British Airways jet suffered rare engine failure

[marmar]

(MarketWatch) U.S. air safety regulators said Thursday that the serious fire that heavily damaged a British Airways' jet in Las Vegas involved an uncontained engine failure, a rare event that will intensify scrutiny of the incident.

All 170 passengers and crew safely evacuated the burning Boeing Co. 777 jet after it aborted takeoff from McCarran International Airport, and initial findings from the National Transportation Safety Board found that a failure in the engine wasn't contained within the core of the plane's left General Electric Co. engine.

The uncontained failure is the first on a GE90 engine since its introduction to service in 1995, and aerospace engineers have largely designed their potential causes out of modern jet engines as spewing debris can cause catastrophic damage to a plane's fuselage and wing.

The large front fan of a jet engine is designed to fail safely, with the outer casing catching any debris or ejecting it safely out the back of the engine away from the airplane. The engine core, however, is designed never to fail as the external shielding isn't required to contain tremendous energy of the debris. ...................(more)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/british-airways-jet-suffered-rare-engine-failure-2015-09-10?dist=countdown

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. As a life long aviation enthusiast....

and as someone who is fascinated by machines in general, I can say with a tiny modicum of authority that these types of engines undergo an extraordinary testing regime.

The fact that this is the first such incident in 20 years service of this engine model is a testament to that.

They shoot frozen turkeys at the intake of the damned things, for fucks sake.

[Eleanors38]

2. There is a video of this on World Airline News. Can't link...

Pretty dangerous situation, looks like a first-rate job of evacuation by the 777's crew, and very prompt action by ground crew. Much damage due to evident shrapnel. Some reports have 20 injured. Opposite wing to the failure appears to be sagging.