By now, you have seen the news reports of the United Airlines flight parting ways with its engine cowling over some poor blokes house in Denver.
Meanwhile you may not have seen (lots of the news channels removed it over night) what the passengers were facing
Warning you may not want to fly again watching this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxe4cQzUIY&ab_channel=9NEWS
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Looks like it lost a lot more than just a cowling that's departed, parts of the engine's compressor or turbine had broken up first. Curious that there's still something burning in the engine as one would expect fuel to have been cut off. OTOH the fire is contained and clear of the fuselage or the wing structure.
Thread on PPRUNE covers it in more detail:
www.pprune.org/rumours-news/638797-united-b777-uncontained-engine-failure-3.html
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The compressor looks intact to me, it's wobbling about a fair bit but nothing more that you can see on that video. Impossible to see if the turbine has parts missing or broken up as the casing covers the turbine pack.
I'd say the fire is from oil burning, probably a bearing fire. Could be the cause or just an after effect.
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>> I'd say the fire is from oil burning, probably a bearing fire. Could be the
>> cause or just an after effect.
Bearings/oil or hydraulic fluid are amongst the suggestions in the PPRUNE thread. Also possibly a composite material in the reverse thrust mechanism.
Terrifying for those involved but in terms of stuff working as designed it looks like a success. If parts did break off in the engine there's no evidence of fuselage damage. It's suggested that the nacelle departed some minutes subsequent to the actual failure, vibration and or increased drag at lower altitudes.
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Clearly the phalange is missing. So long as the left one works, it should be ok.
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I'm pretty sure it will be the bobbinator.
Seems to be viewed as serious anyway, with inspections required and a even possibility of P&W engined 777's being grounded - Japan has reported prohibited them in its airspace.
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One of the few occasions I’m glad I didn’t have a window seat.
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Radio 4, Today, this morning: A passenger was reported as saying " I wondered if we'd get down". I thought believe me love, you'll get down.
Mishal Husain said something about when the 'plane "hit the ground", hastily corrected to "landing".
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Telegraph is reporting that as well as the UAL 777 there has been another incident, this time a 747 freighter, with the same type of engine. Other reports suggest the engine in the 777 was unique to that type.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/20/plane-debris-falls-denver-suburbs-fiery-emergency-landing/?
Presumably different versions of the PW4056.
There's something about hollow fan blades mentioned in some reports on the UAL incident which seems to be a carbon copy of one at Honolulu some years ago.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 22 Feb 21 at 11:32
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Boeing:
Bits Of Engine In Neighbours Gardens.
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>> Boeing:
>>
>> Bits Of Engine In Neighbours Gardens.
>>
Just remember that you started this :-)
What sound does a 747 make when it has a rough landing?
Boeing, Boeing, Boeing
If it's a Boeing, I ain't going.
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I don’t find airplane jokes funny.
To me they’re just really boeing.
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The best aircraft joke I know was about a long range bomber of massive unreliability used by the US Strategic Air Command in the peak of the cold war. The Convair B36 "Peacemaker" with 6 radial petrol engines, and 4 jets, and an operational history of frequent engine fires and icing up.
US SAC claimed the Aircraft was "6 props Turning and 4 jets Burning"
The crews claimed. "two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking and two more unaccounted for"
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Appears have lost a blade off the fan
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56163403
Clearly a hollow blade from the stub. I imagine that all blades will have to be checked (X ray or similar) at least before they allow them to fly again.
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I thought things like this got x-rayed / ultrasound tested periodically.
It will be interesting to see when the last one was done.
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... and I thought I'd read that the fleets which had been laid up had to undergo a full inspection prior to use. Maybe this hadn't been laid up though.
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>> ... and I thought I'd read that the fleets which had been laid up had
>> to undergo a full inspection prior to use. Maybe this hadn't been laid up though.
Data on FR24 for the machine involved, registration N772UA, suggests it's been in regular service since at least September 2020.
A full check after layup would be extensive but likely focused on effects of storage and things that might deteriorate through not being 'exercised'. Not sure it would extend to x-ray or similar checks on fan blades which are likely to be mandated by hours/cycles flown and form part of heavy maintenance.
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Blades get a full ultrasound / xray at heavy overhaul period/engine rebuild time which is dictated by hours in use. Meantime unless there is a directive otherwise, its just a visual check.
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>> I thought things like this got x-rayed / ultrasound tested periodically.
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>> It will be interesting to see when the last one was done.
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Certain parts are tested, using Non Destructive Testing (eddy current normally) but there's a limit to what you can test. You can't test every part of an engine it's impractical.
Front fan is normally a visual inspection, it's the hot bits that get the most amount of inspection (again visual only for obvious reasons when on the wing)
When the engine is removed you can do more, dye penetrants etc, but again you can't do every single part.
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Press report (Guardian) states that after the previous very similar incident with a PW4077 engined UAL machine at Honolulu in 2018 examinations were mandated every 6500 cycles. The aircraft in that case was N773UA. The failed engine had approx 14000 cycles at the time of failure.
Previous checks had found an anomaly in the blade in question but had concluded it to be a paint issue.
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14000 since build or overhaul or since the damage was found?
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The NTSB report says:
77,593 hours time since new (TSN) and 13,921 cycles since new (CSN) and 8,579 hours and 1,464 cycles since the last overhaul.
data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/96738/pdf
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That report does show how all manner of fairly innocent actions can have a knock on in the aircraft world, the part about the people coming to stay cool because of lack of poor air con in one particular room leaps out.
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>>Warning you may not want to fly again watching this
Any old piece off crap can keep flying when everything is going well, but that plane kept flying when it wasn't. Engine in pieces and burning and still the airplane flies and lands safely. Actually makes me feel better about flying, not worse.
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United Airlines sheds engine parts - Bromptonaut
