AVIATION PING!....................
Boeing.
We used to joke that the purpose of the second engine was to get you to the scene of the crash faster after the first engine failed.
Those days are pretty much in the past; modern airliners can sustain flight ... even take off ... on one engine.
Thankfully they didn’t employ the India Air procedure to shut off the fuel to both engines at the same time.
Lots of engine failures lately. Makes one wonder.
A reader wrote us, retelling the story about the military pilot calling ATC for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked." ATC told the fighter jock that he was number two behind a B-52 that had one shut down.
"Ah," the pilot remarked, "the dreaded seven-engine approach!"
Always impressive to hear competent people effectively communicating at the same level with a calm, methodical approach. No DIE detected, just a group of professionals handling a problem.
He said "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" is the internationally recognized distress call, but in the USA pilots still sometimes use "Declare an emergency" to notify ATC.
His take is worth a listen: Pilots Shut Down Engine Mid-Flight - Frontier A320 Returns to Philadelphia
He said that a Lufthansa transatlantic flight went FIFTEEN minutes eastbound over the ocean after a problem alarm went off. He was amazed they did not immediately turn around.
I'm sure "Captain Steeeve" will review this UA 108 Dulles-Munich flight in the future.
Mayday? Why, that’s the Russian New Year. We’ll have a big parade. We’ll serve hot hors d’oeuvres
Over Macho Grande?
Boeing does not make engines and the carrier is responsible for maintenance.
Max takeoff weight is typically higher that max landing weight for most aircraft.
BTW, I've been through a couple of engine failures (both single engine.)
One was my instructor's C210, the other was a friend's Bonanza. In both cases, the mlf occurred below 1000 ft agl, and in both cases, we got the engine re-started ~ 100 ft agl.
I learned much about emergency re-starts (and thereafter carefully rehearsed my re-start actions before every flight of which I was PIC.)
Wonder if anybody on board thought to check the passengers’ average blood pressure while circling around burning up excess fuel...
That’ll make one to start to carry a extra shorts in your packet a OMG and a brown alert is to much fear to hold back.
The flight crew:
Sum Ting Wong
We Too Low
Bang Ding Ow
Ho Lee Fook