Catastrophic Engine failure on Southwest Airlines 737

[boogabooga]

Some interesting photos:
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/southwest-flight-emergency/index.html

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Huh. That's the second Southwest flight to blow apart the lip of the nacelle in, what, less than a year?

 

[Linguofreak]

This looks a bit more substantial than the cowling loss on that other flight, though. This seems to have involved an actual uncontained failure of the rotating structure of the engine.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Fan is still present, though, from what I can see.

EDIT: Looks like the fan shed at least one blade. Initial reports from the field indicate metal fatigue as the primary cause for the failure.

I'd expect an emergency Airworthiness Directive from the FAA within the next 24-48 hours grounding most of Southwest's fleet, and certainly any aircraft with fan blades from the same production run.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

[ame]https://twitter.com/jonostrower/status/986281439288160257[/ame]

Interesting photo of today's failure put next to the photo of Flight 3472 from last year.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

[ame="https://twitter.com/jonostrower/status/986281439288160257"]Jon Ostrower on Twitter: "On the left is #wn1380 that landed safely Tuesday in Philadelphia. On the right is #wn3472 (also landed safely) from August 2016. Photo L via @joeasaprap.… https://t.co/5DJtikPCa4"[/ame]

Interesting photo of today's failure put next to the photo of Flight 3472 from last year.

 

[boogabooga]

Seems like it might be another thrown fan blade, albeit today's damage seems further back, or perhaps just a higher energy event.

So I have three questions:

1) How was it that a blade (or whatever) was allowed to fail in the first place? How was it allowed to happen twice in the same airline in two years?

2) Why did the nacelle fail to contain the debris?

3) How devastating will it be to the world economy if the global 737 fleet is grounded?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

1. Failure of inspection and maintenance procedures within Southwest Airlines. There are currently several mechanics sweating over this, wondering when, not if, the FAA comes knocking.
2. Unknown. The NTSB has already announced that they will be looking into that in depth.
3. Bad. I suspect that there will be an emergency inspection mandated for the fans, if not for all CFM-56s, then certainly those with blades from the same production run as the failed one.

 

[Andy44]

1. Failure of inspection and maintenance procedures within Southwest Airlines. There are currently several mechanics sweating over this, wondering when, not if, the FAA comes knocking.

Where did you hear this?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Where did you hear this?

Not confirmed by any news sources, but it's the consensus of several of my classmates and instructors who either currently work maintenance with the airlines already, or have in the past. Metal fatigue severe enough to cause this kind of failure doesn't magically appear between flights. This should have been caught weeks, if not months, ago by either eddy current or ultrasonic inspection programs that should be happening, precisely to prevent these kinds of accidents. Therefore, whoever signed off on the last set of inspections for the fan blades on that engine are going to be having a long, pointed chat with the FAA. And someone, possibly several someones, WILL be losing their licenses over this.

 

[Andy44]

Ok, so you didn't hear or read this anywhere. It's just "expert" opinion.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Not expert opinion, but informed and experienced observation based off of similar incidents in the past by people whose knowledge and judgement in this field I trust and respect. Based off of what I've learned over the last year going through an aviation maintenance training program, I'm inclined to believe their observations: this was entirely preventable, and the people whose job it was to prevent this kind of accidents from happening are going to be getting a visit from the FAA to find out why they didn't do their job correctly.

 

[boogabooga]

this was entirely preventable, and the people whose job it was to prevent this kind of accidents from happening are going to be getting a visit from the FAA to find out why they didn't do their job correctly.

That's basically what it means when FAA/NTSB say that they are going to "launch an investigation." Not so much expert opinion as common sense.

 

[IronRain]

ATC during the incident:

 

[Urwumpe]

That's basically what it means when FAA/NTSB say that they are going to "launch an investigation." Not so much expert opinion as common sense.

Well, "launch an investigation" is not as dire as the situation might be. If there is negligence in the maintenance, it could cost them a few certifications in the worst case, which can cost a LOT of money to regain.

Just imagine what it means to an airline to be demoted to the same level of confidence as a guy building a plane in his barn.

 

[IronRain]

In a second media briefing in the late evening the NTSB reported one fan blade, #13 of 24, was broken right at the hub and had separated, the preliminary examination revealed there is evidence of metal fatigue right where the blade separated. There had been no engine fire, there is no evidence of an engine fire, however, it is known there was an engine fire warning, it is possible and even likely the fire wire activated when the fan blade separated. The Captain was a female, the first officer a male, they did an excellent job. The crew elected to land with the flaps at 5 degrees over controllability concerns. A piece of the engine cowling was found on the ground about 60nm northwest of Philadelphia

Source:
https://avherald.com/h?article=4b7725fb&opt=0

 

[dbeachy1]

More information about the passenger almost blown out through the window (the passenger died ) and the captain:

 

[Nicholas Kang]

Sad news indeed. Last year was the safest years for aviation travel and things seem to go horribly wrong since the beginning of 2018.

A closer look at the damaged engine.

Video statement from Southwest CEO Gary Kelly:

 

[Quick_Nick]

Reminds me of this scary incident that someone documented a few years ago:
https://imgur.com/gallery/U7IVd

Those windows are pretty strong. It takes a lot to compromise them, but it's a nightmare if they fail.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

 

[boogabooga]

Those windows are pretty strong. It takes a lot to compromise them, but it's a nightmare if they fail.

Well, in fairness a fan blade letting go and not being contained IS a lot.