Originally Posted by
slfool
According to the NTSB press conference the blade broke in two places, near the root and further up. They have the section nearest the root, they don't have the outboard section. Doesn't that suggest that the section of blade nearest the root went backwards into the engine? If the speculation about the blade shooting forward and clear of the engine was correct, it seems almost certain they wouldn't have either section.
You got it! NTSB and other sources say the blade is in 3 pieces, the dovetail end is still in the hub, about half of the rest of the blade was recovered in the engine, and the outer part is missing. The inner portion to dovetail end has the interior fatigue crack. They don't say anything special about the fracture at the blade midpoint. Possibilities are the fatigue crack caused the initial failure and the outer portion broke into 2 pieces when it hit the containment ring or the outer fracture occurred due to impact with other blades. It appears certain the broken blade end did not shoot forward due to normal dynamic loading but may have been ejected by impact with other blade. The big unknown is how this caused such massive damage to the inlet. Two broken blades, 2 similar cowling failures. Yet there have been many bird hits with blade damage and without similar cowl failures.