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What we know so far about the Southwest incident
Philadelphia - A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia on April 17 after one of its engines had been severely damaged following the loss of a fan blade. (airlinerwatch.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The Pilot and First Officer were right on the ball.....congratulations to both for a great job!!
How come they didn’t do those checks after 1st incident.
I’m sorry, what is the first incident you are speaking of. There have been many main fan failures over the last forty years but the attempt has been to maintain or trap the debris from such a failure by keeping it inside the main blade housing. Great improvements have been made in this effort in the last ten years or so with the implementation of kevlar linings inside the housing. This is the same material used in bullet proof vest. A main fan blade rotating at 20,000 to over 30,000 RPM can have the force, in some instances, of over 20,000 pounds if it separates from the main shaft. Keep in mind these are just generalized numbers because the actual RPMs and centrifugal weights vary greatly with the size of the engine. The point here is that containing such a catastrophic failure is a major undertaking. Every engine designed must go through a blade out test to prove that the blade and fragments can be maintained within the housing. These test are very expensive and require the total destruction of an engine that may cost over thirty million dollars. Unfortunately, as seen in this incident, other faults can result in further destruction and even loss of life.
Because no one died
The question I have is did the fan blade break first or did the cowling break it?
Delta MD-80 in 1996 in Pensacola, FL had a engine explode during takeoff killing two people in the cabin.
Is this normal cycles or low/high?
This is NYT/Reuters article.