Southwest 737 MAX 8 Lands Safely After Engine Emergency

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 that was on its way to a California airfield for storage had to make an emergency landing on Tuesday due to an engine problem.

Southwest said the crew followed protocol and landed safely back in Orlando. The problem was not related to the computer issues reported in the crashes of two 737 MAX 8s in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The flight to Victorville, California had no passengers on board as it was on its way to being stored while the FAA grounding of the 737 MAX continues. The airline said the 737 would be moved to a maintenance facility for review.

Southwest has the largest fleet of the three US carriers that fly the 737 MAX. It has 34 MAX 8s, while American Airlines has 24, and United Airlines has 14 of the larger MAX 9s.

Boeing is close to rolling out a software update for the anti-stall computer system that may have played a part in the crashes of the two MAX 8s.

The chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said earlier this week that a preliminary report into the crash of one of its 737 MAX 8s might be released as early as this week or next.