Originally Posted by
glofish
Well, well. All that whoo whaa about the advantage of a 4 pot over two pots ….
If there is concern about secondary damage to another engine, then the modern 4 pots (if “modern” can still be applied to them) are no better than Comets, IL62s or Concords: Because you argue that when one breaks, it could take the other one with it. So basically they return to 2 pots! Considering damage to other systems, fuselage or wing, the same applies. If this could really lead to a permanent argument, the authorities would have to start applying ETOPS to 4 pots as well.
Additionally, with all of the above and especially your statement “Get the thing on the ground”, we would have to re-evaluate the Qantas 380 incident and take away all the awards from the crew, because with your arguments, they’d have violated common sense by staying airborne so long to work out all periphery ECAMs and do all the (imho futile) calculations.
It’s funny that with the AF 380 that was still fully controllable, albeit one pot less, the decision to land asap on a remote emergency airport, with icing and apparently overweight, with many operational and discomfort problems, is deemed sound. But in Qantas case, with a heavily wounded 380, one pot exploded, a hole in the wing, two other pots not obeying and fuel not under control, the decision to stay airborne for almost 4 hours is deemed sound as well.
Yes, both landed and no one got hurt. Good job, agreed, but there's room for debate .....
Please take the time to read the Qantas report. The aircraft had numerous issues to work through before a safe landing could be attempted. Sometimes you need to make judgement calls on priorities. A hasty landing in the case of the Qantas flight likely would have resulted in a disaster. In addition they had to burn down fuel in order to be able to stop! In the case of this flight it appears the arrival was more or less a standard 3 engine approach. In no case however could I see a Captain bypassing a fully suitable airport with a engine having sustained the degree of damage visable on the photos. There was also no rush to land. They lost the engine over Greenland. They had plenty of time to work through any issues.