A Boeing 737 passenger plane carrying 175 passengers to Moscow, Russia, from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk was forced to make an emergency landing Friday morning after a fire ignited in both of its engines. Video of the incident revealed that the fires started while the S7 airline plane was taking off. The pilots were able to safely land the aircraft 20 minutes later at Tolmachevo Airport in Novosibirsk with no casualties. A passenger told ASTRA media that while landing, “the captain said that the brakes caught fire.” The Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport said the fires were caused by engine surging, “a violation of gas-dynamic stability with micro-explosions.” Passengers were informed that they would have to wait eight hours for another plane to arrive and fly them to Moscow. This comes just a day after a Russian cargo plane traveling to Zhangzhou, China, caught fire following an engine explosion. Russia subsequently launched an investigation on Friday into airplane safety and claimed that sanctions over the war in Ukraine have made it challenging for Russian airlines to import and repair plane parts.
