[M. Thatcher]

[M. Thatcher]

IF this was sabotage, the saboteur(s) didn’t count on the plane being controlled by a Navy fighter pilot.

[taildragger]

In another picture, I count 23 Fan Blades, not 24. One had a failure and liberated. My guess is at the root where it slides in the disk aka with "a Fir Tree" ( look it up ) What many here do not know is the Jet Engine Manufacturers run a test where they shoot a frozen turkey into an engine at full throttle to make sure it will either continue to run and that a blade will not liberate. On top of that they put a pyrotechnic charge at the base of a blade and deliberately make it fail to see if the containment will hold the blade as it attempt to exit, that is also and FAA requirement for engine certification.

One can ask: Why did this fail on this CFM-56 engine, note they will trace the part back to it's origins as it has a paper trail to determine if it is manufacturing defect or stress over time . Was their a stress-or event, is it a maintenance issue, etc etc.

Any other machinations or theories are folly given the role of the NTSB, FAA and the manufacturer of said engine and or sub-contractor of said part(s). They want to get to the bottom of this, this engine and airframe combo are a big part of the fleet and flights daily, they need answers asap, grounding this fleet is not directive that would be taken without great investigative and engineering thought.

I'll leave this one to the Aviation Pro's not the theorist....

[taildragger]

BTW the missing blade looks like it was in the 8:30 position in that photo, just below the NTSB logo on the shoulder of the Examiner on the left.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

1. Don’t see the broken fin (I do see some bent fins)
2. That is the FRONT of the engine? How does that blow up at 600+ miles per hour from something inside?