4 ms·

How many passengers are even aware of contained engine failures? There can be a lot more failures than people think. I'd guess most people are also bad at est

How many passengers are even aware of contained engine failures? There can be a lot more failures than people think. I'd guess most people are also bad at estimating how many car accidents there are in a year.

oivey 6y ago
In the case of a contained engine failure, don’t planes immediately land at the closest safe location? Passengers would definitely know.
- TylerE 6y ago
  Usually, but that can be very far way. Look up ETOPS.
- crote 6y ago
  It depends. The Denver one [0] basically landed straight away at the same airport 40 minutes later. The Maastricht one [1] circled around for an hour, and landed on a completely different airport. The whole "immediate" and "closest" is relative. Strange as it may seem, an engine failure isn't that big of a deal: the aircraft is designed to fly for hours while missing an engine. However, the aircraft is now in a bit of an unknown state. The pilots need time to work through their checklists, determining what the exact impact is. The airplane might be leaking fuel; it might've lost a set of hydraulics; maybe it's on fire; maybe the engine can be restarted and everything is fine. Landing as soon as possible at the closest safe location might turn out to be hours later and hundreds of miles away, perhaps even at your destination airport! [0]: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL328/history/20210220/1925Z/KDEN/PHNL https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL328/history/202102... [1]: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/LGT5504/history/20210220/1525Z/EHBK/EBLG https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/LGT5504/history/20210...
  - oivey 6y ago
    The point was often the plane would land somewhere that isn’t their destination, which would at least clue them into the fact that there was some significant mechanical issue.
topspin 6y ago
> How many passengers are even aware of contained engine failures? All of them. If they somehow miss the noise and vibration, they'll definitely notice the fire and/or smoke trailing out of the engine. Compressor failures aren't minor events. If it happens during certain phases of flight the asymmetric thrust can create a severe challenge for the crew. More than one airliner has crashed as a result. Asymmetric thrust due to an autothrottle problem may be why Sriwijaya 182 (a 737) crashed last month.

oivey 6y ago

In the case of a contained engine failure, don’t planes immediately land at the closest safe location? Passengers would definitely know.

TylerE 6y ago
Usually, but that can be very far way. Look up ETOPS.
crote 6y ago
It depends. The Denver one [0] basically landed straight away at the same airport 40 minutes later. The Maastricht one [1] circled around for an hour, and landed on a completely different airport. The whole "immediate" and "closest" is relative. Strange as it may seem, an engine failure isn't that big of a deal: the aircraft is designed to fly for hours while missing an engine. However, the aircraft is now in a bit of an unknown state. The pilots need time to work through their checklists, determining what the exact impact is. The airplane might be leaking fuel; it might've lost a set of hydraulics; maybe it's on fire; maybe the engine can be restarted and everything is fine. Landing as soon as possible at the closest safe location might turn out to be hours later and hundreds of miles away, perhaps even at your destination airport! [0]: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL328/history/20210220/1925Z/KDEN/PHNL https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL328/history/202102... [1]: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/LGT5504/history/20210220/1525Z/EHBK/EBLG https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/LGT5504/history/20210...
- oivey 6y ago
  The point was often the plane would land somewhere that isn’t their destination, which would at least clue them into the fact that there was some significant mechanical issue.

topspin 6y ago

> How many passengers are even aware of contained engine failures? All of them. If they somehow miss the noise and vibration, they'll definitely notice the fire and/or smoke trailing out of the engine. Compressor failures aren't minor events. If it happens during certain phases of flight the asymmetric thrust can create a severe challenge for the crew. More than one airliner has crashed as a result. Asymmetric thrust due to an autothrottle problem may be why Sriwijaya 182 (a 737) crashed last month.