Man Allegedly Throws Wheel Block Into Running Engine of Plane

AP / Fox News ^ | 1.3.03

[Joe Hadenuf]

Man..isn't it awesome how those engines with all that turbomachinery spinning and amazing speeds can just swallow crap like wheel blocks and geese and hardly get messed up. Alot of times the keep running too. Go engineers.

And sometimes they turn into shrapnel bombs that can penetrate both sides of a 727s fuselage, hydraulic lines etc, killing hundreds.....

[Tennessee_Bob]

How about the fan-disk on the #2 of a DC-10 giving way, shredding all the hydraulic systems?

[LibWhacker]

Sailor sucked into jet engine (.AVI). With minor injuries! Couldn't believe it when I first saw it. (There's a better video out there somewhere. Just can't find it now.)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Didn't that happen in Dakota some years ago? And it crashed on landing?

[Tennessee_Bob]

Sorry - that crewman didn't pass through the engine. He was caught inside the inlet of the aircraft. What you see going out the ass-end is his flashlight, helmet and everything else. It trashed the engine. That's why we have the danger zones pounded into our heads.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Sioux City, Iowa.

[PAR35]

Yes, Delta killed a passenger a few years ago when a turbine failed on a member of the DC-9/MD80 family (I don't remember the exact model). It threw a blade into the seated passenger while the plane was on the ground. To place it more closely in time, it was shortly after the Valujet crash.

[Joe Hadenuf]

That's it.....If I remember correctly, the crew were heros. and fought that thing until the bitter end.......

[Tennessee_Bob]

Not only that, but the cockpit crew survived. Saw the special on it again on History or Discover several nights ago. Absolutely awesome that they saved as many souls as they did. What amazed me was that they took the same incident profile and loaded it on the company simulators - and no one even got close to the runways with it. We were amazed to find out that all three hydraulic circuits ran through the plane of rotation on that engine - that's what killed the aircraft - all the hydraulics, including the redundant system, ran to the #2 engine.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

No one, it appears, is questioning the charge...Federal agents arrested Cochran, 44, after the incident Wednesday; he was charged with destruction of an aircraft, said FBI spokeswoman Ann Atanasio.

The plane was removed from service to repair minor damage in its engine and resumed flying Thursday.

If the aircraft resumed flying, I don't see it as destruction...

Not that I'm unhappy with putting this guy into a rubber room. If he had the authority he should have used it. That's why he has authority. So people don't have to endanger equipment or lives needlessly. Maybe attempted destruction, but I don't think he intended to destroy, just delay.

Meega, Nala Kweesta!

[LibWhacker]

I said I'd never understand, but now I do, thanks. :-)

[babygene]

"He's no hero, he's an idiot."

I think you’re off base here. The fact that he might be an idiot does not keep him from being a hero. It depends on what his motivations were...

If he did this to prevent a plane from taking off that he "thought" was in danger, I would applaud his action. It's too easy for a lowly employee to get overruled by supervisors.

If I honestly felt that the flight was in danger, and that was the only way I could delay the flight, I would have done the same thing. And I'm NOT an idiot.

[Joe Hadenuf]

You know I if I remember correctly I heard that the pilot woke up in the hospital room and the TV was on. He saw the crash and asked his wife what happened, she when she told him and he started crying.....Maybe it was from a different aircraft accident....Can't remember.

But they did one heck of a job.......

[Tennessee_Bob]

If I honestly felt that the flight was in danger, and that was the only way I could delay the flight, I would have done the same thing. And I'm NOT an idiot.

If you throw any piece of ground equipment into the running engine of an aircraft loaded with passengers - then you are an idiot.

[Mark17]

And I'm NOT an idiot.

Well, I doubt you are an aircraft mechanic either, but Bob is. Having been in the Air Force for 20 years, around aircraft, I can assure you, that Bob is right. Anyone who throws something into a running jet engine, risks blowing turbine blades through the passenger compartment, where many people could be killed. To call the man an idiot, is being charitable.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Thanks, Mark - I forgot to mention that I was a jet engine mechanic.

How's everything going??

[xm177e2]

If Poohbah's wife and kids had been on that plane, I wouldn't want some nutjob hurling things at the engines, that's dangerous.

[xm177e2]

If I honestly felt that the flight was in danger, and that was the only way I could delay the flight, I would have done the same thing. And I'm NOT an idiot.

If you think your honest opinion matters, even if you don't know much about aircraft, then you might be one.

[Mark17]

How's everything going??

OK, I am geting ready to go to the Philippines, as long as we do not have a full scale world war or something. I miss her. :-)

[babygene]

"If you think your honest opinion matters, even if you don't know much about aircraft, then you might be one."

The fact is, I do know quite a bit about turbojets, I'm probably one of the relative few that has one in the garage… The wife gave it to me for my birthday five years ago… It’s a small one, 180HP, but any problems with the turbo would be scalable.

At the speed that it would have been running at the gate, it’s VERY unlikely anything would have gone through the fuselage. It was running 10 ur 15K at the max…