Originally Posted by
tdracer
Often, people (including aviation professionals) will classify any uncommanded shutdown as an "automatic" shutdown - that only really means that the engine quit without any crew input.
Educated guess, based on what I know about the GE90, is that it was a gearbox issue. Something in the gearbox fails, drive is lost to the fuel pump, no fuel pump means no fuel and the engine "automatically" shuts down...
I had a tower shaft failure on a GE. With no drive to the accessory section engine quits asap!