BREAKING NEWS:
Firefighters confirm pieces of an aircraft are falling from the sky at 136th and Sheridan.
Denver Fire confirms they are responding to an issue with an aircraft at DIA.
US plane manufacturer Boeing has recommended grounding all 777 aircraft with the same type of engine that suffered failure and shed debris over Denver on Saturday.
It said 128 jets should be suspended until inspections are carried out.
United Airlines and Japan's two main operators have already stopped using 56 planes with the same engine.
Mark wrote:The bloody thing was still running. I'll be damned.
DXing wrote:Scarier yet are some pictures out today of it sitting on the ramp and just behind the pack inlet is a pretty big hole in the fuselage.
GQfluffy wrote:{bugeye} Damn.
I imagine the process of repairing that would be straight forward (fuselage wise)...who knows what is in disrepair beneath the skin.
Can 772s be re-engined or is it cheaper just to sell and replace the whole aircraft?
NTSB says United engine failure caused by metal fatigue
After a preliminary onsite exam, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says the engine failure on a United Airlines aircraft on 20 February was likely caused by metal fatigue.
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The fan blade that was severed at the root “indicates damage consistent with metal fatigue,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt says on 22 February. “This piece is being flown on a private jet tonight to a Pratt & Whitney lab where it will be examined tomorrow under the supervision of NTSB investigators.”
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DXing wrote:There was someone saying this was a bird strike. If so then pterodactyls must still roam the skies over Colorado.
ShyFlyer wrote:My first thought was a fan blade deciding it didn't want to go to Hawaii with the rest of his buddies.
It’s not currently known if the engine that failed was the original delivered with the plane to United in 1995, but if so its maintenance history will receive special scrutiny.
DXing wrote:Just amazing how little most folks know.
A fan blade that snapped off a United Airlines engine mid-flight, causing it to rain debris over Colorado last month, had microscopic cracks, federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday.
The broken blade on the Pratt & Whitney engine had been used on 2,979 flights since its last inspection in 2016, the NTSB said. It wasn’t due for another inspection until it reached 6,500 flights – more than twice the number it had flown when it broke.