Emergency Landing at Gatwick ZB 534 June 28th
 

I am not sure if I am posting in the right place but please could someone tell me what was wrong with the starboard engine on a flight I recently took from Manchester to Palma on the 28th of June. The airline was Monarch and the flight number was ZB 534 the kit was a Boeing 757. When we took off there was a real straining noise from the starboard engine, after about 3/4 of an hour the crew announced that we were making an emergency landing at Gatwick...we made a REALLY rapid descent, and the Captain and crew did a wonderful job! When we landed we were followed by various fire trucks etc. On leaving the Plane we noticed the engine canopy up and what looked like dripping oil and paper towels around the engine? We are just interested to find out what happened to the engine. The aircraft was still on the tarmac the next morning, when we continued our journey on another aircraft. Thank you.

Without knowing the specific details, my general understanding of the incident you are referring to, is that the aircraft had a loss of oil quantity from one of its two engines. This would normally manifest itself as a caution indication to the crew once the oil level reached a predetermined level. In those circumstances the checklist procedure provides for a set of options. One option is to isolate the indication itself as erroneous. Where that appears to not be the case, it then needs to be established if the loss has stabilised or is continuing. In the case of a stabilised quantity it may be quite usual to continue running the engine. If however the loss continues or the quantity remaining is low, then the checklist procedure will usually result in shutting the engine down to prevent any further damage.

The redundancy factors built into modern airliners are such that nearly all major systems are duplicated, triplicated and in some cases quadruplicated. When the loss of functionality of a major system occurs such as two hydraulic systems in a three system aircraft, or one of the two engines, then the normal procedure would be for the crew to divert to the nearest suitable airport. It is also normal for an emergency to be declared to Air Traffic Control when the aircrafts system redundancy (spare capacity) is reduced, even though there may be no particular criticality. For an aircraft diverting to a previously unplanned airport, the decent profile will be a combination of the crews requirements and where necessary air traffic control requirements. Given the requirements on any different day and for any different event, the profile of the decent will vary to suit what is required by the controlling parties involved.

Although I think I know what you mean when you say "when we took off there was a real straining noise from the starboard engine." It is highly unlikely that this was significant. The RB211 engines fitted to the Boeing 757 do have a normal sound characteristic that might be interpreted in this way. Had there been any abnormal indication during the take off or climb it would have been dealt with at that time. The cabin crew who are seated by the doors (and often have many years experience of hearing the various sounds involved,) would soon bring to the attention of the flight crew any sounds or other observations that they felt were unusual.

After landing it is again normal procedure in this type of event for the airport fire services to be alerted and to follow the aircraft down the runway at a predetermined point. After external observations have been made the aircraft may either disembark the passengers or crew at that point, or (as is more usual) simply taxy back to a terminal stand for routine disembarkation.

Whenever there is any disruption to the normal schedule of a flight it is always going to be a cause of concern to the passengers, so (although I wouldn't expect anything less,) it is very nice of you to express how the crew did a wonderful job. As I say I don't have anything more than a general understanding, but I believe the diversion was a result of a precautionary engine shut down following a loss of oil quantity. Following repairs and inspections the aircraft was returned to service.

Thank you
 

May I thank you for taking the time to give me such an informative and in depth reply to my question.


Really appreciated !!!


ps The RB211 engines are my favourite! as they are often used on my all time favourite plane the Boeing 747. And yes.. the Captain and crew were excellent, as usual!!!!

Also from a cabin crew point of view, it's not an emergency landing unless the cabin is prepared for an emergency. Not sure if this was in your case but an emergency landing would be a full brief of passengers on brace position, exits etc. A lot of these incidents from the cabin crews SOP's will be precautionary where the crew remain on a heightened state of alertness and readiness but the passengers aren't prepared for a full emergency.

Foxfly I was on this flight also and completely agree that the cabin crew and pilots were brilliant, however I can't say the same for the treatment from Monarch from the minute we stepped off the plane until this day. Did you pursue a claim and had any joy with it?

Don't know which variant of the RB211 is fitted to the Monarch 757s, but the C engines don't specify a minimum oil quantity in flight, neither will you get a caution/warning at any specific level. So unless you spend your time watching the oil quantity on the lower EICAS screen, the first indication of oil loss is likely to be low oil pressure - a bit like your first car!

When Monarch had 757s, they were all -535E4 powered.

Thnx, ours are C engines, so can't comment on the E4 oil system.