Listening to the liveatc.net tapes, UA 863 reported an engine failure to the tower controller and said they were going out two miles and then turning to a heading of 310, probably one of those company generated engine-out procedures that ATC knows nothing about. Works great in the sim.
The tower missed the engine out comment and kept telling United to follow the GNNRR TWO departure. United tells the next controller that they had a surge but still have power on the affected engine. They say they will probably come back but need to make some calls. These days you are supposed to engage system matter experts and arrive at a consensus to make a command decision, right? United is told that the plane behind them on the runway saw flames coming out of the engine on the takeoff roll and they say, yep, we felt it.
United requests to climb on flight plan course pending the decision to return to SFO. After a few minutes, Oakland Center asks UA 863 if they are declaring an emergency. UA 863 says yes, they want to return and dump fuel for at least 35 minutes and they want the equipment standing by when they land. United says the left engine had the surge but 'we now have total use of it'. United is given box pattern vectors for the fuel dump. When finished they are vectored for the ILS 28R.
UA 863 lands on 28R, gets checked by the fire crew, taxis to the gate, another day at the office.
