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China Eastern Airlines Flight 736 accident

11 Jun 2017 · Unknown location

A330-243 · Accident

From Sydney Airport, Australia to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, People's Republic of China

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline

A330-243

Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
B-6099
Onboard fatalities
0
Route
From Sydney Airport, AustraliaTo Shanghai Pudong International Airport, People's Republic of China

Cause areas

  • Aircraft › Aircraft power plant

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

The China Eastern Airlines Flight 736 accident refers to the incident on 11 June 2017 in which China Eastern Airlines flight 736 from Sydney Airport, Australia, to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China, suffered an uncontained failure of its left engine shortly after takeoff, with debris piercing the engine's front cowling and causing serious damage. The aircraft immediately made an emergency return to Sydney Airport, where the airport deployed several fire engines to stand by on the apron; fortunately there were no casualties.

The engine cowling of the aircraft involved had a large hole blown in it, through which the engine's fan blades could be seen from outside. It is understood that the accident was first discovered by airport security personnel, who promptly reported it to the crew; local residents said afterwards that they heard the aircraft have the problem at low altitude, with considerable noise, and even said they heard an explosion. China Eastern confirmed the incident, saying the airliner's left engine air intake had been damaged and that it had returned promptly and landed safely.

Investigation and cause

Investigation

On 20 November 2019, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released the final report on the accident; the bureau determined that the cause of the accident was that during takeoff one of three acoustic panels and the inner outer skin of the left engine's air intake cowling detached and were ingested into the engine, damaging the engine and causing the aircraft to return to its departure airport. The bureau also stated that neither it nor Rolls-Royce Holdings had been able to establish a conclusive reason for the detachment of the acoustic panel.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Chinese Wikipedia article “中国东方航空736号班机事故” (revision 89634015, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

Chinese Wikipedia article: 中国东方航空736号班机事故
Article
中国东方航空736号班机事故
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
89634015 · 2025-10-23 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q30949169
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
zh Wikipedia article "中国东方航空736号班机事故" (page 5709855, revision 89634015), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
flight number in the article title
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Chinese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.