Just read about this:

 

Very sad, but apparently the passengers stepped up to try and save her.  There supposed to be a debris shield around the engine to help prevent something like this ... I know when I was auto racing, one of the many safety regulations is a "shatter shield" (has to be a very specific size, thickness, material, and location) between me and the clutch housing ... it saved me from injury from an incorrectly installed clutch that came apart on me one practice session. 

I've always wondered how or if aircraft engines had a similar shielding ... I assumed they didn't because of the additional weight required to stop metal rotating at such high speeds.  But apparently they do have shields but perhaps not of sufficient thickness to prevent debris shattering?

I thought 737's had vibration sensors for each engine so I would think anything starting to come apart would have triggered those sensors?  Can't imagine at 32,200 ft it ingested anything that would cause this? 

Cheers, Rob.

The lack of a band of shrapnel damage on the fuselage in the same plane as the obvious damage to the compressor section suggests to me that the containment ring largely did its job here.

The diagonal stripe of removed paint traversing the inboard top of the cowl in the picture above suggests to me that something pretty substantial skidded across the top of the engine cowl towards the fuselage/wing root area.

A compressor or turbine wheel failure can occur suddenly, without vibration or warning.  Cracks in the blade structure propagate slowly until they hit a critical length, after which point they propagate very rapidly. 

Regards

 

Yes it seems to be an extremely unfortunate trajectory, straight through a window, very sad for the victim

11 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

Yes it seems to be an extremely unfortunate trajectory, straight through a window, very sad for the victim

To me, these things are like an amusement park ride. Every time your fasten your seatbelt, a fleeting wisp of memory regarding accidents/tragedies flickers for an instant through your mind......

But you'll be ok, right? Airplanes are still the safest form of travel, right?

I can't Imagine the horror/disbelief that must arise when you realize that the odds have come for you, and your plane is in trouble.... 

NTSB pictures:  https://twitter.com/NTSB_Newsroom

 

scott s.

.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/female-ex-navy-fighter-pilot-saved-more-than-100-passengers-on-southwest-flight-after-engine-exploded-at-32000ft-smashed-a-window-and-sucked-a-woman-out-before-fellow-passengers-dragged-her-back-in/ar-AAvZZEo?li=BBoPRmx

The pilot was female ex navy.

These engine problems always remind me of United 232 in 1989 - when the 'flywheel' ? fatigue fracture wasn't found in time. The subsequent damage left the crew with no hydraulics.

I seem to recall that the enquiry report stated that it was due to that inevitable 'human error' - where maintenance didn't pick up the extending fracture in time to prevent the accident.

When seated nearest to an engine in flight, I always think of how many components on the aircraft, and especially engine components - have to work 100% of the time. Makes you think.

Having seen how these fan blades are made/tested, I wonder whether this one might have been discovered prior to the incident, and the metal fatigue could have been seen prior to it occurring..

In a similar vein - what is behind this recent ETOPS ruling on the 787 with RR engines I wonder ?

Regards

Bill

Quite the tragedy and absolutely harrowing experience for all passengers. Phenomenal work by the crew to get them all down safely and while they train alot for engine failures, having the window shatter and aircraft depressurize just added to the complications to deal with let alone a pax nearly sucked out. 

Whats interesting though , is that one of the reports indicates the engine had a safety check in mid April. Who knows to what extent, but if there was metal fatigue, you wonder why it didnt get picked up or any other issue. Thats a catastrophic engine failure not just a failure.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/investigators-say-southwest-engine-was-missing-a-fan-blade-and-showed-signs-of-metal-fatigue/ar-AAw0pqx?ocid=spartandhp

Missing fan blade.

So very tragic the loss of life for victim and family. Every time there is an aviation tragedy I can't help but consider the attention given aviation tragedy but we seem to accept the tens of thousands lives lost on our highways every year as the cost we pay for a mobile society. If 10%that number were lost in airplanes the media and public would be demanding remedy.

Atc here:

 

What a tragic event, RIP passenger :(

Listening to the ATC, it seems the pilots never declared Mayday or Pan Pan Pan, unless it wasn't captured by the recording above. Same goes for squawk 7700, none of the aviation emergency reporting channels (like Flightradar24's twitter) shown SWA1380 squawking 7700.

Quite unusual imho. Is this a hard requirement by FAA or more kind of "best practice"?

Edited April 18, 20188 yr by Woozie

Hi Lars,

I believe it's up to the PIC as the final authority for the safe operation of the aircraft and their needs from ATC...

I can't recall any FAR that stated you must declare an emergency or you must squawk 7700...

Regards,
Scott

Edited April 18, 20188 yr by scottb613

 Deleted

Edited April 18, 20188 yr by JNS

Cheers for clarifying Scott!

I assumed that mayday or pan pan pan calls are rather pilots discretion, but i thought 7700 is a requirement to ensure that all controllers that have this AC on their screen are aware of the emergency