“It’s easier to change flights than it’s ever been.” How often do airplanes receive routine maintenance?Ĭonstantly. “There’s no consumer law that says if you don’t want to fly on a certain aircraft, they have to accommodate you, but most airlines have waived their change fees,” said Mr. But it’s also made it easier for passengers to switch flights if they’re uncomfortable boarding the aircraft assigned to them. “What you book today is not necessarily the plane you’re going to take when the trip comes,” said Brian Kelly, the founder and chief executive of the travel loyalty website The Points Guy.Ĭovid-19, which has upended many airlines’ flight schedules, has made this practice even more common. Such switch-ups are common, which makes it futile to book an itinerary based on a preferred model of plane. If you can’t find it there, websites, including SeatGuru, which offers seating maps and customer reviews of most models of airplanes, and FlightRadar24, which lets visitors track any flight in real time, both make it easy to see the make and model of the aircraft assigned to any chosen flight.īut don’t be surprised if your airline makes a last-minute change that puts you on a different plane entirely. Most airlines list this information right on their online booking page, near the flight details. How can I find out what kind of plane I’ll be flying on, and can I switch?ĭepending on the airline you’re flying, determining the aircraft assigned to you is often as simple as taking a closer look at your reservation. But anxious fliers feeling an extra jolt of the jitters may now be asking how commercial airplanes are maintained and serviced, and how much they can learn about the planes they are assigned to fly on before they get onboard. Statistically, commercial air travel has proved to be extremely safe, and episodes like the one seen over Colorado on Saturday are rare. on Tuesday said Pratt & Whitney engines on Boeing 777s must be inspected before the planes return to the sky. An initial investigation pointed to metal fatigue in the engine’s fan blades and the F.A.A. carrier whose 777s are powered by that particular Pratt & Whitney engine, ordered all of them thoroughly checked before they could fly again, while Boeing said that 128 of its 777 jetliners worldwide should be temporarily taken out of service. (That plane, a Boeing 737, was equipped with an engine manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines.) And then there were the two devastating crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes, which, combined, killed 346 people and caused the entire fleet to be grounded for nearly two years. Other aircraft have had major incidents: The midair engine explosion of a Southwest jet in 2018 caused the death of a passenger, Jennifer Riordan. Both of those planes were also Boeing 777-200s equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines. So did a Japan Airlines flight heading from Tokyo to Okinawa in 2020. In 2018, another United Airlines flight, also heading to Honolulu, experienced a nearly identical engine failure as the one seen over Colorado. The events in Colorado and the Netherlands were the latest in a string of dramatic high-altitude failures over the past few years. That plane’s engine, while different from the Boeing 777 in Colorado, was also manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, and it also caught fire and spewed metal parts before the plane made its own safe emergency landing.Īnd on Friday, a long-haul Boeing 777 carrying cargo and 25 people made an emergency landing in Moscow after an indicator warned of the possible failure of its General Electric engine. The plane, which had 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board, returned to Denver and landed safely.Īn eerily similar incident played out the same day in the Netherlands with a Boeing 747-400 cargo jet. Passengers captured video, much of it shared on social media, of the plane’s Pratt & Whitney engine, its cover ripped off, its turbine oscillating and in flames. 20 when their plane, a Boeing 777-200, experienced a right-engine failure shortly after takeoff, causing a massive bang and sending debris raining down over a quiet Denver suburb. Passengers on board a United Airlines flight from Denver to Honolulu had several moments of terror on Feb.
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