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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: kamilyun on November 08, 2007, 10:28:39 AM

Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: kamilyun on November 08, 2007, 10:28:39 AM
Sorry if this has been posted, but just saw this on CNN.  Has this ever happened before (successful landing part)?

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A plane carrying more than 100 people made an emergency landing in South Africa after an engine fell off during takeoff from Cape Town on Wednesday, officials said. No injuries were reported.

The Nationwide airline plane, bound for Johannesburg, touched down safely after the airport's fire and rescue services rushed to clear debris from the runway.

The right engine of the Boeing 737 "separated from the wing. The aircraft continued to climb out," the airline said in a statement.

One of the passengers, Pretoria businesswoman Ronel Derman, told the South African Press Association that she had been in a seat directly over the wing and a passenger seated next to her was looking out of the window when the engine dropped.

"I heard this huge bang, and he said, 'That's our engine that's just fallen off.' I couldn't believe it. He had to repeat it to me," she told SAPA.
Title: Re: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: ChickenHawk on November 08, 2007, 10:56:49 AM
Quote
Originally posted by kamilyun
'That's our engine that's just fallen off.'  


Words you never, ever want to hear.

It's a testament to the engineers at Boeing and I'm sure the quick thinking of the pilots this bird was brought back safely.  WTG.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Tiger on November 08, 2007, 10:59:44 AM
I'd love to see a transcript of the communications.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: john9001 on November 08, 2007, 12:31:02 PM
those planes are designed to fly on one engine, the engines are mounted with break away bolts so if a engine malfunctions and starts to vibrate the engine will depart instead of the wing.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: SFRT - Frenchy on November 08, 2007, 01:43:49 PM
Less drag on single engine perf got to be a good thing:)
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Donzo on November 08, 2007, 02:09:03 PM
Quote
Originally posted by john9001
those planes are designed to fly on one engine, the engines are mounted with break away bolts so if a engine malfunctions and starts to vibrate the engine will depart instead of the wing.


Designed to fly, yes, but takoff?

I remember seeing an incident on a show about air disasters where a DC-10 was taking off and the engine fell off during the takeoff roll.  The engine hit the ground after detaching and bounced off the ground then over the wing.  The plane managed to get airborne but at about 300 ft it began to roll to the left (the left engine was the one that fell off) and the plane rolled into the ground.  

I don't remember the outcome of the investigation so the plane may have been flyable during takeoff with the two remaining engines.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Xjazz on November 08, 2007, 02:11:38 PM
'If it's Boeing, I'm NOT going'...err
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: indy007 on November 08, 2007, 02:23:48 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Xjazz
'If it's Boeing, I'm NOT going'...err


Doesn't matter if it's Airbus, Douglas, or Boeing if the maintenance peoples don't follow procedure :(
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Ripsnort on November 08, 2007, 02:24:44 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Donzo
Designed to fly, yes, but takoff?

I remember seeing an incident on a show about air disasters where a DC-10 was taking off and the engine fell off during the takeoff roll.  The engine hit the ground after detaching and bounced off the ground then over the wing.  The plane managed to get airborne but at about 300 ft it began to roll to the left (the left engine was the one that fell off) and the plane rolled into the ground.  

I don't remember the outcome of the investigation so the plane may have been flyable during takeoff with the two remaining engines.


Quote
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the asymmetrical stall and the ensuing roll of the aircraft because of the uncommanded retraction of the left wing outboard leading edge slats and the loss of stall warning and slat disagreement indication systems resulting from maintenance-induced damage leading to the separation of the No. 1 engine and pylon assembly at a critical point during takeoff. The separation resulted from damage by improper maintenance procedures which led to failure of the pylon structure.
The hydraulic lines and followup cables of the drive actuator for the left wing's outboard leading edge slat were severed by the separation of the pylon and the left wing's outboard slats retracted during climbout. The retraction of the slats caused an asymmetric stall and subsequent loss of control of the aircraft.

Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: 68Wooley on November 08, 2007, 04:54:07 PM
Reminds me of an old Billy Conolly joke:

Guy's on a 747 crossing the Atlantic, when the captain comes on and tells them that they've lost an engine, but not to worry - the plane can fly just fine on three engines. They will, however be an hour late getting in to JFK.

An hour later, the captain comes on again and tells them they've lost a second engine, but again, not to worry - the plane will fly just fine on two engines. They will, however, be 2 hours late getting to JFK.

30 minutes later the captain announces they've lost a third engine and that the delay is now 3 and half hours.

At this point the guy turns to the woman next to him and says 'Christ, if this keeps up we'll be up here all night....'

:D
Title: Re: Re: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Spikes on November 08, 2007, 05:24:06 PM
Quote
Originally posted by ChickenHawk
Words you never, ever want to hear.


:rofl :rofl

Amen!
Title: Re: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: eagl on November 08, 2007, 05:52:30 PM
Ok, the engine landed safely.  What happened to the 737?

I admit I read only your post title and not the article, but I'm fascinated by these engines that can fall off and land safely.  Tell me more :)
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Hornet33 on November 08, 2007, 06:00:55 PM
Hey man, hey man, hey man.....how far can we go on one engine???

All the way to the scene of the crash. Which is handy because that's were we're going. Bet we beat the paramedics by 30 minutes.


Gotta love Ron White:aok
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Dago on November 08, 2007, 06:29:25 PM
There have been previous cases of engines falling off aircraft.  It isn't exactly common, but has happened.  Results have been both okay, and bad.  Depends on how they are mounted, wing or aft fuselage, if they do any damage to the aircraft during seperation.

Do the research and you will understand.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: moot on November 08, 2007, 06:40:05 PM
Dang, eagl beat me to it :p
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Dago on November 08, 2007, 07:44:49 PM
Quote
Originally posted by moot
Dang, eagl beat me to it :p


Eagl beat me once too, but I was too drunk at the time to fight back.  :D

Seriously, I love watching eagl ***** slap aquashrimp on aviation subjects.  :rofl
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: kamilyun on November 08, 2007, 11:14:20 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Dago
Do the research and you will understand.


Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: DrDea on November 08, 2007, 11:20:51 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Tiger
I'd love to see a transcript of the communications.


  probebly something along the lines of Hot Shots..........."Lost a wing.........there goes the other one........Coming in hot:rofl
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Yeager on November 09, 2007, 12:58:54 AM
thats pretty cool when an engine falls of then lands safely...(I never knew engines were equipped to land independently from the airplane).

One does wonder what happened with the plane after the engine fell off, then landed safely?  did the airplane fly on to its destination with only one engine?
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: DrDea on November 09, 2007, 08:32:58 AM
No I think its safe to say they grounded that one.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Halo on November 09, 2007, 06:19:54 PM
This was a complicated accident.  The misplaced modifier falling off the sentence stunned the Grammar Patrol into not being able to respond faster than 11 posts after the Safety Patrol which focused more on What The Captain Meant.
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: eagl on November 09, 2007, 09:52:10 PM
And then the reply content cop showed up and thoughtfully shot himself in the foot after coming to the conclusion that off-topic posters must be... well, shot in the foot.

:huh
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: Yeager on November 09, 2007, 10:09:36 PM
wellgee...the thread title did say tghe engine fell off and landed safely  :rolleyes: :D
Title: 737 Engine falls off, lands safely
Post by: mora on November 10, 2007, 03:04:51 AM
A 747 in Alaska lost 2 engines, landed safely. A 707 in France lost 2 engines, landed and veered of the runway, everybody OK. A 727 lost an engine in the US because of a lavatory liquid leak, landed safely. And so on...