Originally Posted by
Airbubba
Here's an article about the 1985 American engine separation with a reference to the earlier 1974 National incident which was also near ELP.
National Airlines lore says that the flight attendant came running to the cockpit and said 'we've lost an engine!' One of the pilots said, 'yeah, we know, we're shutting it down'. The F/A said 'no you're not, the f***ing engine fell off!' Years later I flew N4736 out of TXL with another carrier not knowing its engine history.
A bit more lore to go with that 1974 event, perhaps embellished over time (I heard it from a fellow Boeing engineer shortly after I started in 1977). The story is that there was knowledgeable aviation chap sitting in the back with the engine inlet obstructing his view out the window (I've had that seat on a 727 so that part rings true). Suddenly there was a loud bang, he looked out the window and his view was unobstructed - the engine was gone! The guy immediate started waving at a flight attendant:
'What's wrong sir'?
'WE JUST LOST AN ENGINE!'
'It's OK sir, they sometimes shutdown an engine - the aircraft can fly just fine on two.'
NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! THE ENGINE IS GONE - LOOK!!!
FA looks out the window, turns white, and heads to the flight deck.
Minute later, FE comes back, looks out the window, gasps, heads back to the flight deck.
A minute after that one of the pilots comes back, looks out the window, swears, heads back to the flight deck.
They then continued on to their destination.
