Can someone explain ETOPS for the rest of us?
I mean the rest of us that are not pilots or directly connected with the commercial aircraft industry.
I understand the basics of it where you are not allowed to fly any route carrying passengers when that flight path will take you anywhere outside the area where you can get back if an engine quits. Seems reasonable to me.
It looks to me like the whole ETOPS strategy is an engine reliability issue. (engine and engine related support issue)
However as SLFStuckInTheBack asked "How many places are there in the world that are 5 plus hours away from the nearest safe place to land?" I looked at a map and find it hard to believe there are many routes commercial airliners fly 11 hours without any place to land that is within a couple of hours from whenever an engine quit.
Basically, my question is, Does an ETOPS certification mean that an aircraft is allowed to carry passengers only on a route that never exceeds the time it is ETOPS certified for to land at the nearest suitable runway after an engine fails , or does it mean that an ETOPS certified aircraft can head towards and land at a runway that it can safely reach within the time it is certified for?
Yes I know this overlaps another thread but can anyone enlighten me as to what the rule on ETOPS is. "Lose an engine, land at the nearest" or "lose an engine, land within the certified time"