Fan blade failure, 1 dead sadly.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

This story grabbed my attention. It's rare to see this sort of accident, The captain kept her nerve and got the aircraft down without further damage or incident thankfully, though I imagine the aircraft will be in the hangar for a while now!

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/18/us/southwest-emergency-landing/index.html

[brett 2,285]

Sad about the fatality,  I think General Electric will be on the hot seat with now two of their engines exploding into pieces.

Edited April 19, 2018 by brett

[Quickmarch 488]

One item of note. Seen in all of the onboard pictures and videos - passengers with the oxy masks covering their mouths only. Looks like the majority. 

[J G 927]

When I was a child I travelled back from Majorca with Dan Air on a BAC 1-11.

On arriving at Luton airport we landed a bit heavily, but not horrendously so, and as we touched down my window broke.

Now I understand why the stewardess when white when I told her and why she rushed off to the Captain!

 

[Tim_A 996]

The ATC audio is on SoundCloud: 

 

 

[wain 879]

so calm under pressure.....it shows that she has had so much training and knows the linits / capabilities of her equipment..  also the guy on ATC was really in control, calm and accomadating to their needs...... sad loss of life and  so unexpected........

Edited April 19, 2018 by wain
more info

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

On 4/19/2018 at 09:54, J G said:

When I was a child I travelled back from Majorca with Dan Air on a BAC 1-11.

On arriving at Luton airport we landed a bit heavily, but not horrendously so, and as we touched down my window broke.

Now I understand why the stewardess when white when I told her and why she rushed off to the Captain!

 

There is a very famous incident of the captain being sucked out of the cockpit window on a One-eleven,. the co-pilot managed to land the aircraft and miraculously the pilot survived! 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

That captain and her FO had the double whammy - a catastrophic, un-contained engine failure AND sudden decompression at altitude.  Makes for a busy next half hour but it appears they performed admirably.  They could do nothing about the catastrophe in the cabin other than get down to breathable air promptly, which they did.

 

It also sounds as if the cabin crew and pax did all that could be done there too.  What a shame for that pax and her family.

 

John

[hurricanemk1c 195]

EASA had issued an Airworthiness Directive regarding that particular CFM engine (CFM56-7B) to ultrasonically test each fan blade by the end of the year, but nothing from the FAA. That has since been done, for high-cycle (30000+) engines, with a Service Bulletin covering the rest.

 

Very sad to hear of the fatality. And I too noticed the limited number wearing the masks correctly

[allardjd 1,853]

The earlier failure was in a conical hub section, not a blade per se - they lost the whole LP compressor section, about five entire stages as I recall.  UT of blades is barking up entirely the wrong tree with respect to that one, though I don't have any comparable info on this new one.  I guess it's possible that losing one blade could cause a cascading failure but I don't think that's what happened in the first event - the airbus that landed in Canada (Gander, Newfoundland?)

 

John

[hurricanemk1c 195]

John - http://avherald.com/h?article=49d2d7e3&opt=0

 

I must admit until reading the AvHerald report on the current incident I had forgotten about the incident in 2016

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks for that observation @hurricanemk1c

 

Interesting to note several items that are common

1. Southwest Airlines

2. Port engine

3. Damage to the cabin structure aft of the leading edge of the wing

 

- in the 2016 incident, the gash in the fuselage obviously was serious enough to depressurize the cabin. In the 2018 incident, a window in the same area was broken leading to depressurization AND the death of a passenger.

 

I wonder if there have been any similar failures on the starboard engine that did not result in damage to the cabin structure. If so, I would postulate that the rotation direction has something to do with the possibility of cabin damage.

 

I prefer to choose the wing area seating on all airline flights. I'm not wealthy enough to be sitting in First or Business Class. Sitting in close proximity to the MAC is the most comfortable place on any aircraft (despite the crumby seats in cattle-class). I think I'll be choosing my seating to be slightly closer to the front of the aircraft from now on, especially if it's a 737.

[Soaranden 84]

On 4/19/2018 at 05:29, wain said:

so calm under pressure.....it shows that she has had so much training and knows the limits / capabilities of her equipment..

 

The National Transportation Safety Board reported that when the engine and window blew, the 737 tilted to the left at a forty-one-degree angle. That being the case, I'm sure everyone is thankful that Tammie Jo Shults was there to be immediately on top of the situation.

 

When she was in the US Navy, Tammie Jo Shults was more than an F/A-18 Hornet pilot: She was an F/A-18 instructor.

 

Absolutely outstanding flying, Captain Shults!

 

Tammie Jo Shults

 

Edited April 25, 2018 by Soaranden