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An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX, spotted here at LaGuardia last year, landed safely in Newark on March 5, 2021, after the captain had to shut down an engine.
REUTERS
A disaster was averted at Newark Liberty Airport on Friday, when an American Airlines flight landed safely after an engine had to be shut down due to a potential mechanical problem.
Flight 2555 from Miami landed without incident, with 95 passengers and six crew on board, the airline said.
The Boeing 737 MAX’s potential problem was related to an engine oil pressure or volume indicator – not the malfunction of the MCAS system linked to two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, officials said.
American was the first domestic carrier to resume 737 MAX flights after being grounded for 20 months.
Boeing Co. said it was aware of the US emergency, and the FAA is investigating.
After declaring in November that the plane was safe to fly again, FAA administrator Steve Dickson warned that in-flight mechanical problems occasionally occur with all commercial airliners.
“For that reason, it is inevitable that a Boeing 737 MAX will return to its original airport sometime in the future, divert or land at its destination with an actual or suspected in-flight problem,” Dickson said at the time. .
“It is very important to distinguish between these routine events that occur with any aircraft and the acute safety concerns that have resulted in the loss of life and the grounding of the MAX.”
Former President Trump grounded the model in March 2019 after a 737 MAX crashed in Ethiopia shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
That crash came months after a Lion Air flight plunged into the ocean after takeoff from Indonesia, killing 189.
With pole wires