Emergency landing

[billyk]

I was on a flight that had an engine fail on takeoff. The engine sounded like a clothes dryer full of rocks when it went. We were a lot lower when it failed than the plane yesterday, and just circled around to land. They had us park off in a remote area where fire trucks were waiting. But no fire or damage to the fuselage. They bused us back to the terminal. It screwed up my travel plans, but that was it. Hopefully it was my one brush with death by commercial aviation.

[MontuckyFried]

I wonder if the poor lady died from trauma from shrapnel or from getting half sucked out

My first guess would be it trauma from shrapnel, second guess being instantaneous asphyxiation with her proximity to the window. I've been through more than one rapid decompression and after the initial boom of the initial decompression, the pressure equalizes (within a matter of seconds). It gets real cold, real quick, and you better get on oxygen pronto. The pilot will make an emergency nosedive to below 10-15,000 feet (I don't remember exactly offhand). Other than that, it's typically not NEARLY the drama that Hollywood makes it out to be. This case being the exception, of course. Those are some terribly rare odds to be sitting with your head in the EXACT spot a catastrophic engine failure decides to blow through. Poor family.
Thankfully flying is still infinitely one of the safest modes of transportation.

[hatchgreenchile]

"Everybody was going crazy, and yelling and screaming," Martinez said. "As the plane is going down, I am literally purchasing internet just so I can get some kind of communication to the outside world."

I found this really interesting...

[wyeaster]

"i can be famous in deaaaaaaaaaatttttthhhhhhhhhh!!!"

[My Pet Powder Goat]

I read that they're was quite alot of blood, could just be from the glass, but lens credence to the shrapnel theory. Definitly a crazy situation.

Sent from my SM-G955U using TGR Forums mobile app

[Game Over]

I was on a flight that had an engine fail on takeoff. The engine sounded like a clothes dryer full of rocks when it went. We were a lot lower when it failed than the plane yesterday, and just circled around to land. They had us park off in a remote area where fire trucks were waiting. But no fire or damage to the fuselage. They bused us back to the terminal. It screwed up my travel plans, but that was it. Hopefully it was my one brush with death by commercial aviation.

We were on Ocean Beach in San Diego when a flight lost its engine on takeoff directly above us at a pretty low altitude. It was right after takeoff prolly less than a minute. They looped back and landed safely. I'll never forget that sound.

[Kenny Satch]

[::: :::]

Attachment 232671

just noting how airplanes are made
look at the edges of the cowling where it's ripped apart

that is honeycombed aluminum foil sandwiched in aluminum sheet

like a piece of high tech cardboard

[iceman]

Maybe the craziest thing among many crazy things about this is the passenger who attempted to block the broken window with his back, by leaning up against it. I don't have the exact quote but he said something to the effect that "the pressure was intense". Well no shit. Dude is clearly brave, but wtf?

[GeezerSteve]

Yikes. Two clients of our law firm were sitting in first class on this airplane. They, along with all other passengers, survived only because they were wearing seat belts. One FA was swept out.

[Game Over]

Damn on the audio you can hear that she's totally bummed after finding out about the injuries.

[uglymoney]

Here is the ATC recording: https://soundcloud.com/themorningcal...ure-april-14th I love her cheerful "have a good day!" Good controllers too... listen to the whole thing!

I listened to that late last night after drinking an IPA. Well worth a listen. Very competent and professional under pressure.

Seems like with the move toward these super high efficient engine are hearing about more of these uncontained catastrophic failures? Obviously this isn't the latest latest generation of engines which are made with even lighter materials. Growing pains hopefully.

Funny that this comes on the heals of the Allegiant report. I already decided to stop flying that airline when the LA Times reported on them some time ago and friends were stranded or stuck in a smoke filled cabin because of engine issues. I know about systemic safety problems from my industry and they don't go away easily. I've never been a fan of sitting in the back of an ancient MD-80 right next to the engines anyway.

[cravenmorhead]

just noting how airplanes are made
look at the edges of the cowling where it's ripped apart

that is honeycombed aluminum foil sandwiched in aluminum sheet

like a piece of high tech cardboard

Kind of a tangent, but my dad flies a Citabria (basically a small plane like a Super Cub, but slightly larger and more powerful. Still just 2 seats front and back). A lot of those small planes are literally made of cloth. They're basically an aluminum kite/airframe with painted cloth over them. And they fly! It always sort of boggles my mind when I tap on the aircraft's skin.

[The AD]

just noting how airplanes are made
look at the edges of the cowling where it's ripped apart

that is honeycombed aluminum foil sandwiched in aluminum sheet

like a piece of high tech cardboard

There's also a Kevlar band that is supposed to contain a fan blade that breaks free.

[adrenalated]

Seems like with the move toward these super high efficient engine are hearing about more of these uncontained catastrophic failures? Obviously this isn't the latest latest generation of engines which are made with even lighter materials. Growing pains hopefully.

If the engine was a CFM56 as Summit suggests, that is an engine design that was developed in the 1970s and entered service in 1982 (with modifications since then).

[abraham]

There's also a Kevlar band that is supposed to contain a fan blade that breaks free.

I thought a lot of those sandwiches were Aramid not aluminum?

[Ted Striker]

The CFM56 is on most 737s and airbuses. It's not even remotely new technology, and is considered to be one of the most successful engines built.

[old goat]

Listen to the ATC recording. She is so unbelievably calm and professional as she communicates and describes the situation that you'd think she was remarking on the lack of turbulence. Bad ass! Former USN F-18 pilot. She was probably just happy nobody was shooting at her. I'll try to find the link to the recording.

I'm guessing that dealing with an engine failure and with decompression is something pilots practice on a simulator, a lot. I would also guess that communicating calmly--so the ATC can understand the pilot--is something that is practiced. Generally speaking, performing well under difficult dangerous conditions is due to exceptional training, not exceptional human beings.

[summit]

I'm guessing that dealing with an engine failure and with decompression is something pilots practice on a simulator, a lot. I would also guess that communicating calmly--so the ATC can understand the pilot--is something that is practiced. Generally speaking, performing well under difficult dangerous conditions is due to exceptional training, not exceptional human beings.

I'd go with both

[Ted Striker]

That last item is an amazing fact. You wonder if 9/11 and its aftermath is the prime reason?

Negative.

The biggest factor in aviation safety is crew training. Most accidents are human error.

The second is technology. All the cool gizmos like GPS, TCAS, EGPWS, predictive wind shear, etc., have taken a lot of the guesswork out of flying.

The third is probably the price of fuel. Expensive gas means old airframes are retired sooner.

[MultiVerse]

The CFM56 is on most 737s and airbuses. It's not even remotely new technology, and is considered to be one of the most successful engines built.

Yeah, and the metallurgy that makes high-bypass turbofan engines possible is remarkable unto itself. Out of 30K engines built there appear to be less than a handful of inflight fan blade failures. Unfortunately, in one incident the pilots shut down the good engine instead of the bad engine on approach which resulted in a crash.


Also, unrelated, older low-bypass turbofan engines look kind of ridiculous now:

[Ted Striker]

I'm guessing that dealing with an engine failure and with decompression is something pilots practice on a simulator, a lot.

Engine failures yes, but not really this type of event. The "high dive" is not a difficult maneuver, and crews seldom mess it up. It's also not a very common occurrence.

A typical sim session has engine failures/fires (generally on takeoff or missed approach, because those would be the most critical), single engine approaches (landings and go-arounds), rejected takeoffs, evacuations, electrical and hydraulic failures, and various types of precision and non-precision approaches.

They throw in a la carte items like high dive (and myriad other stuff) sporadically over the course of the recurrent training cycle.

[Jumper Bones]

Absolutely both are practiced, regularly.

Flight simulators are used to teach systems (hydraulics, electricals, flight controls, computers, etc), practice system failures, and then throw just about every emergency possibly at a crew to give them a chance to establish some familiarity. Everybody thinks sims are fun times, they're not, basically torture boxes to have everything thrown at you.

Very professional and calm handling by controllers and pilots alike. Can't imagine how it was for the Flight Attendants.

The event happened very high, so the pax was most likely incapacitated very quickly. Sticking your head out the window at 34k tends to be hazardous to one's health, between the lack of oxygen, frigid temperatures and wind blast. Wow what a way to go, it was clearly her time.

Keep your seat belts on, folks.

[uglymoney]

The CFM56 is on most 737s and airbuses. It's not even remotely new technology, and is considered to be one of the most successful engines built.

If the engine was a CFM56 as Summit suggests, that is an engine design that was developed in the 1970s and entered service in 1982 (with modifications since then).

Thanks guys for the correction and education. Easier than google.

[Ted Striker]

^^^ I have literally thousands of hours of flying airplanes with CFM56 engines, with only one minor engine related incident. It's a proven workhorse.