Engine Fire

[JordanW92]

Hi guys, glad I can report this from the safety of my own home tonight. I've just come home from a holiday in Ibiza, I was on Jet2 flight LS170 from Ibiza to Manchester. Shortly after take-off we heard loud bangs and shuddering coming from the right engine, we then levelled out at 3000 feet. The captain made an announcement that we were going to divert to Palma de Mallorca and that the engine had been secured. Amazingly I have just found a video on YouTube of the take off, ‪Jet 2 flight LS170 lands safely‬‏ - YouTube.

The reason I post is because I am curious to know what can cause this sort of thing to happen? Could this have been a potentially life-threatening situation? How common is this sort of thing? It was certainly a distressing situation on board. I'm an aircraft enthusiast myself and would just like to know an engineers take on it. Many thanks, Jordan.

[TURIN]

It's called a 'surge'.

It happens when the airflow through the engine breaks down and it effectively backfires.

Can be caused by bleed valve or VSV scheduling up the swanny or a major failure within the compressor section.

Not exactly common but it happens.

[SMOC]

The engine is "on fire" when running normally, as said above when the internal airflow is disrupted by a fault / minor damage it can cause a surge or stall of the engine forcing unburnt fuel out the back or the front sometimes where it's seen burning.

An engine fire indicated in the cockpit is indicated by excessive temperature outside the engine but inside the cowl, here Photos: Boeing C-17A Globemaster III Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Australia---Air/Boeing-C-17A-Globemaster/1423826/L/)

[Krystal n chips]

This might help with understanding an engine surge....usually looks / sounds worse than it is and can, quite naturally, cause pax to get concerned.


Aircraft engine operation and malfunction (http://www.fromtheflightdeck.com/Stories/turbofan/)

[barit1]

JT3Ds on DC-8s and 707s routinely stalled during reverse thrust on landings. Much less common today with modern engines.

Bird strikes are another possible cause, especially during takeoff & initial climb.

[crewmeal]

Understandably, a few of the passengers suffered panic attacks during their ordeal, but there were no reports of serious injuries.

Read more: Britons aboard terror flight as jet engine shoots flames 30ft in repeated explosions | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017950/Britons-aboard-terror-flight-jet-engine-shoots-flames-30ft-repeated-explosions.html#ixzz1SwdNaiOS)


Why would there be any injuries at all? Good old Daily Mail Crap!!

[Capetonian]

Apart from the Daily Mail reporting, relatively restrained as they avoided 'wrestling with the controls' and so on, some of the reader comments are priceless :



There seems to a lot more incidents of engine trouble on planes, why is that? Is the drive for cost cutting effecting maintenance? These days planes are operated like taxis and we know how some of them are looked after.




Pictures and video from YouTube, passenger quotes from "online" (presumably Twitter or Facebook). Journalism at its best! At least we can be confident that the Mail wasn't involved in phone hacking, as that would have required effort...


Well done "MoS Reporter", you got most of the cliches in there. But you forgot to mention the pilot wrestling with the controls to avoid hitting a Nursery School / Orphanage / Home for Cute Little Kittens (delete as applicable). But not a bad effort, 7/10 for hysterical exaggeration, and the usual 0/10 for actual facts.


if it's a Boeing, I'm not going!


My heartfelt sympathy to those in the plane - and anyone else holidaying in Spain for that matter.



DM reporter, it would have helped if you had done some research before you even wrote this horrible piece. Horrible because it is in accurate and blown out of proportion a 1000 times. By the way, it is not called backfiring, it is called a engine surge. Althoug an abnormal event, the pilots have SOP to recover from it. The only terrifying thing about a surge is the noise i.e the noise is similar to a exploding bomb.



A Ryanair plane would never do that.





If this was in the USA the Pilot would have already met the President, he would be fully booked on Talk-Show circuit for the next six-months, the Biography deal would have been signed, a Discovery Channel documentary would air tomorrow nite and the screenplay would have been written for the feature film. But typical Brit, he just takes in his stride and treats it as all in a normal days work. Perhaps thats just what it was?


surely there was a closer airport to land at ,77 minutes must have felt like a lifetime




Firstly, jet engines don't back fire, they surge and yes there is a big difference between the two. Secondly DM reporter if you think they are thirty foot flames, I can only wonder what your wife/girlfriend thinks 6 inches look like....


Having flown this route with this airline I know model of plane hasa high pitched whiny engine noise anyway and sounds really odd when on board. I have always bee wary of this model of plane.


Must have re-fueled the thing on a vindaloo.


Just a couple of plugs need replacing, probably. Could be to do with the points of course, or maybe there a bit of water in the petrol . . .

[Greek God]

Must admit an hour and seventeen minutes seems a trifle excessive for a SE divert from IBZ to PMI. But then what number were they in the arrival sequence???

[Capetonian]

Wouldn't the 77 minutes be due to burning off fuel to reduce landing weight?

[DTYSAPCO]

I heard it was only 30mins! People forget that if the relevant checks are not done then the pilots would be hanged!

[SeldomFixit]

DTYSAPCO - quite right of you to point out the Pilots would be (well) hanged, rather than (well) HUNG ...................:D

[Beeline]

Any info of the rectification?

Looks like a Boro minimum lol?

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Engine change was carried out, possibly a bearing failure.

[MKY661]

think it was G-GDFC. If it was I saw it at MAN on THU and it was going to IBZ