Not a Great Day for United Airlines or Boeing

ExFlyBoy5

ExFlyBoy5

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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And the other good news, these are so rare, that they are news!

-ERD50
 
The engine housing (that appeared to be simply "gone" in the video) was probably not made by Boeing. I think there are two suppliers, one of them Goodrich (owned by Raytheon now) . It depends on if the engine was RR or GE or P&W, I think. Based on RTX stock price today (not affected), it must have been the other supplier, hehe!

ETA: Google tells me the cowl was made in a Boeing plant in South Carolina.
 
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Some news calls bare engine views as incredible photos. They look very credible to me.
 
Boeing has been really getting kicked in the nuts for the past couple of years. I'm working in the Navy's aviation office at the Pentagon, and the discussions there and with the Congressional staffers are unbelievable. In civil aviation, the Max debacle, and with DoD contracts across the board they've really struggled. Hopefully they can turn a corner soon.
 
ERD50 said:
And the other good news, these are so rare, that they are news!

-ERD50
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I thought the same thing. Not only was there no disaster, there were no reported injuries (though I'm guessing there will be some extra cleaning required in some of the aircraft's seats.) YMMV
 
I'll look at the bright side here... Backup systems and procedures worked as designed. It is a good day for the engineers and designers.

Glad nobody was hurt. The effects on the ground are just as scary and dramatic as the video from the plane.
BBroomfield-plane-debris-2-BPD.jpg
 
pretty sure i would have done something in my pants if I had that window seat !!!!!!!!!!!
 
I listened to the air traffic recording and I'm always impressed by the calmness and professionalism of all involved. You could tell on the initial indication of the problem, they were under severe stress. At first indication, all you heard was the cockpit alarm, meaning I guess the pilots were trying to call but may have had a finger slip. Once they got beyond the mayday, they were cooler than cool.
 
JoeWras said:
I listened to the air traffic recording and I'm always impressed by the calmness and professionalism of all involved. You could tell on the initial indication of the problem, they were under severe stress. At first indication, all you heard was the cockpit alarm, meaning I guess the pilots were trying to call but may have had a finger slip. Once they got beyond the mayday, they were cooler than cool.
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Truly impressive. Their training is first rate.
 
Excellent stuff thanks for posting. Good work by all. Will be interesting to see the results of the failure analysis. Agree that I think I would have been asking for a seat re-assignment rather than taking video. Wonder if anyone got any earlier video as the engine cowling came away. Nice that the single engine performance of the Triple 7 was no issue coming back into the Denver airport.
 
Koolau said:
I thought the same thing. Not only was there no disaster, there were no reported injuries (though I'm guessing there will be some extra cleaning required in some of the aircraft's seats.) YMMV
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Oh no doubt at all. If all the malfunctions we had over the years (as an AF flyer) were reported on the news, well...it would suck!

The video is a testament to how far they have come in aviation safety. The Kevlar blade shield did exactly as designed and undoubtedly saved lives.

JoeWras said:
I listened to the air traffic recording and I'm always impressed by the calmness and professionalism of all involved. You could tell on the initial indication of the problem, they were under severe stress. At first indication, all you heard was the cockpit alarm, meaning I guess the pilots were trying to call but may have had a finger slip. Once they got beyond the mayday, they were cooler than cool.
Click to expand...

Aviation crew training has come a very long way, too. Some of the more fulfilling things I got to do in the Air Force was design simulator scenarios and certify the upgraded simulators. Since I have retired, it has gotten even better with immersive training including some very excellent virtual reality. All of this is reflected in the calmness and near perfect execution of the procedures that beat into the crewmember's head over and over and over.
 
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ExFlyBoy5 said:
Oh no doubt at all. If all the malfunctions we had over the years (as an AF flyer) were reported on the news, well...it would suck!

The video is a testament to how far they have come in aviation safety. The Kevlar blade shield did exactly as designed and undoubtedly saved lives.
Click to expand...
Anyone remember the United DC10 flight in Iowa, 1989? The uncontained engine failure flung parts about severing hydraulics and all kinds of problems followed.

I see this latest incident as a beneficiary of the lessons learned back then.

Oh, and on that 1989 flight, the flight crew cooperated in extraordinary ways, even inviting a flight instructor who was a passenger along to help. Compare to the crashes you read about from the 60s where it was "my way or the highway" from the captain, and stupid stuff like running out of fuel occurred simply because the captain didn't want to hear about it.
 
That engine cowling hit the roof of the family's SUV. And fell next to the vehicle.

It's a miracle from God that no one was hurt. Anytime that happens, it's a great day.
 
I was impressed when the flight crew told ATC that they had a checklist to do before anything else. They still had one functioning engine thus time.
 
Nice that the single engine performance of the Triple 7 was no issue coming back into the Denver airport.
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The Part 121 standards for performance set certain criteria. Ironically, the 4 engine 747 and other 4 engine planes have the lowest relative performance. All the 2 engine planes are truly hot rods of the air, as they have 2X what is needed for flight plus a nice margin.
If you hang out at Renton or Everett and watch any of the 2 engine planes go out "green", no interior and very light, they can climb away like you'll never see with passengers and fuel.
 
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At that speed and with that much rudder surface it doesn't take much deflection to get the desired aerodynamic impact. You'd probably need a head-on or direct from the rear photo angle to be able to see any rudder displacement.
 
All things considered, I'd say it was a pretty good day for United and Boeing.
 
Video of the nacelle lip damaging a vehicle before coming to rest in the yard:

https://imgur.com/X0Xce34

As an interesting development, the entire country of Japan is asking operators of the 777 w/ that engine model (Pratt and Whitney 4000) to NOT take off, land, or fly over the ENTIRE country. Wow.

LL AIR CARRIERS OPR(TAKING-OFF/LANDING AND OVER FLT) WI THE
TERRITORY OF JAPAN ARE REQUESTED TO AVOID USING BOEING 777 EQUIPPED
WITH PW4000 SERIES ENGINES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 21 FEB 12:57 2021 UNTIL 21
MAY 08:30 2021 ESTIMATED. CREATED: 21 FEB 12:57 2021
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Search RJJJ at this website: https://www.notams.faa.gov/
 
ExFlyBoy5 said:
Oh no doubt at all. If all the malfunctions we had over the years (as an AF flyer) were reported on the news, well...it would suck!

The video is a testament to how far they have come in aviation safety. The Kevlar blade shield did exactly as designed and undoubtedly saved lives.



Aviation crew training has come a very long way, too. Some of the more fulfilling things I got to do in the Air Force was design simulator scenarios and certify the upgraded simulators. Since I have retired, it has gotten even better with immersive training including some very excellent virtual reality. All of this is reflected in the calmness and near perfect execution of the procedures that beat into the crewmember's head over and over and over.
Click to expand...

Was it a blade out? The Kevlar looks good; this appears to be a PW 4084 variant, I’ve been in the test room when the Squibb charge sent a fan blade to its doom, and unless it’s on the stb side, it looks ok to me. Did the pilot report a fan blade out?
 
REWahoo said:
At that speed and with that much rudder surface it doesn't take much deflection to get the desired aerodynamic impact. You'd probably need a head-on or direct from the rear photo angle to be able to see any rudder displacement.
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Plus there is a huge asymmetric thrust component on the triple 7. It’s a beast! As an ex development engineer on this exact platform and power plant, I’m very interested in if it was a fan blade or the old HPC issue that plagued the PW 4000
 
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