Air Canada 737 MAX 8 Suffers Hydraulic Failure in Tucson

He Boeing 737 MAX 8 of Air Canada, registration C-FSNQ, made an emergency landing at Tucson International Airport on the morning of Tuesday, December 22, after sustaining a hydraulic failure and receiving a fuel imbalance indication. As a precaution, the crew turned off the left engine; the information was reported by the Austrian portal The Aviation Herald.

At the time of the incident, the plane was on the transfer flight (ferry) AC2358, which took off from Pinal Airpark, in the Mojave Desert, Arizona, at 09:32 UTC (GMT-8) for Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, with three crew members on board. Twenty-two minutes after takeoff, at a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet, the crew received a low hydraulic pressure indication indication on the left engine (1) CFM International LEAP-1B.

After the problem, the pilots reviewed the checklist and contacted the airline’s maintenance team on the ground, deciding that they could continue with the flight to the destination aerodrome. However, a few minutes later, they received an indication of fuel imbalance in the tank of the left wing. As a precaution, the left engine was shut down and the crew declared urgency (pan-pan) (3x), requesting the air traffic control (CTA) a diversion to Tucson.

The terminal emergency teams were deployed to accompany the landing, which occurred without major setbacks on runway 11L (left), which is 3,352 meters long, one hour and twenty minutes after takeoff. The plane stopped on a taxiway, was inspected and escorted by firefighters to a remote position on the apron. The incident will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).

The aircraft in question (s / n 61222) was the fifteenth 737 MAX 8 delivered to the Canadian airline, joining the fleet in June 2018. On February 24 of this year, it was transferred to Mojave for storage at Pinal Airpark, where the hot and dry climate prevents corrosion caused by rain and cold weather typical of Canada. With the recertification of the model in November, they are returning to the Air Canada hangars, where they will receive the update of the software and the other improvements; the stored time is susceptible to the cause of the problem.

Air Canada B737MAX (C-FSNQ) discontinued positioning flight # AC2358 from Pinal Airpark to Montreal following a low hydraulic pressure and fuel imbalance indication. Diverted to Tucson Airport, AZ. https://t.co/dKukWj86zx https://t.co/No17gazcRQ pic.twitter.com/3V2hxbMmYB

— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) December 24, 2020

Photo: Colin Brown Photography/Flickr