The Lockheed L1011 was a luckier aircraft than the DC-10. The L1011 had two fan disk failures earlier on. I met the Eastern Air one at KJFK. The whole front of Nbr 3 had departed. There was a fan blade sticking into a passenger window penetrating the outer pane but not the inner. I believe it was TWA that had the other. All due to bad fan disk forgings, problems with the titanium. FAA didn't ground them but put a very short cycle limit on them and we became very proficient at changing fan disks. The two incidents never made much publicity as there were no pax injuries. Had the mass of the disk gone into the fuselage the press would have been all over it. Shee luck.
Later, in early 80's AN EAL L1011 tossed a nbr 2 fan disk. I stepped through the hole on the port side, the starboard hole was too jagged. Having four hydraulic systems saved the plane. Three were severed and U/S but the fourth, although dented, didn't let go. Had it done so there would have been no attempted landing. The flying stabilizer would have gone ANU or AND, an inside or an outside loop and that would have been it. Sheer luck or Grace of God if you please.
The RB211-22B suffered from Nbr 1 bearing fires resulting, if not immediately shutting down, in an uncontained fan disk release. They added fan grabbers and ultimately a detector to monitor bearing movement.
The L1011 had the best pax doors of any aircraft I worked on. The spring cartridge could be a hazard but it generally worked. Auto flight system stretched the state of the art. When working, the best and the pilots thought it one of the best flying aircraft of all time. Cockpit size, windows and general layout were good although the switchlights were a problem to maintain. Too frail for heavy fingers.
The elegant air inlet for nbr. 2 engine was sized for the Rolls engines. It was the smallest of the three big fans. It was impossible to fit GE or Pratts. This was a real problem when the Hyfil fan blades on the Rolls engines failed. Later we joked we were working an aircraft built by two bankrupt manufacturers.
Ultimately, the lack of growth potential in the design doomed it. Few were converted to freighters. Long range was achieved by shortening it. Even the -250 models did not match the DC-10 with its centerline gear.
So a lucky plane in that it avoided, initially, spectacular crashes but basically a domestic design with little freight potential.