United Airlines Boeing 777 with
241 people on board makes emergency
landing in Denver after its engine
exploded mid-flight and dropped
enormous pieces of debris on
Colorado homes
Daily Mail (UK),
by
Ariel Zilber
Original Article
Posted By: zephyrgirl,
2/20/2021 5:53:54 PM
A United Airlines flight bound for Hawaii was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Denver after suffering major damage to one of its engines and dropping huge pieces of debris over a neighborhood in Colorado. Flight UA328, which was carrying 231 passengers and 10 crew members, suffered serious engine failure shortly after takeoff from Denver, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Saturday. There were no reported injuries either on board or on the ground.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 2/20/2021 5:59:33 PM (No. 703185)
Glad that we took a different flight.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/20/2021 6:05:16 PM (No. 703187)
It's highly unusual for a jet engine to explode in this manner. Even when they do the controlled turbine blade failure during initial Certification they don't get through the containment shield. Blowing the Nacelle off (that ring in the front yard) is pretty extreme too. Poor maintenance might be to blame here as more and more airlines are getting their engines overhauled outside the USA.
25 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Scottyboy 2/20/2021 6:16:14 PM (No. 703201)
Also No. 2, those parts lying neatly on the ground in one group on the ball field seems a bit staged as well.
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 2/20/2021 6:27:15 PM (No. 703211)
Scary experience. Imagine if it had happened over the Pacific. Not too many places to land safely. Now Lil Mayor Pete has his first transportation emergency.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
ControlFreak 2/20/2021 6:45:41 PM (No. 703224)
My nephew flies for United. I’m scared witless. Too many close calls lately.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
udanja99 2/20/2021 7:00:22 PM (No. 703234)
My sister and I were on a plane leaving Atlanta back in the early 70’s. As we were ascending the air conditioning system caught fire and smoke started pouring into the cabin. We did a U-turn and made an emergency landing. The fire was put out, repairs were done and we were put back on the same plane!!!! It took me years to get to the point where I could fly without Valium. I think it was the late Eastern Airlines.
10 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 2/20/2021 7:21:03 PM (No. 703249)
Kudos to the crew for getting back and down in one piece with no injuries.
Airline pilots are like firemen: most of the time, they're overpaid. But about twice a year, usually at night and in REEEAL bad weather, they earn it all.
23 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 2/20/2021 8:02:10 PM (No. 703283)
I was on an overnight transatlantic flight when a passenger near me went nuts and started screaming about giant spiders, and tossing stuff around. He had the entire business class cabin in an uproar. Flight attendants came running from every direction and got him calmed down and the passengers back in their seats. That was scary enough for me, and it wasn't even a mechanical failure.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
joew9 2/20/2021 8:32:40 PM (No. 703296)
Once at LAX my flight was delayed due to "mechanical trouble". We sat there and waited a couple hours as we watched the technicians buzzing all around a landing gear. Finally we noticed they were putting big long pieces of duct tape all over the gear. Seconds later they announced the flight was ready to board. Oh heck no! Not with duct tape holding the plane together! Then we noticed they had moved our flight to the next gate over with an entirely different plane. Hilarious fake out. I guess the duct tape was just to hold it together till it got to the repair hanger. At least I hope so.
13 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/20/2021 8:59:16 PM (No. 703315)
By the way, the Boeing 777 is one aircraft that is capable of takeoff under full capacity on a single engine. It could cruise on one, as well. The engines put out over 125,000 pounds of thrust each. They're incredibly big. For example, the fuselage of a Douglas DC-3 can easily fit into the inlet.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
bamboozle 2/20/2021 11:57:48 PM (No. 703381)
Just think if that had happened with a fully automated plane with no pilots on board? Would a bird strike cause an engine explosion like that I wonder?
2 people like this.
I know nothing about airplanes, but I am convinced the dumbing down of America includes aircraft mechanics.
Remember years back when 60 Minutes did a story about counterfeit Chinese made bolts and screws ? Back in the late 70's I had a friend whose only job was to sell oil seals to Eastern Airlines. He lost his job when they switched to parts from China.
I don't plan on ever flying again.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 2/21/2021 1:18:41 AM (No. 703421)
Those engines run many thousands of hours without problems, but, occasionally one of them has a problem.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
bighambone 2/21/2021 1:34:35 AM (No. 703427)
What if they were out over the Pacific Ocean half way to Hawaii and that explosion occurred. The only thing to do is cutoff the fuel to that busted engine and keep going.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Strike3 2/21/2021 9:34:10 AM (No. 703604)
I swore off flying for reasons much less serious than this but a blown engine would definitely do it. Most airline problems have more to do with people than aircraft.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 2/21/2021 11:07:32 AM (No. 703756)
#10, the first time I flew on a 777 was out of Charles Degaulle airport, and I had time to wait before boarding, and wandered over to see what the aircraft would be. BIG! As I looked out the windows, noting the huge engine inlets a ground support pickup truck drove by the inlet a couple of feet away from it.....I thought, "Wow, that truck could fit in the inlet!"
Later I checked the inlet diameter and the diagonal dimensions of a Ford F250 heavy duty pickup. Yep, an F-250 will go into the inlet with about 6" to spare. These are HUGE engines.
My wife showed me a photo of the debris on the ground, and said "What the heck is this? They say it fell off of an airliner." I looked for a few seconds and by the size and shape, said "Looks like the fan on a 777 failed and sliced into the cowling, cutting the first couple of feet off." Nothing has inlets the size of that thing. Fan diameter is 128 inches, or 10 ft 8 inches.
The large Airbus double decker A380 uses a version of this design, but scaled down to 72% scale from this one.
As #10 said, they fly fine on one engine, part of the design of the aircraft.
1 person likes this.
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Terrifying for the passengers.