Originally Posted by
Dave Therhino
Possibly the worst threat posed by a fan blade failure with an inlet separation from a probabilistic standpoint is fuel exhaustion on an extended range flight. If a fan blade fails (which often depressurizes the fuselage due to intermediate fragments) and the inlet comes off during a step climb halfway between the West Coast and Hawaii, there is not enough fuel on board to make land due to the high drag of the failed nacelle.
Of all the non-contained fan blade fragments(only) that pierced the fuselage I don't recall one where pressurization was lost. A whistling sound was reported though
Losing an inlet cowl might also result in less drag. At any rate it has certainly happened before even with large fan engines and no control problems reported by the pilot