Indeed. had a chance to work at a power station here in Cali. JT8Ds. Fire and forget. Simple designs, robust build, and constant monitoring. The secret was to scrub intake air to nil fod. The cleaners were changed often, and the fuel was inspected daily. In its niche, the Turbine is a brilliant workhorse.
Service Life in this incident is pretty much a red herring, imo.
Safety is the salient issue, not economy. The first picture of the 972 off wing showed the absence of the EEC. Anybody know where that little beauty ended up?? For it is here that the failure is found. Any engine will blow up when run under heavy load with compromised condition. The Kill Switch killed the kit.