Boeing 777 incident near Tokyo, Jp, July 28, 2010
On July 28, 2010 at about 9:04 am local time, a Boeing 777, registered N219UA, was involved in an incident near Tokyo (Narita International Airport). It was flown under scheduled airline rules (Part 121). The NTSB record does not give the injuries.
The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
The NTSB has not yet published a probable cause for this incident. Investigations usually take one to two years; this page updates when the final report is released.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made October 5, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- July 28, 2010 · about 9:04 am local time
- Place
- Tokyo, Japan · Narita International Airport
- Type
- Incident
- Injuries
- The NTSB record does not give the injuries.
- Weather
- not recorded
- Aircraft
- Boeing 777 206 · all 777s on the register
- Registration
- N219UA · registry record
- Damage
- Not recorded
- Flight
- Flight · scheduled airline rules (Part 121)
The NTSB's narrative preliminary · quoted from the NTSB record
On July 28, 2010, at about 0904 UTC, the crew of a United Airlines Boeing 777-200B airplane, N219UA, operating as flight 852, heard a loud bang from the right hand (number 2) engine while climbing through 11,000 feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL), followed after 3-4 seconds by a high pitch grinding noise. Within a few more seconds it was reported that all engine instrumentation for the number 2 engine had decreased to zero. An emergency was declared and the airplane descended to 10,000 foot MSL. Approximately 90,000 lbs of fuel was jettisoned before landing with the airplane being approximately 12,000 pounds overweight. The engine failure was contained but metal debris was observed in the tailpipe. The number 2 engine a PW4090-3, S/N 222178, was removed from the airplane at the United Airlines facility in Narita, Japan and at the direction of the Japanese Transportation Safety Board was shipped to the United Airlines facilities in San Francisco, California, United States of America for teardown and further examination by the National Transportation Safety Board. The accident is being investigated by the Japanese Transportation Safety Board Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism 2-1-2, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8918 Japan Tel.: (81) 3 5253 8486 Fax: (81) 3 5253 1680 E-mail: jtsb@mlit.go.jp AFTN: RJTDYAYA Cable: KOKUKYOKU-TOKYO Website: http://www.mlit.go.jp/jtsb/english.html This report is for informational purposes only and contains only information obtained for, or released by the Government of Japan.
The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.
The factual record from the NTSB's investigation tables, in plain English
The aircraft
- Landing gear: fixed
- Engine: Pratt And Whitney PW4090 (turbofan); 0 hours total
The flight
- Departed from: NRT Tokyo, Japan
- Destination: SFO San Francisco CA
- Flight plan: not recorded
- A second pilot was aboard
Weather at the time
- Temperature: 0°F (-18°C), dew point 0°F (-18°C)
Documents from the investigation the NTSB's docket: the evidence folder behind the report
The docket, the folder of records gathered during an investigation (maintenance records, photographs, witness statements, examinations), has not been read from the NTSB for this case yet; the list appears here once it has. Open the docket at the NTSB.
Everything on this page comes from the NTSB's public records. The narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words; the coded tables behind the report are written out in plain English, with pilots' ages, home towns and medical details left out. The documents and photographs are the NTSB's docket, shown as the NTSB released them. This site's own text never names anyone involved. A preliminary report can change; the final report usually follows one to two years later, and the page is refreshed when it does.