[Tennessee_Bob]

gesh... so now engines fail when they are due for a major overhaul? What happened to the built-in 50% to 100% safety margin?

It's still there. And no, they don't fail based on a maintenance schedule. And in a perfect world, they wouldn't fail at all. Not that it matters, after all, you guys have convinced me that it couldn't have been anything other than terrorist activities.

[eno_]

Yow, we have Pollyanna vs. Chicken Little. It probably ain't a self-exploding engine, and it probably ain't a wrench in the engine. It probably was a bomb in a suitcase, in the baggage compartment, unless the metal chunks from a bad engine (which Bob has documented are No Fun At All) are enough to chop the tail off the plane.