the company a better image.. its veeeeeeerryyy clear what they’re trying to do… DON’T SPEND MONEY ON THE COMPANY… MAKE THE REPUTATION EVEN WORSE.. SELL IT IN PRIVATE FOR CHEAP.. AND GUESS WHO IS GONNA BUY IT?!! OBVIOUSLY A SHEIKH AND CLOSE FRIEND OF THE GOVERNMENT AT A VEEEEEEERRRRRRYYYY CHEAP PRICE!!

Unbelieveable,
I was on that plane too. The engine did not
Explode, it cut off and the pilot tried to restart it like any engine. That’s when the blows happened. There was a fault with the air/fuel ratio and the back-fire caused the bang. we did not spin out of control. The pilot turned off the engine after restarting failed and we safely landed with one engine. Enough rumors, it’s just ignorance. I thank the pilot for following procedure and bringing us down safely. The component that mixes the fuel was just installed and appearently it was faulty. Yes Kuwait airways and ground crew should have checked carefully but the engine was running fine until more throttle was added. il7amdillah we are fine and we leave at 4am Kuwait time. The flame was from the pilot pumping fuel to the engine like choke from older cars. Remember how Jeep Cherokees backfire at traffic lights in Kuwait? They too make a loud bang and a small flame from the exuast. There was a few screams but everything was calm. A girl did pass out from shock, but that was it il7amdillah.

eh… my sis is coming back soon from jordan!! i have to tell my dad 1st thing this morning not to book her ticket on kuwaitairways!
man! if this story got to the media…

I said before and will say it again;
Shit happens, Move on people..

P.S. Thanks kholoud, everybody should read your comment

Ok guys Kuwait Airways is not the only airline that’s had trouble. Qantas – the australian airlines actually had something exactly like this happen earlier this year and the plane had a huge hole going right through one side next to the engine. This was half-way throught the flight.

That being said, well done on the pilot and crew for getting the flight back to ground safetly and 7imdilla there were no injuries

Kuwait Airways’ fleet is old, good thing the pilot managed to bring that deathtrap back safely. Shows that they have good pilots but crappy equipment, given that most airplane accidents are caused by human error.
Unless like someone said above, it was the ground crew’s fault, now that varies from airport to airport.

first of all 7imdila everyone is fine, I would like to remind people that air transportation is still the safest way of travel (statistically speaking).

As for the undesirable Kuwait Airways and their services, I’ve heard that its ranked one of the top airlines in terms of aircraft safety/maintenance. I Know its really hard to believe Kuwait Airways being on top for anything but I’ll try to find some sources to support that.
Can anyone confirm that?

lol this is weird. I just woke up and I had a dream that I was on a plane to canada and the plane had crashed. However “in the dream I woke up” in my room. Then I really woke up.

This is really scary…i really hope everyone on the plane is fine…Never went on kuwait airways never will…Its really good that the pilot was smart enough to land it..JOB WELL DONE

once again the egyptians are getting the blame for something they have nothing to do with, u blame us for the shitty planes of the kuwait airways, but why wouldnt you the palestinians are blaming us for whats happening in Gaza ! before i even read the comments i knew that someone would blame it on egyptians .

The Palestinians are blaming Egyptian leadership and not simply ‘Egyptians’. As far as the airplane accident goes, these things cannot simply be assumed and a proper investigation should take place before everyone here passes judgment.

this is crap ! stupid people who wrote it, he dunt even knoe d’ rules n regulation he jest talk bullshit…. if anyone believe dis crap, y’all d’ same crazy, jest like dis guy..
suddenly break on d’ runway ?? dats call emergency.
cabin crew claiming ?? wuts happend wid d’ slide raft ? and cabin crew is d last person suppost to leave d aircraft.. !! such a crap..
and another taxing after 30min ?? are u crazy ?? after suddenly break, ur goin to take a nother take off..?? more stupid, enginering have to re check and make sure about it, if its dangerous, d’ aircraft have to be grounded.. !!
another word it said, people are flying ? fire on d’ sky ? i thought when d plane taking off all d passsanger suppost to used deir seatbelt.. if dey didnt, poor ’em..dats deir own problem..
u knoe wut… whoever wrote dis crap.. be smart !! look at ur ass, deir no even brain in ur ass dude…
if u post dis crap jest for sum ur own private reason.its aint ganna work.but it help KU to be more popular.. !! Cuz smart people will never believe d crap dat u said !!

that is one scary experience!

Seriously the man is strong to write you an email. I would be in a state of shock for days!

Its been 8 years now since my last trip on Kuwait Airways (Thank God), and not planning to change that any time soon based on what the airline company keeps doing to its customers, from on board treatment to Mechanical faults (as we just read) !!
I fly Qatar Airways and Emirates to all my destinations even though there is a 2 hour transit in between, and this is what i would advise everybody reading to do.

keep in mind that when some Kuwait airways Staff are confronted about the airlines drawbacks their reply is: “…But our flights getting fully booked”
Just Something to think about

I think its engineers fault when they final check the engines before take off.either the guy was pissed off or he dosent get good pay…
So airliners should pay good regardless of any nationality..and get quality through work not passports..

My Father was on that plane, thanks god things went this way and not having the plane crashed.
I heard that the New Wataniya Arirways will buy Kuwait Airways!! Inshallah

Who in their right mind would even consider buying Kuwait Airways. If anyone does buy it they sure as hell wouldn’t want the burden of all of those employees, or the crap planes. they would probably chop it up and sell it for parts like some junk car. I say to hell with Kuwait Airways, its not representing this country like it should be, its a disgrace and we all deserve better. I say boycott, or we can take to the streets and protest our discontent!

I bet that this will be music to Musallam Al Barrak’s ears!!!
A few weeks ago he said that another KA plane nearly crashed near Sri Lanka or India (I think) so it would be interesting what will his reaction be after this.

khaled and rest of ull on flight glad to know youll are safe after an *explosion* kuwait airways should give youll delayed insurance, and btw just to clear something up, explosion would be like the whole flight burning down to ashes normally, that technically is an engine burst!

and Kuwait Airways buy new planes or make sure ur existing planes are in good condition including the flight on board crew who get really rude at times.

Khaled do post in if they provided youll with insurance!!!

what a load of SHIT man if you have a legitimate grievance about Kuwait Airways then contact them directly. Posting propaganda and lies on a public website all I can say is you are a LOSER

WHATS THE BIG DEAL??. this sort of shit happens everyday. way over reaction to a V1 cut that all pilots prepare and practice for 2X a year. reminds me of the following from my youth. “you buy you ticket & you take your chances” If GOD had meant for people to fly GOD would have given us wings..Ha, Ha, HA..

ok that’s what you get if kuwait airlines are realy cheap those airplanes are older than me !!

they should get new ones no kidding great awsome cool ones like qatar airlines,emarites,american,atihaad,and thaiwan

i actually think the crew of ka is not that bad, they arent excellent but they arent horrible like the saudi airlines either.. The piot did a great job though 🙂

the same thing happened to us few years ago when we were flying on Kuwait airways from Kuwait to Malaga, the engine exploded !

Mark…. if you manage to get an inflight video of the whole thing shaking up… someone would definitely take a recording from their cell phone……………………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all, the FACTS:

1. Incident happened approx 30 minutes into flight.

2. It was not an explosion, it was a fire (difference is subtle, but important).

3. Fire was automatically extinguished by the Airbus’s on board systems.

4. The pilot chose to turn around and land at Cairo.

Now, who is to blame for the incident; take your pick — it could be any of the following:

1. Kuwait Airways Engineering – for not inspecting the plane correctly.

2. Cairo Ground Engineering – for not inspecting the plane correctly.

3. Airbus

(You are lucky S you HAD a blue wing……)

Well BA aren’t much better- delayed in Kuwait for ‘technical problems’ as the engineer came on board to ‘check things’……lost luggage at destination, relative with damaged luggage at destination and then lost luggage again on return to Kuwait……..I wish someone would hurry up and develop the teleporter……beam me anywhere Scotty.

so sad that one of the richest countries in the world..with a small fleet of planes, can have so many problems.. so sad to see a previously leading country in the gulf, fall back..

Hideous airline. Horrible interiors, smelly cabins, horrible food.

They need to gut it, strip away the name, re-brand and re-image the whole fleet.

It’s an utter embarrassment to Kuwait.

i was on that plane and thats the worst thing that happend in my life the passengers over reacted and thats what made the other passenger panic. anyways thank god that we survived and thanks to the captain he tried his best and we landed safely . it was the maintenence fault that they didnt check the right engine properly!

THANK GOD THAT WE SURVIVED!!!!!!! 🙂

It’s a New Year’s Eve Miracle! What’s the arabic/muslim equivalent of “Hallelujah”?

Man, if I was one of those passengers on that plane, first thing I’d do
once I set foot on the ground would be to pray (rak3itayn shukur).
Those passengers are so lucky mashAllah because honestly things could’ve ended up being much, much worse. Lucky li’l things, huh?
That said, I really love how many of the comments on Mark’s posts
stray from the topic and turn into blatant racist and/or prejudice
remarks.

Baziz dude, are you in Kuwait?

As a follow up to what a few people here said about the government allowing Kuwait Airways to deteriorate so that a sheikh can come in and purchase the airline dirt cheap, here’s what needs to happen:

Somebody–others in govt, the judiciary, the citizenry—needs to grow some cajones and hold them accountable (yeah, I know it’s far fetched). Heads should roll and the investigation should follow the trail wherever it leads to the very top of this fiasco. Why are people so quiet?? Where are the MPs (or anyone/everyone else) when it really counts? They’re too busy arguing about inane, pathetic issues just to get their names in the papers.

We are talking about the most despicable act imaginable: allowing greed to endanger the lives of countless thousands of passengers!

i was on that plane and it was crazy i wouldnt have been as scared as i was if the passengers didnt scream that there was a huge fire anyways it is a lesson for me but thank god we survived!! thanks captian for doing a great job people might think he didnt but i bet any ither captian wouldnt have landed safely in this very hard incident !!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU CAPTIAN AND CREW

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