Posted on 04/17/2018 1:45:49 PM PDT by T-Bird45
PHILADELPHIA — A Southwest Airlines jet apparently blew an engine at about 30,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage Tuesday, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said.
The plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia just before noon as passengers breathing through oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling said their prayers and braced for impact.
"I just remember holding my husband's hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed," said passenger Amanda Bourman, of New York. "And the thoughts that were going through my head of course were about my daughters, just wanting to see them again and give them a big hug so they wouldn't grow up without parents."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Never sit beside the engine.
How does an engine just suddenly blow up?
I am thinking the turbine blade housing came apart.
Strict maintenance and part replacement schedules are designed to prevent such failures.
Could it be defective Chinese steel?
It wouldn't surprise me.
Really? The body isn’t even cold yet and you’re trying to figure out who to blame?
Sure, I’ll play along. Yes, it could have been defective Chinese steel. Or maybe the Russians hacked the engine. Or maybe the Muslims sabotaged it somehow. I think that covers the major boogeymen. Perhaps we should move on to the minor ones?
Sounds like one of the blades on the engine separated. The ring that is supposed to catch faulty loose parts failed. How awful.
You might as well say “never fly”.
These accidents are terrible but so rare that it simply isn’t worth it for a passenger to worry about them.
If you are that risk-averse, you shouldn’t be flying at all. Or doing much of anything else either.
And this is how stupid rumors get started.
Would certainly be interesting to know.
RIP.
First passenger fatality US airline since 2009.
That person was mid wing, way behind the engine. About on one of the exit row window seats. You just never know when your time is up!
I was in an L-1011 out of Calgary when a strut
came loose and was sucked into its engine, breaking
turbine blades as it went. The plane shuddered
and the blades breaking sounded like a machine gun
being fired. My thought on the possibility of life
being over was, “Well, it’s been nice.”
I just started reading Michael Crichton’s “Air Frame” that has a good description of what happens when a turbine comes apart in mid-flight.
Revealed as terrorism in 3...2...1...
It was the first death stemming from an in-flight accident on a U.S. airliner since 2009. I’ll take my chances.
As a former jet mechanic (and having borescoped a number of engines looking for turbine cracks) I can tell you that every time I board a plane or stand outside one that is turning...I think for a split second about being in the line of those disintegrating blades, but...you just have to not consider it.
It is like getting bugged out by germs every time you enter a bathroom. You will go bonkers.
Some things you just have to accept the risk is low.
Explain to me how a terrorist somehow blow up an engine in mid flight? Man here they come out of the woodwork....
No, the turbine blades are made from inconel, primarily a nickle based super alloy and a cast iron Hillary to work with in the machining end of things. Those things are tested in QC seven ways to Sunday before they ever see the inside of a turbine. Each batch is so stringent in their testing I doubt anyone would rely on a non-domestic source like China for their material for this exact reason.
I think that people really forget exactly the billions of miles we put on those things and just how much force is being contained and directed there, the speed of those things. We take it for granted that they will always be functioning without a hickup, and sometimes things like this just happen and we never really know what caused the failure.
Holy crap, I looked at the images...that doesn’t look like a turbine malfunction, it looks like the entire engine blew up and ripped off the plane.
Ugh.
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