flight sim boy: wrote
RTFI - According to the official ATSB report the emirates event at Melbourne was fully contained...
Do you know something they / we don't??
No not really, i'm just used to reading the fine print. As I understand it debris were thrown from the engine, passed under the aircraft and impacted the remaining servicabe unit. And here it is in black and white.
Failure of the RB211 Trent 892 engine as fitted to the aircraft was a result of the release of a single blade from the low-pressure compressor (fan) rotor disk. The blade release caused extensive damage to the remainder of the fan and the intake shroud, however the event was fully contained. The only escape of debris from the engine was small, low energy fragments, causing minor damage to the fuselage and the opposite engine.
I dont call that contained!
Lets think about this, on a take off run 1 engine was lost and the debris impacted the other, it didnt damage it admittedley but we are talking about the begining of the run. At or about rotation speed everything has much more energy and in a situation where you have to "go" and the other unit must be able to give you 100% there is (appears to be) a risk of debris impacting and at least passing through an engine rated and running close to 90,000 lb thrust..... Can anyone see the problem here? Whatever your TOW this is a nightmare scenario.
While on the face it seems to be a standard blade out, no drama, event looking a little closer the incident seems much more serious with disasterous potential but I dont recall any regulatory authorities working through the above and asking for assurances that the second unit could not be pinged, you have to ask why
I understood that during certification it had to proved that this could not happen but it did 2 years ago.
You also have to question the sanity of Boeing going for a single powerplant supplier on all high gross weight 777's. Not only because it p1ssed off RR customers costing them order from BA amonst others but because a proven engine related mid pacific ditching could kill the program.