[Topspinmo]

1 dead after jet blows an engine; woman nearly sucked out


IMO This is why you keep you set belt on all the time, there really no safe zone when flying Rapid decompression bad enough but with hole in plane like giant vacuum cleaner till pressure equalized. One of many reasons to keep your seat belt latched.

Looks like fan Blade or disk failure (usually Fan blades are contained in side cases) which shoots blades and scrapple in all direction of rotation path faster that bullets with poundage behind the force. You can bet they will be looking at Hours and maintenance on GE and associates Engines on those airplanes.

Also you really don't want to be setting inline with Fan or turbine disks. It's Rare that they fail, but when they do engine parts fly in all directions when they penetrate cases which are harden and re-enforced but they can. I seen this few times working around Jet engines for 40 years and of course several bird strikes.

[Bjeanj]

I guess I never wondered about whether she was wearing seatbelt. The thought of someone at 30k+ altitude with their upper body hanging out a window was horrific enough. At that altitude, suppose she died very quickly. Glad no additional fatalities. Was amazed at how calm the pilot sounded.

I alway thought a seat behind the wing was the safest place to be seated.

[Bjeanj]

Just listened to passenger report who stated that dead passenger actually had her seat belt fastened.

[manaboutown]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

1 dead after jet blows an engine; woman nearly sucked out


IMO This is why you keep you set belt on all the time, there really no safe zone when flying Rapid decompression bad enough but with hole in plane like giant vacuum cleaner till pressure equalized. One of many reasons to keep your seat belt latched.

Looks like fan Blade or disk failure (usually Fan blades are contained in side cases) which shoots blades and scrapple in all direction of rotation path faster that bullets with poundage behind the force. You can bet they will be looking at Hours and maintenance on GE and associates Engines on those airplanes.

Also you really don't want to be setting inline with Fan or turbine disks. It's Rare that they fail, but when they do engine parts fly in all directions when they penetrate cases which are harden and re-enforced but they can. I seen this few times working around Jet engines for 40 years and of course several bird strikes.

I am always nervous if my seat aligns with engine fans or turbines. BTW the passenger was a remarkable woman. Although I don’t recall meeting her I know some people who knew her well. https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquer...mpression=true

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Bjeanj

Just listened to passenger report who stated that dead passenger actually had her seat belt fastened.

Must of been right beside the hole. If sucked her out of her set belt not good and horrrific all took place in about 3/4 s of second. Usually when fan section (front of the engine) explodes it's fan disk failure. Unless the highbypass blade broke off at the root? usually don't have enough force to blow front of the engine off. May penetrate the case and air frame. Rarely does it penetrate the cabin. When disk fails it shoots fan blades in all directions, but it the two halves of the heavy disk that does horrific damage.

I seen several highpass engines with several fan blades missing from bird strikes and not penetrate cases, they didn't brake off at the root (bottom) though, which carries more momentum/weight. I'm 6 foot tall and can stand up in intake of larger fan engines, CFM 56 is smaller fan engine compared to CF6s.

I flown this SW flight route couple times. Each time aircraft takes off and lands, does touch and go it cycle. Some manufacturer engines have cycle limits on critical rotating parts. This is another safety feature built in, which means after so many thousands of cycles the part could fail. Some parts require NDI (X-ray) every so many hours to try find small facture zones that could cause the part to fail. There lot that goes into making planes safe.

[DeanFL]

No doubt the chances of this happening to YOU is much smaller than winning Powerball in 100 lifetimes. Didn't do the calc, but...

ALWAYS wear my belt - in Cart/Cart/Plane - at all times.

And know how to place the Oxygen mask on planes...unlike some passengers per photo of that fateful flight.

She probably "went" quickly - but not quick enough, perhaps seconds. Certainly bad enough for her, but imagine her row seatmates. The shock. And heroic ways to get her back into the plane.

Accolades to the SWA crew all around - so professional it appears. Will be interesting to see if they determine how the fan blade was corrupted, not IDing in maintenance, and measures forward. I'm surprised the shattered blade did not take out any others and compound the problem.

Comforting to hear this was the first USA casualty on a US airline since 2009... talk about a wonderful safety record. So much news re this (understandably) but the #s of car deaths, drug deaths etc,,, but the media -and we- focus on things as this.

[tcxr750]

On YouTube their is an airline pilot that explains the issue with graphics to support the narrative. His site is the Blancolirio Channel.