A330 jet engine slides off truck near sydney airport

[artee]

Oops! Can we have our engine back, please...

A330 jet engine slides off truck near Sydney Airport, causing traffic disruption

[FlexibleResponse]

Jet aero-engines have special transportation limitations including airbed suspension carriers.

I suspect that this engine will be a complete rebuilt costing multi-millions of dollars.

[aeromech3]

Seemed to recall whenever we had an engine road transported it had to be an air sprung truck, the stand also was designed to absorbe a certain amount of road bumps; if the actual engine did not make contact FOD I doubt this incident would warrant a complete rebuild if all rotating assemblies are free and boroscope insp clear and re-test bed satis with same rundown times; no doubt the manufacturer will have a guarded say.

[Avionyx]

Nothing to do with the type of truck, simply the driver used the wrong method of securing it down. No manner of air bags is going to stop a 7,000kg load moving if the restraints are only rated for 900kg

[Rocchi]

The engine may still need to be stripped down to check that the bearings have not been damaged. If the load is high enough the balls in the bearings (or rollers) can cause small dents in the inner or outer race with will lead to bearing failure. There is no access to the bearings by borescope.

[lomapaseo]

The engine may still need to be stripped down to check that the bearings have not been damaged. If the load is high enough the balls in the bearings (or rollers) can cause small dents in the inner or outer race with will lead to bearing failure. There is no access to the bearings by borescope.

I wonder if they have G-load strip measurements on the carrier to decide if a stripdown is necessary? Seems awful expensive not to know if it's needed.

[phylosocopter]

Hmm if there is any damage to roller or ball races that would be easily picked up, rotate and record the sound, examine the waveform produced. I would be very surprised if such diagnostic did not occur continuously in flight

[msbbarratt]

Originally Posted by lomapaseo

I wonder if they have G-load strip measurements on the carrier to decide if a stripdown is necessary? Seems awful expensive not to know if it's needed.

Hmm, they're probably not a reliable enough measure to be used for this purpose. They may be accurate, but unless every part of the engine has one stuck to it then there'd be no evidence that the whole engine hadn't exceeded loading limits. You can get some very weird effects when something is subject to an impulse shock like this; things oscillate, and can generate higher G on components than the overall shock. Think of pipes, shafts, anything long and stiff.

Snapping dry spaghetti is a good example. The shock of it breaking in one place is generally enough to make it break in a second, yet the original strain wasn't enough to break it there.

Plus in a world where paperwork is (rightfully) king, unless GE's books say you can drop it off the back of a lorry then it has to written off pending GE's opinion on the matter.

[tarkay01]

The recent EC225 helicopter crash in Norway happened when the main rotor fell off at 2000 feet ASL. The main culprit was the main rotor gearbox which failed.

That same gearbox was in a truck which had a serious accident several months before. The gearbox was inspected and re-certified by the manufacturer before being installed on the EC225. There is a significant chance that the truck crash was a significant contributor to the gearbox failure.

So, I would be very hesitant using that engine in an aircraft. A drop can cause unanticipated failures.

[Pastor of Muppets]

Here's one for the lawyers and every other "industry hangeronner" to fight over for the next 2 years.
If it were my "as new donk" I'd like another "as new donk" thanks. No amount of bull**** sound recording gobbledygook is going to cut it.
If it was on the way to outsource overhaul heaven, then..... Phew! That was lucky!

[onetrack]

It has now been reported, the engine was on its way to an overseas "maintenance facility", and therefore going to be stripped down, anyway.

[Octane]

Can't we do overhauls in this clever country anymore? :-(

[Duck Pilot]

Donate it to an aviation apprentice training school.

Sorry forgot, we don't have any apprentices and training schools anymore.........

I wouldn't be comfortable flying with that engine on my wing if I found out it hadn't been through a complete strip and internal health check. I was an engineer in a past life - apprentice in GA back in the late 80s early 90s in the good ole days when we worked on real jets.

[Training Guy]

Yes the engine was on its way to the sand pit and it was to be used as a replacement one for an AOG us aircraft