I guess I flew on this 747-400 at the right time

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I flew on this same aircraft earlier this year.  It's the second aircraft I've flown on that has gone thru this engine issue, fortunately, there is more redundancy on four-engine aircraft.  That's why we will miss the queen of the skies......

 

https://www.azcentral.com/videos/news/local/phoenix/2017/12/09/engine-trouble-british-airways-flight-phoenix/108480070/

[HighBypass 2,339]

Compressor stall? Bird strike? No worries, there's another 3 engines... ;)

[Chock 17,769]

Looks like a bird ingestion to me, kind of difficult to tell but seems to be the number 3 engine, so probably not too much difficulty with asymmetric thrust. Always looks and sounds a bit more dramatic than it really is and saves one the trouble of having to wait four hours for your bird to cook at Christmas. 

[skelsey 765]

Compressor stall at V1 according to the grapevine, but we shall wait and see!

[Chock 17,769]

Looks like it spits something out the back at about 36 seconds on the video, which makes me doubt it was only a compressor stall, unless it was a compressor stall caused by something mechanical letting go, but I still reckon that's some kentucky fried pigeon coming out of the tailpipe.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

When I was on a flight waiting to depart from Bozeman Montana, a 737-300, we had a compressor stall at the gate when the engine started.  Same thing, but much louder inside the cabin.  I was not particularly worried, no one panicked on that flight.  But I knew some people would not make it on the replacement CRJ-700 they brought in because it had fewer seats.  Instead of going to the gate I went to the customer service desk and booked my seat that way.  A lot of passengers complained because the airline claimed it was an "Act of God" and thus the already seated passengers on the replacement aircraft took priority.  I got home very late, my wife was very worried, since I did not have a cell phone back then.  Many of these incidents go unreported.  I was on another aircraft that had a ground accident, and I searched the accident records and never found a report.  The airlines hide some of these accidents to avoid lawsuits, and if you read the carriage contract it allows them to get away with a lot.  But fortunately for all of us, the industry is getting safer, safer and safer.  They learned from these mistakes, especially after the Concorde disaster.

John

[JRBarrett 3,070]

37 minutes ago, Chock said:

Looks like it spits something out the back at about 36 seconds on the video, which makes me doubt it was only a compressor stall, unless it was a compressor stall caused by something mechanical letting go, but I still reckon that's some kentucky fried pigeon coming out of the tailpipe.

There is a full ATC video on YouTube. The airport did a runway inspection after the takeoff, (while the aircraft was dumping fuel southwest of Phoenix). Apparently no engine debris were found.

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

No engine debris - seems like a KFC-initiated compressor stall to this layman, unless chunks of flaming carbon were blasted off the blades during the backfire. Can i call it a backfire? LOL. 

[WingZ 547]

Listening to the ATC...

You do wonder why, in the 21st century, they keep using radios that sound like you are talking into a tin can tied to a piece of string.

 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

41 minutes ago, WingZ said:

Listening to the ATC...

You do wonder why, in the 21st century, they keep using radios that sound like you are talking into a tin can tied to a piece of string.

 

Lol, I was thinking the same thing the other day when listing to ATC. 

[skelsey 765]

4 hours ago, WingZ said:

Listening to the ATC...

You do wonder why, in the 21st century, they keep using radios that sound like you are talking into a tin can tied to a piece of string.

 

Because even in the 21st century the laws of physics still have to be obeyed!

The audio quality is a function of the bandwidth available, which in the USA is nominally 25kHz (I don't think 8.33 has made it Stateside yet, has it?). The audio frequency range you can transmit is nominally half the bandwidth, giving a high frequency cutoff of 12.5kHz. In practice you can't use all of this because receivers and transmitters are imperfect and if you tried to use the full bandwidth you'd get bleed on to adjacent channels, which restricts the available audio frequency range even more.

[WingZ 547]

Yes that's why it sounds like a tin can tied to a piece of string, not why they stay with it.

Shortwave radio also can sound like that, but these days DAB somehow fits better.
Digital hifi saying "Cleared to land" just works better for me than 

You can always broadcast on both old and new frequencies during the transition phase.