Pal 777

The Boeing 777 aircraft in the PAL fleet are all equipped with 370 seats. The Business Class cabin features 42 angle-flat seats in Business Class and 328 seats in Economy Class with ten seats across. According to Bautista, the two additional Boeing 777 aircraft arriving in 2016 will be delivered in the same 370-seat configuration.

A Philippine Airlines Boeing 777-300 (registration number RP-C7775) had a right engine fire after takeoff from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) shortly after 11:15 am today.

The Manila-bound Flight 113 landed safely back at LAX about 45 minutes after takeoff.

777 engine fire was visible on the ground

Philippine Airlines flies the Boeing 777-300ER with 370 seats in a two-class configuration of Business and Economy. Mabuhay is Philippine's Business Class product and Fiesta is its Economy Class product. This aircraft is used primarily on flights to and from Australia. The entire cabin of the new B777-300ERs is equipped with Panasonic eX2 Inflight Entertainment System. This is a fully digital inflight entertainment system that enables Economy Class passengers to choose from a full-library of video and audio content. Each passenger seat is outfited with personal TV and Audio/Video On-Demand AVOD feature. Philippine Airlines Economy Class Review from Manila to Los Angeles onboard a Boeing 777-300ER!#PhilippineAirlines #FlyPAL #HeartofTheFilipino #PAL #philippines. Pit Pal Products 2009 Horizon Court Zion, IL. Toll Free: 888-748-7257 Phone: 847-872-7257 Fax: 847-872-7258.

Smoke from the engine was clearly visible to people observing the event from the ground. Inside the cabin, passengers were filming the incident. Banging sounds could be heard from inside the cabin, something to be expected since the misfiring engine was still running while on fire.

Emergency landing back to LAX

The heavily loaded 777 bound for Manila performed an emergency landing back to LAX. The tires to deflated on landing. However, the Fire Department was quickly in place to cool down the tires with water.

The plane was safely on the runway 25L at LAX within about 45 minutes after the inflight engine fire started. After landing the plane taxied off the runway on its own, where it was met by emergency services.

Passengers reported there was very little information from the pilots during the event. The announcement from the cockpit was that they were headed back to Los Angeles, but didn’t explain why to the passengers. According to passengers, the flight attendants appeared frantic getting the cabin ready for landing on such short notice.

Twitter posts about the Philippine Airlines 777 engine fire at LAX

The Captain of Philippine Airlines Flight 113

How pilots compartmentalize procedures during emergencies

Pilots often have their hands full in situations such as this. There is often little or even no time for a full passenger explanation of what is going on with the airplane. Pilot passenger announcements are given when there is time to do so.

Why so little emergency information from the pilots sometimes?

Some passengers on the Philippine flight complained the pilots gave them very little information.

Here’s why you don’t necessarily get too much information from the cockpit during emergency events, such as this one. Pilot procedures are very straight forward in regards to how emergency priorities are handled. Items are taken care of in a certain succession. This ensures safety during the emergency at all times.

Multi-tasking an airplane emergency involves safely multi-tasking the many things simultaneously happening in the cockpit. Safety remains the #1 priority.

First, the pilot must avigate. Avigate means to fly the airplane, maintain full control, while taking care of the emergency situation.

The next priority is to navigate. Navigate means to know where you are at all times and where you are going, from point A to B.

Communicate is the last thing in priority order. Talking to Air Traffic Control, coordinate with the company, and talk with the flight attendants are all important communication items that have to be accomplished.

Last, the pilot will pick up that microphone and give his or her passenger announcementabout what’s going on with the emergency.

Pal 777 Seat Map

As an outside observer of this event, but with good knowledge of airline flight crew emergency procedures, it appears that the Philippine Airlines pilots and flight attendants were performing their job well.

Social media reactions to the incident

We received a lot of reactions from many different social media outlets about our report on the incident. Here is one comment from Ostonu Faga, who provided very intelligent inputs:

Featured Image: Philippine Airlines.

As the last part of the four-leg trip, I went for a touch of home and flew Philippine Airlines Business class. It’s not the best choice there is, but it’s a familiar one. We’ve covered a lot of PAL Business class flights and that’s no mistake. With a broad fleet, they have different kinds of business class products!

TL; DR

I have mixed feelings on the diversity of the PhilippineAirlines Fleet. Sometimes, I’ll get the Thompson Vantage XL seats which was thebest that PAL had to offer. While there are also times where I’ll be stuck withthe older products.

Pal 777 Seat

In this case, I got the second-best seat in my opinion.

PROS: Comfortable seats with generous legroom. Decentfood.

CONS: 2-3-2 seat layout. Below average lounge.

Check-In

I checked-in at SFO. Nothing notable happened. It was quickand smooth. I immediately headed for the Mabuhay Lounge. For this trip, Iheaded to the Air France Lounge at first, but it was just too crowded for me tofeel comfortable, so I headed to the Mabuhay Lounge instead.

Lounge

The Mabuhay Lounge at San Francisco International Airport is by far the worst among the Philippine Airline lounges, that’s including some of its domestic counterparts. I made a separate review of the place and detailed what PAL can do to improve on their lounges. Check that out here!

Boarding

I arrived at the boarding area with around 15 minutes tospare. Luckily, the ground staff was very courteous and quick with their processes.As soon as I arrived, I was already boarding the plane along with the otherpassengers.

Seat Cabin and Amenities

There were 28 flat-angled seats in the business class cabin. There were storage bins in the middle, however, they didn’t make me feel like the cabin was stuffy. At first glance, the whole cabin wasn’t appealing. The play between the PAL’s signature blue shade and the neutral colors of the seatbacks just added a little bit of finesse.

My friend and I took 1G and 1H, the frontmost seats were a lot more comfortable. One notable thing was that this business class cabin didn’t have any unfair advantages, even if you’re seated in front.

Waiting for me was a slightly fluffy pillow and alightblanket. As mentioned, these seats can only get to a certain angle. It becomesa bed, not necessarily a ‘flat’ bed, though.

For most people, this can be a burden, however, I wasn’t affected.

Business-class seats had a 15.4-inch IFE screen that was a good distance away from the seat itself. It had a good selection of movies and tv shows.

By the seat console, the handheld IFE remote can be found.

You’re given the option to watch through the IFE screen, or on your mini screen on the remote.

Right in front of the seats are individual storage binswhich were relatively large, A carry-on bag would fit in it quite easily. Therewas also the menu and pamphlets right beside it.

The storage bin doubles as a footrest, too. Unfortunately, they can’t be sat on, so passengers can’t eat face-to-face unlike other Business and First class products.

Menu

Service

What Philippine Airlines provides is usually a coin flip. Thereare some flights wherein the service is excellent and world-class, includingthe meals provided, on the other hand, there are those flights where inexperienceof the crew really shows—leading to subpar experiences.

This particular flight was on the good side of the coin.

The service was immaculate. I could see and feel the experienceof the flight attendant, though he could have done so with a bigger smile onhis face.

The meal, although sloppily plated, was still decent. My plate was pretty much overflowing with food, which was a good thing since all of them tasted good.

Overall Impression

The Philippine Airlines’ Business Class Product is, as I’vesaid, a coinflip—particularly in International routes. This time, I got one ofthe better planes.

However, my trip started out poorly, one part because of mychoice of lounges, and another, because of how disappointing the Mabuhay Loungein SFO was. For a 4-star airline, their lounges are but a sorry contrast totheir steadily improving flight experience.

The seats were very comfortable, even for an angled flatbed.The crew was also well experienced and very courteous. They knew what to do andhow to do it right.

That being said, flying Business class would lead one tobelieve that their food would at least be presented nicely, no matter howdelicious it may be. In this case, Philippine Airlines presented a nice dinnerin a bad way. But hey, it was tasty, my stomach was full, so I have minimalcomplaints.

Philippine Airlines’ Business class can be likened to a bagof mixed nuts. You don’t always get the best, but when you get it, It feels verygood.