Posted on 03/06/2023 11:34:49 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants
A Southwest Airlines plane carrying 147 passengers to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, sustained engine trouble after hitting birds, forcing it to return to Havana for an emergency landing Sunday, according to NBC News.
Officials said Southwest Airlines Flight 3923 "experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft's nose shortly after takeoff," resulting in smoke filling the cabin.
According to Cuban Aviation Corporation S.A., Cuba's civil aviation authority, pilots became aware of the Boeing 737 engine issues after the collision with the birds.
A cellphone video filmed in the cabin made its way through social media, showing passengers panicking as the smoke began to fill up.
Marco Antonio told NBC's "Early Today" show: "Nobody could breathe. It was burning so much in the lungs. People were just screaming. Kids were screaming."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
The air going into the cabin comes from the compressor section of the engine. It’s just compressed air, which is what, about 78% nitrogen?
I didn’t either.
It's not just about economy, it also can promote compressor stall.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressor_stall#Factors_which_erode_compressor_surge_margin
Lived this for many years - scariest part of the engine-test was surge-margin check - we'd manually close the bleed valve while up in power and back the engine down until the compressor stalled - always gave me the creeps.
(A quick opening of the bleed valve would usually allow the engine to recover).
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