United flight has severe engine uncontained engine failure

[pmv]

https://imgur.com/X0Xce34

oh wow, impressive

From the aircraft passengers' p.o.v the relevant movie might be the Twilight Zone, but the images on the ground made me think of Donny Darko.

 

[Zorba]

Wonder why the pilots didn't snuff this one out considering the amount of damage.

What do you mean snuff it out? I'm sure they pulled the fire handle, which shuts off all the flow of fuel and hydraulic fluid to the engine. But the halon wouldn't have put out the fire with the nacelle missing as the halon would've just been blown away. This looks like it was probably residue flammable fluids (fuel and/or oil) burning and the thrust reverser diverters burning.

 

[Zorba]

That video above, that's a pretty nasty shimmy. I wonder what it looks like when it reaches the shear bolt level?

WIndmilling loads after a fan blade out are the maximum design loads for some of the structure, so it is a pretty big deal.

 

[Zorba]

In the videos I don't see any missing fan blades, and I don't think there is enough damage for it be a rotor burst. So I'm very interested in what caused this issue. From other pictures, the nacelle didn't compeletely fail at once. It lost the nose and fan cowls first, then shed the thrust reversers later.

 

[BUTCH1]

What do you mean snuff it out? I'm sure they pulled the fire handle, which shuts off all the flow of fuel and hydraulic fluid to the engine. But the halon wouldn't have put out the fire with the nacelle missing as the halon would've just been blown away. This looks like it was probably residue flammable fluids (fuel and/or oil) burning and the thrust reverser diverters burning.

Yea, after watching it a few times this seems the most plausible, fire suppression would have to arranged to flow from front to back and with that cowling completely gone from the front any ability to do that would have been gone. The fire is dying down as the video progresses too.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Yikes, that's scary in the air and in the ground

 

[Puffnstuff]

View attachment 40060

Aren't the automatic marshmallow dispensers supposed to deploy when that happens?

 

[skyking]

In the videos I don't see any missing fan blades, and I don't think there is enough damage for it be a rotor burst. So I'm very interested in what caused this issue. From other pictures, the nacelle didn't compeletely fail at once. It lost the nose and fan cowls first, then shed the thrust reversers later.

That's a hell of a shimmy for an intact windmilling assembly. Something (s) have to be bent or missing. We'll know in 6 months when the NTSB releases the report

 

[Zorba]

That's a hell of a shimmy for an intact windmilling assembly. Something (s) have to be bent or missing. We'll know in 6 months when the NTSB releases the report

Yeah, I agree something is out of balance. So something in the engine broke, just not sure what. If the NTSB gives some initial information the what will probably be clear with a week or two, the why will be much longer.

 

[Meghan54]

Definitely some parts of blades missing in this pic:

 

[Zorba]

Definitely some parts of blades missing in this pic:

Thanks for the still. Definitely looks like a fan blade out now. The nacelle shouldn't come apart from that, but there has been a rash of nacelles coming apart after fan blade failures.

 

[hal2kilo]

Must have been a rather "bad" engine failure as I've been lead to believe the engine's cowling is designed not to disintegrate when an engine fails like this one did. Supposedly supposed to contain the "failure" and not shred like it did. And it's United, so that's not a surprise.

Thank goodness it appears no one was killed on the ground. And the cowling's front outer ring...damned lucky it landed how it did.

Must have been quite the compressor stall to push the front nacelle cowling forward against the wind.

 

[skyking]

I used to inspect nacelle assemblies for the Fokker 100 and Gulfstream GIV at Hexcel. They are much, much smaller, but definitely built hell-for-stout.

 

[hal2kilo]

Thanks for the still. Definitely looks like a fan blade out now. The nacelle shouldn't come apart from that, but there has been a rash of nacelles coming apart after fan blade failures.

Seem like they still haven't perfected the casting of the titanium billets for the fans. That has been the cause of drastic fan failures before, but this fan is largely intact minus a few blades. Probably be a year or so before they figure this out.

 

[hal2kilo]

A micro fracture in a turbine blade that wasn’t identified before failure. It will be either a manufacturing defect or maintenance wasn’t being done as it should be. The only other question will be widespread the issue is.

Seems these are Pratt & Whitney engine failures. Some details of previous inspection issues.

Why Do Boeing 777 Engines Keep Exploding? (msn.com)

 

[Zorba]

I've never worked these engines, but I am pretty sure that these are hollow titanium fan blades and that they are life limited parts. So one failing in flight is a big deal.

Looks like United is grounding all of their 777s and the FAA is looking into issuing an immediately adopted rule (AD) against the engine type.

 

[Meghan54]

I've never worked these engines, but I am pretty sure that these are hollow titanium fan blades and that they are life limited parts. So one failing in flight is a big deal.

Looks like United is grounding all of their 777s and the FAA is looking into issuing an immediately adopted rule (AD) against the engine type.

Indeed they are hollow fan blades, according to the tweet the FAA put out regarding the grounding/inspection for the P&W engines. FAA says in the tweet these "hollow fan blades that are unique to this model engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1363631972682248192