This story gives a whole new meaning to the expression "lost an engine." The number two engine separated from a B737-200 shortly after rotation. The engine fell to the runway while the aircraft continued its climb-out. The aircraft returned to the field a short time later and landed safely. No one on board was injured.The incident happened yesterday (November 7, 2007) at Cape Town, South Africa. The aircraft, operating as Nationwide Airlines Flight CE723, was taking off for a scheduled flight to Johannesburg when it literally lost an engine.
A press release about the incident on the front page of the Nationwide Airlines website claims that the engine separated after ingesting some as yet unidentified object:
It has been determined that during the take off roll an object which is yet to be defined was ingested into the engine which caused a catastrophic engine failure. The subsequent forces experienced by the engine supporting structure caused this to fail and for the number two engine to detach from the wing. The engine-to-wing supporting structure is designed to release the engine when extreme forces are applied to prevent any structural damage to the wing that may impair the aircrafts ability to fly.According to a news article about the incident on South Africa's News24.com, the commander of Nationwide Flight CE723 was Captain Trevor Arnold. The Independent Online quoted a passenger who had been on the flight who said that after the plane had come to a stop surrounded by fire engines, the captain walked into the cabin, and all the passengers cheered.
We are currently working with authorities and investigators to establish what exactly the unidentified object was.
Congratulations to the Capt. Arnold and F/O Daniel Perry for their outstanding airmanship. Well done!
[Photo Source]
5 comments:
I'm a little sketchy on my 737-200 specs, but it's news to me that the engine pylon is designed to /seperate/ from the wing in the event of a catrostrophic failure. last I checked cfm-56's are designed to take an instantanious stoppage from 110% RPM and still remain largely intact, and more importantly, remain on the wing. Why does this strike me as a maintenance/cracking issue?
I'm certainly no engine expert either -- just reporting here what the company "claimed." We won't know for certain what the cause was until South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority have completed their investigation. Until that happens, everything that is said about the cause of the incident is hearsay and speculation.
In any case, the crew deserve a lot of credit for bringing that airplane back to the field and landing it intact.
anyone with a/c airframe know how, should know that if an engine experiences a force that will inevitably damage the airframe sructure, it will seperate by default design to minimise damage to the airframe. mr anonymous please check your manuals before blaming the engineers.
The JT8D engine is attached to the airframe with 3 cone bolts. There is a shear area just above the threads designed into the bolt so that if a force is applied that is greater than the design load the engine will separate from the airframe breaking down and outboard from the wing. This is a rare occurance but not a first.
Unfortunately, this safety "event" has had almost unavoidable consequences. Nationwide entered voluntary liquidation on 29 April 2008. More details on Nationwide's poor financial position and risk management on my blog.
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