On 15 December 1989, KLM Flight 867, en route from Amsterdam to Narita International Airport, Tokyo, was forced to make an emergency landing at Anchorage International Airport, Alaska, when all four engines failed.

The Boeing 747-406M, less than six months old at the time, flew through a thick cloud of volcanic ash from Mount Redoubt,[1] which had erupted the day before.

On some of the attempts, as one or more (but not all) engines started to operate, the main generator switched back on.

[citation needed] The following edited transmissions took place between Anchorage Center, the air traffic control facility for that region, and KLM 867:[4] After descending more than 14,000 ft (4250 m), the crew restarted the engines and safely landed the plane.

In this case, the ash caused more than US$80 million in damage to the aircraft, requiring all four engines to be replaced, but there were no human deaths and no one was injured.