[verum ago]

Before everybody starts jumping on Boeing, the picture appears to show birds all over....I would suspect this is a bird strike

The article says it happened at 36,000 ft; videos and photos showing the birds are from its approach to make the emergency landing. Kinda doubting bird strike.

But also, yeah. Boeing isn't an engine manufacturer. And the airframe in question is over 25 years old. Probably a maintenance issue.

From the vague / poorly tranlsated descriptions in the article, plus the video, it looks like a compressor stall. Very loud, lots of visible flames, but those flames are fuel burning behind the engine in free air, i.e. the engine itself is not on fire and probably never was. Still might have been a pants-changing situation for some passengers though...

[dagunk]

From the vague / poorly translated descriptions in the article, plus the video, it looks like a compressor stall. Very loud, lots of visible flames, but those flames are fuel burning behind the engine in free air, i.e. the engine itself is not on fire and probably never was. Still might have been a pants-changing situation for some passengers though...

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Compressor stalls. Used to have to stand ground for compressor stall checks on C-141 aircraft. Pratt & Whitney engines, used bleed valves to dump excess air when the throttles got pulled back. Once in a while a valve would stick and here comes your compressor stall, fire flying out of the front of the engine and the bleed valve vents on the side. Never did watch the rear so may have been spitballs back there too.

Impressive as hell at night (grin).