[GOPJ]

And what are the odds? What do they think?

I work in an airline dispatch office and our maintenence personel and the dispatchers here are speculating on catastrophic engine failure taking the hydraulics with it.

[Dirk McQuickly]

If the engine fell off on takeoff, with a full plane, and fully-fueled, it would not have made it five miles. The Chicago DC-10 lost the engine on takeoff, got maybe 500 feet off the ground (I actually think it only asceneded 100 feet) rolled and nosedived just a few hundred yards from O'Hare. My bro-in-law is a United flight mechanic, and he told me several months ago that would never happen again, due to design changes.