Video of Engine Failure on Delta Flight

The fire in the hole doesn't look good. Perhaps the spinner didn't just fall off? Or maybe it's something else?

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Pretty unreal..

Time to retire these old beasts

I never feel comfortable in the back of the MD-XX planes
 
Spring Ford said:
Perhaps the spinner didn't just fall off?
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That engine doesn't appear to be spinning anywhere near it's typical RPM... I suspect that some other issue with the engine failed and the spinner coming off was a side effect, not a cause

Pretty crazy though

And I did get a chuckle out of several headlines report "Delta aircraft starts falling apart mid air" and other click bait type stuff
 
I'm sure this person will have "night terrors" and will have to sue the airlines for loss of productivity.
 
$30.00 food voucher.??

All I got was a $25.00 food voucher for a cancelled flight...
 
Spring Ford said:
The fire in the hole doesn't look good. Perhaps the spinner didn't just fall off? Or maybe it's something else?

View attachment 75785
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Timbeck2 said:
That glowing ring appears to be the #1 bearing.
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Ding ding ding! I believe we have a winner with Tim's answer.

Tantalum said:
Pretty unreal..

Time to retire these old beasts

I never feel comfortable in the back of the MD-XX planes
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Couldn't disagree with you more. They're still good workhorse airplanes. When was the last time you saw an MD-XX have an engine issue? Now when was the last time you've heard about a Southwest 737 having an issue? Are you uncomfortable on Southwest?

Tantalum said:
That engine doesn't appear to be spinning anywhere near it's typical RPM... I suspect that some other issue with the engine failed and the spinner coming off was a side effect, not a cause
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It looks to be windmilling to me following an in-flight shutdown, which will continue to happen because airflow. I'm sure the pilots shut down that engine. I don't know if the MD-88 has a vibration sensor for the engines, but I would expect it does. Whether the spinner came off first or second is another question.

I used to diagnose these failures for a living, and I could see either being potential. From a 10 second video it's hard to tell much. Incidentally, though, as an engineer who used to do this I would've loved to get in-flight footage of failures after they happened. Would've helped us in the investigation.
 
Not one of "our" engines; but these things can run over 4K hours per year, and nothing lasts forever.
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
Now when was the last time you've heard about a Southwest 737 having an issue?
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29 June when trying to get from LAX to PHX..... Seems another plane had a mechanical that grounded it so SWA had to divert flights around to get everything covered. I really felt that they did Ok considering everything the dispatchers had to do to get everyone moved to where they wanted to go.

Time to spare.....
 
Zeldman said:
29 June when trying to get from LAX to PHX..... Seems another plane had a mechanical that grounded it so SWA had to divert flights around to get everything covered. I really felt that they did Ok considering everything the dispatchers had to do to get everyone moved to where they wanted to go.

Time to spare.....
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I was more specifically talking about a failure that made the news. Seems there have been several SWA 737s that have made the news for issues, mostly relating to the fan.

There are lots of engine issues that occur that you never hear about because they aren't graphic enough to go viral. If this was a wing-mounted engine instead of a fuselage-mounted one you still might not have had the same level of attention because a passenger wouldn't have had this video. Now, if the engine was smoking out the back, that would've gotten attention too.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Are you uncomfortable on Southwest?
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Yes, but for different reasons

Ted DuPuis said:
Couldn't disagree with you more. They're still good workhorse airplanes. When was the last time you saw an MD-XX have an engine issue? Now when was the last time you've heard about a Southwest 737 having an issue? Are you uncomfortable on Southwest?
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I suppose, they're attractive airplanes visually and it's nice to break up the monotony of A320 clones at airports.. but I've never heard of a wing mounted engine failure decapitating someone, but I have heard of tail mounted engines, on Douglas products, causing crashes by severing hydraulics and also decapitating people.. and my only *epic* delay was on DL MD-XX planes, 3 aircraft in a row, all developed some kind of technical / mechanical issue while taxiing from the gate out to the runway at MSP

It's a small sample, but it's what I've got. If I'm buying a ticket and my choice is a Airbus or Boeing or MD product.. you can bet I'll be skipping the MD product
 
^3 diff aircraft mind you
 
Tantalum said:
I suppose, they're attractive airplanes visually and it's nice to break up the monotony of A320 clones at airports.. but I've never heard of a wing mounted engine failure decapitating someone, but I have heard of tail mounted engines, on Douglas products, causing crashes by severing hydraulics and also decapitating people.. and my only *epic* delay was on DL MD-XX planes, 3 aircraft in a row, all developed some kind of technical / mechanical issue while taxiing from the gate out to the runway at MSP

It's a small sample, but it's what I've got. If I'm buying a ticket and my choice is a Airbus or Boeing or MD product.. you can bet I'll be skipping the MD product
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And the 737-MAX MCAS has killed hundreds of people (that story gets more complicated, obviously, but the system did cause the crashes). Spend enough time on any airline and you'll get significant MX delays - I had two in one day once and my wife's flight got delayed 5 hours yesterday. All airplanes break.

Yeah, the JT8Ds had some fan issues killing pax. One of the SWA failures had a passenger ejected from the aircraft. There was also the Aloha Air 737 that the roof ripped off of due to fatigue and a flight attendant was ejected from the plane. Lots of failures that you can count. The ones on the old Douglas products have had corrections made to the systems. Oh, there was the 747 where an inboard wing mounted engine fell off the wing, went forward and then took out the outboard engine on the same wing (plane crashed, killing those on board).

If anything, the older airplanes have the benefits of their design flaws having been through the test of time, been discovered, and corrected via service bulletin or AD. Again, look at the 737-MAX for that. Or the 787 - that had issues with ice crystal accumulation as well as the well-known battery issue.

Now, I'll agree I don't like being in the back row next to the fan on an MD-8X, but I also fly a plane where the propeller arc is about 6" behind my head. There's a risk that goes with getting out of bed in the morning, too.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
737-MAX MCAS has killed hundreds of people
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True... and the more I learn about that the more I'm agreeing that Boeing made some massive goofs on that design. But I still contend that it was not necessarily a death sentence... but would have required a very astute pilot to kill the trim before things got too late or out of hand. Granted, few singular events on aircraft are death sentences.. most involve some kind of snowball

Ted DuPuis said:
Now, I'll agree I don't like being in the back row next to the fan on an MD-8X, but I also fly a plane where the propeller arc is about 6" behind my head. There's a risk that goes with getting out of bed in the morning, too.
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Actually this brings up a good point. As you know the Aerostar is one of my dream planes, and that prop is quite close to you, as it is on the MU2... are there cases where a prop (or blade) has departed a plane? I know there is a vid somewhere of an experimental losing a prop... but has this happened on part 91, etc., planes? I know the old Electra had a whirlmode issue, but that was more complex than just the engine losing a blade / prop and had to do with harmonics, etc.
 
Tantalum said:
Actually this brings up a good point. As you know the Aerostar is one of my dream planes, and that prop is quite close to you, as it is on the MU2... are there cases where a prop (or blade) has departed a plane? I know there is a vid somewhere of an experimental losing a prop... but has this happened on part 91, etc., planes? I know the old Electra had a whirlmode issue, but that was more complex than just the engine losing a blade / prop and had to do with harmonics, etc.
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The 4-bladed MU-2 props (left hand rotation engines) had issues with some resonance frequencies at ground idle that would cause blades to depart the aircraft. There were a few changes (including to ground idle RPM values and an AD on the props themselves) and this problem hasn't happened since. I'm sure other issues.

On jets I'm not aware of many or any incidences where windmilling caused a problem, it's usually the initial "kaboom". Part of cert testing is making sure that windmilling won't cause issues following an engine failure.
 
Tantalum said:
Pretty unreal..

Time to retire these old beasts

I never feel comfortable in the back of the MD-XX planes
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It’s going to be a sad day when that happens...

Truth be the told, the JT8D has been one of the most reliable and proven engines in the history of commercial aviation. It may seem ‘old’ but the design of the Continental motor that you fly behind pre-dates the JT8D, so in retrospect it’s really not that ‘old’.

I also wouldn’t bat an eyelash if I had a flight on one. Still remains a very safe airplane.
 
Ryanb said:
the design of the Continental motor that you fly behind pre-dates the JT8D
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that's for sure. Don't even get me started on the 1920's engine tech we fly behind. but thanks to low volume and prohibitive FAA guidelines we're stuck in the dark ages with GA piston engine tech
 
Tantalum said:
I always felt they rode turbulence really well.. I have many flights in the MD80 (or a variant of) as a passenger and always appreciated how smooth and quiet they were, and how well they rode turbulence
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Tantalum said:
Time to retire these old beasts

I never feel comfortable in the back of the MD-XX planes
Click to expand...

You doin' OK? o_O

Nauga,
and continuity checks
 
Tantalum said:
I never feel comfortable in the back of the MD-XX planes
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Me either, because it seems so much more noisy. Or did you have a different reason for not feeling comfortable back there?
 
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