It would be totally self-evident to anyone with a brain in their head, let alone a pilot, that 3 losses of power in 3 weeks on the same engine are not just statistically significant - they are major events. Whether you shut it down completely or idle it for a high engine vibration is neither here nor there - you have lost power from that engine. Having both idled an engine in flight and shut one down, I can tell you that both are 'significant events' in the minds of any pilot. The advantage of not shutting one down completely is obviously that you are likely to have retained the services of the auxiliary gearbox and therefore kept associated hydraulics and electrics. In many cases of engine damage (I do not know about this one), any attempt at bringing up the engine power would just result in further high vibration and significant engine damage. That presumably is why the engine was idled in the first place. I would venture to suggest that TC management most definitely will see these events as significant and that a whole lot of senior bods will be taking a massive interest in this.
Last edited by Alexander de Meerkat; 19th Nov 2012 at 15:49.