advertisement


777 Engine containment failed

Oops, that should not have happened. All's well that ends well I suppose.
The fancase looks to be intact so most likely a turbine disc failure. Another report says that the engine was a Pratt and Whitney, so very likely quite old as the huge majority of 777 use GE engines since they got a sole supplier deal early in the history of 777 production.
 
Bit hard to read the aircraft rego, but I'm guessing it's a 1984 version, so, Vinny, you're probably right.
 
I wonder if we will hear more stories of engine failures as air travel gets back to normal. Machinery is more reliable with regular use.
 
Vinny said:
Oops, that should not have happened. All's well that ends well I suppose.
Click to expand...
Twin engine aircraft can survive an engine failing, but not it breaking up and hitting the wing or tail.
The containment is really not supposed to let this happen
 
davidsrsb said:
Twin engine aircraft can survive an engine failing, but not it breaking up and hitting the wing or tail.
Click to expand...

That rather depends on what is hit/damaged by what.


davidsrsb said:
The containment is really not supposed to let this happen
Click to expand...

Correct. Hence my comment that it should not have happened.

Given the colour of the fancase, that appears to use the old technique of wrapping the fancase in a kevlar blanket. More recent designs use clever case design/profiles to achieve that. Disc failure containment is entirely down to case design and always has been.
 
As usual pprune has a good discussion going :- https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/638797-united-b777-uncontained-engine-failure-4.html

It is an unconditioned failure with some still images seemingly showing a fan blade missing; the vibration seen in the video of the engine windmilling also suggests a fan blade is off. The containment, the kevlar 'bag' shown light brown in the images around the fan disc looks intact which is where any fan blade fragments should be.

The cowl is missing and landed in someone's garden - that shouldn't happen but these P&W engines have very large fan diameters and may have been loosened by the vibration, followed by aerodynamic loading doing the rest.

The writers in the link above suggest the fire is residual fuel/oil burning the thrust reverser cascades.

Fan blades can fail due to fatigue but also after bird impact - both rare events hence this is an interesting incident to us aircraft structures people.

Oh, and engines get swapped out regularly, so certainly not the original engines as speculated.

CHE
 
avole said:
Bit hard to read the aircraft rego, but I'm guessing it's a 1984 version, so, Vinny, you're probably right.
Click to expand...
Blimey, that is early, the first 777 flight was in June of 1994.

It is an early model though taking first flight in November 94 and entering passenger service in September of 95.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top