Orlando, Florida: A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max made a safe emergency landing Tuesday in Orlando, Florida, after experiencing an engine problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The crew declared an emergency after taking off from Orlando International Airport around 2:50 p.m. (1850 GMT), and returned to the airport safely. No passengers were on board, and the aircraft was being ferried to Victorville, California, where Southwest is storing the airplanes.
The 737 Max was grounded in the U.S. March 13 after a deadly crash involving a Max in Ethiopia on March 10.
It was the second fatal crash involving the airplane.
U.S. airlines are allowed to shuttle the planes but cannot carry passengers.
The FAA says it's investigating but the emergency was not related to anti-stall software that is suspected as a cause of the two fatal crashes including one last year involving a plane from Indonesia.
On Saturday, Southwest Airlines began to ferry all its Boeing 737 Max aircraft to a facility in Victorville, California, northeast of Los Angeles, without passengers, to free up space at the airports where they had been parked.
Airlines in the US that have Boeing 737 Max aircraft are cancelling flights as federal regulators continue to investigate two deadly crashes involving the plane model.
Southwest, which has 34 Max aircraft, is making cancellations five days in advance, with an average of 130 daily cancellations.
American has 24 Boeing 737 Max aircraft in its fleet, and said Sunday that it will be canceling about 90 flights a day. It is extending cancellations of flights through April 24.
United Airlines, which has 14 Max aircraft, does not have any flights scheduled on the equipment through April 9.
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Aviation authorities around the world grounded Boeing 737 Max aircraft earlier this month following deadly crashes involving the plane model in Ethiopia and off the coast of Indonesia, which occurred within five months of each other.
Southwest, which has 34 Max aircraft, is making cancellations five days in advance, with an average of 130 daily cancellations.
