lomapaseo
I have always (three years worth), held utmost respect for you and your work. From the first reading of your TWA800 Paper, I noticed you have a keen grasp of traditional approaches to questions proposed re: Failure mode/chain fail.
If you have read Shakespeare, you might discern the meaning of my internet name. Your style is, well, predictable, if I may say. You are frankly what is known in the old english as a scolde. You never fail to expound on the rather dated approach (IMO), to investigation. There is no disagreement with your post, but for one issue. Ignorance. Ignorance is a straightforward word that has a multitude of definitions. Suffice to say that I do not consider myself ignorant here, in the way you may mean.
Engine failures propagate, they may start small, and perhaps minor, but without attention they involve increasingly the other interrelated systems and components (modules). The Disc Burst did not just "happen". Neither is the Oil Fire the single Bullet theory that so many would have us believe. From the first T/O on the 380 wing, the 972 started to self destruct, as opposed to simply wear down, or out.
So did the 700 Edelweiss incident. Not due to lack of prescribed maintenance, or bad fuel, or Oil. This engine family is a Formula One engine in a Chevrolet. You will excuse the Automotive reference, but in racing, a powerplant has only to excel for a short time, its life is measured in shorter terms, and success is measured in a win, and likely retirement of the entire engine, all of it.
The TRENT is marketed as a lightweight, it is well known to weigh at least a ton less than its competitors. This is eight thousand pounds of increased useful load on a four engine a/c like the A380. Over time, that is a remarkable amount of increased profit, remarkable profit Also the brochures will tout its "Modular design", allowing for shorter turns at checks and strip. Unfortunately, Qantas was told that to retain its advantaged position due light engine weight, Thrust would need to be augmented by that ton to get an additional six tons of hitherto undiscovered weight off the deck from California to Sydney. Still with the advantage, by the mere addition of a keystroke, and not a single change needed on the Engine !!
The Fan is a new design, its shape still being fought over with a competitor. It presents new challenges to an existing design. The Fan has a "fuller" disc and drives more air, more efficiently. How completely was this Fan tested relative to new challenges? Perhaps not as completely as it should have been, with data being misunderstood or even actively ignored?? Please note the vibration reads on the failure of the IP disc on Number two. As N1 and N2 dropped, what was the IPT doing? You should know this, do you?
Finally, there is a format of incident investigation that is being used in rooms across the globe. You could google. First know this: The enemy of the Truth is consensus.
Agreement in and of itself is the enemy of discovery, so I would make reference to your mention of "teamwork". The new deal is confrontational dialogue, not in the sense of rudeness, but in the sense of exploration. It has been in use since I learned of its development at a University in California, well, a long time ago. It does not fail.
Humans think that to collaborate is good. In most things it is. It is an instinct, and like most instincts it has a place. It does not have a place in the Boardroom, or the Investigating table. Confrontation (non-physical, of course) brings to bear (!) a primal clearing of inputs and data (but not exclusively!), while one proponent can excise a nugget of new that has not been entertained because it cannot pierce the traditional paradigm of................consensus. Attacking a problem together can have unwanted results when compliance and social desires trump a good fight.
It is a long and interesting (to me, anyway), discussion. The player in the exercise who forms the wall the Truth can bounce off, is the foil, the one(s) who will fight to keep agreement at bay, and investigation at its highest expression. Please don't do anything differently. and I should not tell you this, but I enjoy greatly when you are at your most righteously snarky.