Lots of failures of front of engine/cowling on airliners these days

[Puma44]

Proper preventative maintenance. In my field and our family business we sign contracts with companies to do PM. We take several hours per unit and groom it with a fine tooth comb. Why wouldn’t they do that in airplanes?  This. Shouldn’t. Ever. Happen. As mr V said how does it go 7 rows back. That’s crazy.

Do you REALLY think Southwest doesn't do routine preventative maintenance and phase inspections?  If you do, you are sadly mistaken.  You are obviously not in the airline business. Metal fatigue is metal fatigue and it happens.  This instance was the perfect storm of a slow news day, typical media hysteria pumping, and a female Captain, Male First Officer, and three Flight Attendants that did a fantastic job with compound emergencies and a very unfortunate fatality. 

How does it go 7 rows back?  Most likely came loose, created the engine cowling mess, and got on a vector to that window assisted by the the 500ish mph airflow.

You are right.  It should have never happened.  But, you, having no clue about the industry, Southwest Airlines, and aviation in general (apparently) have no credibility casting judgement on the situation. There are a lot of moving parts, they're made of metal, and they sometimes fail. 

There are car fatalities every day in the United States, 40,100 last year according to this link https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/14/traffic-deaths-edge-lower-but-2017-stats-paint-worrisome-picture.html.  Thats 110 car fatalities every day in this country.  Where's the hysteria and outrage about that?  That. Should. Never. Happen.

A search of airline flights across the U.S. reveals 87,000 flights per day or 31,755,000 per year. 

I can't even try to imagine what that Captain and her Crew are feeling about having a fatality.  It is the last thing anyone wants to have happen on their watch.

[saggs]

AD already issued.  Ultrasonic inspection of all CFM56 fan blade dovetails within 20 days.

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgad.nsf/0/6de148fe35ddeddb8625827500759aa4/$FILE/2018-09-51_Emergency.pdf

As someone who maintains aircraft for a living, can I just say the general tenor I've seen from the media and certain politicians who wouldn't know a Boeing from a Bücker (one certain Senator said FAA safety has "nose dived" because they've issued less fines, and vowed to "crack down on them" )   on this is just dumb.  Major air carriers in the US and elsewhere are as safe as they've ever been. This is the first fatality on a major US carrier in nearly a decade, out of how many hundreds of millions of fliers?  How many Amtrak passengers have been killed in the same time frame? and how many people do they move?  Flying commercially is safer then just about any other activity in life, and is far and away the safest form of public transportation.

[saggs]

Proper preventative maintenance.

Is what A&P mechanics like myself spend 90% of our time on the job doing.

In my field and our family business we sign contracts with companies to do PM. We take several hours per unit and groom it with a fine tooth comb. Why wouldn’t they do that in airplanes?

Ummm....  we do.  'Several hours per unit'  huh?  That's cute.  Yeaaaaaaaa.... we have around a dozen mechanics spend several days on an 'A' or 'B' check, and several weeks or even months on a heavy check.  Not to mention the daily pre-flights or service checks with take a couple of guys at least an hour or more.

  This. Shouldn’t. Ever. Happen.

OK...  That's a lovely platitude, but that's not real world is it? There can not be a mechanical device that is 100% immune to failure (though aircraft components get closer then anything else I can think of) So there are designed in redundancies and safeguards. It's rarely just one thing that fails and leads to an accident in aviation, be it mechanical failures or human factors.  Accident investigators talk about the accident chain, because there are usually more then one single contributing factor, and the odds of every link in that safety chain breaking down and leading to a catastrophic are incredibly slim.  In this instance, it's that 1 in a Billion chance that finally comes through, the laws of probability cannot be defeated, but they are hugely in your favor.

[eagl]

So...
SWA sent out some info to help clarify some of the incomplete reporting going on about both this tragic incident and the last time a motor failed in a similar fashion.

Grossly simplified summary:
After the last engine failure, SWA participated with both the investigation and in the process recommending preventative measures.  When the AD and required inspections came out last time, SWA felt that the required inspections were not comprehensive enough and so went quite a bit beyond the required inspections.
After this incident, SWA has already gone beyond the new inspection requirement, and is in the process of inspecting every single motor on the wing in addition to the already increased routine inspection cycle.

None of that can take back what happened, but I think it shows that SWA takes this extremely seriously and is not going to be satisfied with a minimal compliance effort regarding inspections intended to catch any failing blades before they fail in service.

[Vraciu]

Seems like more of an airflow issue.   Does certification cover things like cowling parts/aircraft separation?

Stuff happens.  I had a glove come out of a meat bombs jumpsuit and fly back to jam between the elevator mass balance and the end of the stab which locked that elevator up right the heck now.

I would imagine a contained failure has to meet certain criteria regarding collateral damage.   These cowl failures are alarming. 

[Puma44]

So...
SWA sent out some info to help clarify some of the incomplete reporting going on about both this tragic incident and the last time a motor failed in a similar fashion.

Grossly simplified summary:
After the last engine failure, SWA participated with both the investigation and in the process recommending preventative measures.  When the AD and required inspections came out last time, SWA felt that the required inspections were not comprehensive enough and so went quite a bit beyond the required inspections.
After this incident, SWA has already gone beyond the new inspection requirement, and is in the process of inspecting every single motor on the wing in addition to the already increased routine inspection cycle.

None of that can take back what happened, but I think it shows that SWA takes this extremely seriously and is not going to be satisfied with a minimal compliance effort regarding inspections intended to catch any failing blades before they fail in service.

Good, to the point, addition Eagl.  Thanks!  It’s the Southwest culture to do it right the first time and not just meet the standard but, exceed it.  Safety first. 

[Puma44]

I would imagine a contained failure has to meet certain criteria regarding collateral damage.   These cowl failures are alarming. 

I wonder, in the grand scheme of things, given the tens of thousands of airline flights every day, how frequent are these failures.  Or, is it just the ability of people to take photos, post to social media, and make it look like a panic situation, and then the news media grabs it and off they go.

[Mister Fork]

I wonder, in the grand scheme of things, given the tens of thousands of airline flights every day, how frequent are these failures.  Or, is it just the ability of people to take photos, post to social media, and make it look like a panic situation, and then the news media grabs it and off they go.

...more the latter. More people die in car accidents LAST YEAR than have died in civilian and military aircraft, including all wars since WWI. Yet the media looses their mind when there is a single fatality involving an passenger aircraft.

[Puma44]

...more the latter. More people die in car accidents LAST YEAR than have died in civilian and military aircraft, including all wars since WWI. Yet the media looses their mind when there is a single fatality involving an passenger aircraft.

Zactly!  Then people start deciding they’ll never fly again and go hop in a car.  Go figure.

[Vraciu]

I wonder, in the grand scheme of things, given the tens of thousands of airline flights every day, how frequent are these failures.  Or, is it just the ability of people to take photos, post to social media, and make it look like a panic situation, and then the news media grabs it and off they go.

Well, there is that.  But I don’t take comfort in seeing the front cowling coming off of so many of these wing-mounted engines (737, A320).   Maybe they’re designed to shear off on purpose to protect the wing structure, in which case I am at a loss for how you mitigate more damage.

[guncrasher]

People get killed on airplanes.  Time to just ban them all.  That will solve the problem.

 

people  use their own things to kill themselves. time to ban them all.


semp

[Busher]

I would imagine a contained failure has to meet certain criteria regarding collateral damage.   These cowl failures are alarming.

I found this video of destructive testing of fan blades. There are many more on line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcALjMJbAvU

I believe the engine manufacturers are required to certify containment. I think its inappropriate to question Southwest Airlines Safety protocol when no one is discussing GE engines manufacturing standards.

[Puma44]

Good point Busher.

[Vraciu]

Good point Busher.

Yep.  Which is what I’m referring to a few posts back regarding certification. 

Good post Buster. 

[DaveBB]

This wasn't the first engine to disentegrate.  In fact, in 2016 an engine disentegrated on a flight over Florida.  Now windows are blowing out for no reason.  Southwest has been fined numerous times.

The biggest FAA fine against Southwest was $7.5 million in 2009. The FAA said Southwest kept 46 planes flying even though they had skipped critical inspections of the fuselage for metal fatigue.

Five years later, the FAA proposed a $12 million fine over 44 planes that had undergone improper fuselage repairs while at a contractor hired by Southwest. The airline settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $2.8 million.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-southwest-airlines-safety-investigation-20180424-story.html