Originally Posted by
43Inches
In a transport category aircraft of two or more engines it's considered abnormal, not an emergency, unless there was complicating factors. That means you can take your time to do things right, but not dither either. Landing overweight and possibly damaging the aircraft is not necessary, so you can burn some fuel and get closer to a suitable landing weight. The company should have procedures in place so that crew know what is expected of them following an engine failure above MLW, that is whether they should reduce weight for a type, or landing above MLW is approved in that circumstance.
The A320 can depart at 77t, some operators have 64.5 lw some have 66. In the Airbus it's a land ASAP amber, which is not flying around on 1 engine for 4 or more hours. It's a long time since I flew the vintage aircraft (737NG) but I think the basic theory was the same, get the problem sorted and land. Transport category aircraft are designed to land at MTOW, and no damage will be done unless it's a hard landing. That said you wouldn't land overweight for eg a single hydraulic failure or pressurisation issue