Thomsonfly 757 Eng Surge
 

I know this was probably a non event but a mate of mine was on his way back from Arricife yesterday (as pax) and had to divert to Fuertoventura after what sounds like an engine surge on climb.
All handled very well from what he says, no screaming old ladies counting their worry beads, but he was just curious to know if it was a bird ingested or mechanical failure.

Please pm me if you feel it'e a bit sensitive. :ok:

Thanks for clearing that up.
I was on the beach at Arrecife yesterday and watched the said 757 take off. I saw flames pulsing out the right engine not long after take off. I also spotted the left bank put in. It continued on runway heading until it was too small to see anything useful from my vantage point. I expected it to turn back to Arrecife. As it didn't I was doubting what I thought I saw!
I've got a photo of it about 20 seconds before the action happened (not much help I know!)

Phil

Anyone know which flight this was? Which a/c?

MAN or LGW

LGW is around 12:15
MAN is around 16:00

all times local.

It's supposed to be MAN

http://www.crash-aerien.com/forum/vi...?p=23116#23116

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...1-21&x=10&y=10

Flight TOM/BY 1944

This is the report from the Manchester Evening news



Jet catches fire after take-off


23/11/2007

A JET carrying hundreds of holidaymakers home to Manchester had to make an emergency landing on an island after one of its engines caught fire.

Passengers on the Thomsonfly flight from Lanzarote say they feared for their lives when they heard four loud bangs and saw flames out the window.

The Boeing 757 had just taken off from the airport at Arecife when the drama unfolded.

XXX XXX, who live in Bury, were among the alarmed passengers on the flight.

XXX said: "As we took off from Arecife, there were four extremely loud bangs and flames could be seen coming from the starboard engine.

"The whole plane shuddered."

The captain shut down the starboard engine and made an emergency landing on the nearby island of Fuerteventura, where fire crews met the aircraft as a precaution.

Passengers were delayed there until Thomsonfly found a replacement plane to bring them home. They landed safely at Manchester Airport at 3am yesterday.

PAX XXX said: "It was frightening, but the pilot seemed to have the situation quickly under control and shut down the engine.

"She circled the nearby island of Fuerteventura several times, presumably to drop fuel in the Atlantic, before making an emergency landing on one engine.

"Fire engines circled the plane as it landed. There was very little panic throughout the emergency and there was nothing but admiration for the skill of the pilot in bringing the plan down safely."

A spokesman for Thomsonfly said: "Flight TOM1944 from Lanzarote to Manchester experienced a fault with one of its engines upon take off. It diverted to Fuerteventura, where it landed safely.

"Passengers were taken into the terminal and provided with a lunch and dinner, while a replacement aircraft was sourced from within the Thomsonfly fleet to bring customers back to Britain.

"Our customers were happy with the care and support they received."



"passengers feared for their lives" -Seems to contrast to what the PAX said in the report...

Looks like the PAX were a bit happier with the aftercare than the Alicante ones a few weeks back :E

Well done to the crew.

Standards are slipping at the Manchester Evening News. How could they forget to mention how the aircraft narrowly missed thousands of children in a school playground.

Sorry if it's far too general a question, but what is the most common cause of a surge?

I've actually got a movie file from my digital camera (not a photo as previously stated) of this a/c taking off, unfortunately I stopped filming about 10 seconds before the flames started appearing! Damn it.

I noticed there was a real whirlwind of dust came across the runway when the a/c was rotating. I don't know if this was caused by the a/c or whether it was a little 'dust devil' type thing. Could ingestion of some crap and rough air cause an issue?

Phil

Sounds a little risky to me, shouldn't the fire engines wait until it comes to a stop?

Damn reporters. :ugh:

My understanding of a surge is that there is a build up of pressure along the compressor stages. There are 3 different spools all compressing the air, which then enters the burner for ignition before blowing out through the 3 turbine stages that are driving their individual compressor stages. When there is an excessive build up of pressure along the compressors, valves open to relieve it. If the valves stick, or there is no other means of relieving the excessive pressure such as the speeds of the various spools being out of relation, the engine will 'cough' forwards, and generally cough up air out of the front and the back. The effect is a cannon shot 'boom' sound, with flames and sparks flying out. A spectacular sight close up at night! It is invariably quite harmless, though alarming to observe. Sometimes the engine will have to be shut down if it does not auto recover, which it usually does. There are certain parameters for different types where relighting may not be permitted.
Outside influences do not cause surges.

The dust whirlwind is probably just the typical wing vortex effect during takeoff. At takeoff speeds cross winds etc. are pretty much impervious to engines. Same with rough air at high power conditions at low altitudes.

Surge has many causes, most of them are damage related inside the engine. many are temporary in nature and quickly recovered by the pilot retarding and readvancing the throttle.

Some of the temporary ones are caused by the passage of bird guts through the compressor, while others are caused by tired engines working at very hard conditions (time to get them off and into overhaul)

Engine surge on take off. EGT erratic for obvious reason. Did not dump fuel because 757 does not have fuel Jettison. Engine change underway at Fue

Sorry if O/T.
Recent (month or two) event of a B twin ingesting a couple of herons, complete with video of the pulse jet effect. Tried "search" but no luck. Anybody has a link to the thread? Was looking for it to answer a question from a friend.

Hi ChristaanJ
It's on utube... search Thomson.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...on+bird+strike

The Invisible Man,
Many thanks!
"MAN" and "757" and "Thomson" and the date might get me a hit on the actual PPRuNe thread as well.
Ironic the score now seems to be 1-1, one each way.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DJmEefa8g5s
:ok:

This regular occurence with TOM 757's is starting to give me a headache??

Is there not anything else to talk about??:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Oh sure.... until the next birdstrike.
Isn't it just about time all birds were fitted with TCAS?

Aircraft are not 'immune' from Birds.

Thankyou.
 

Many thanks for the replies.

Good old M.E.N. never fails to let the facts get in the way of a good story. :=

You can say THAT again.
And since your user name ends in "India", have a look at what you can encounter in India. Like vultures at 30,000ft....

TOM 757 Engine Trouble
 

Found tihs post elsewhere,

Sounded "fun" glad all was safely handled

http://www.uk-airport-news.info/manc...ews-221107.htm

Fuelboy

I was actually one of those on board this flight on Wednesday. The problems started about 30 seconds after take off and as has already been mentioned there were loud bangs coming from the starboard engine with flames coming out of the engine with each bang. This lasted maybe 15 seconds or so until the engine was shut down.
After around 10 minutes the crew (who had obviously been very busy) explained that we would be diverting to Fuerteventura and after circling for around 40 minutes we landed there and were given the once over by the fire engines which had been standing by.
Everyone was quite shaken but the atmosphere on the aircraft remained calm at all times (true British stiff upper lip!).
I must say that the Thomsonfly crew and then the two reps who took care of us for the 10 hours we were in Fuerteventura were exemplary and an absolute credit the company. When the going got tough Thomson's really did the business in looking after its customers and I cannot praise them enough for the customer service and reassurance they provided that day.

I am flying with Thomsonfly on Sunday to Arrecife from Glasgow airport. Flight no. TOM2137. and was quite alarmed at reading about this engine failure, but I know that pilots are more than capable of dealing with these situations and kudos to the pilots for bringing the plane in safely.:D

I do like the headlines ! Clearly Manchester newspapers are finding it difficult to recruit English graduates to write their material.

Or how about.....

Holiday Horror As Inferno Rages Inside Aircraft Engine

Hello guys.

It seems that this company and specifically 757 fleet have a problem with birdstrike on take off because of several incidents have ocurred in differents airports with the same cause.

I know that Rolls-Royce is a beautiful engine to see but I think that the birds have an especial preference by this engine....:ugh:

Good flights!!:D

A sparrow sits by the side of a runway. "Any worms?", it thinks to itself. "Nah, no worms in the hard grey stuff, tried that". A Monarch A320 departs. Moments pass. "Any worms?", it thinks to itself. "Nah, none in the hard grey stuff". A Thomas Cook 757 departs. Moments pass.

"Thomson 763J cleared takeoff runway 03, surface wind 030 at 5"...

The sparrow leaps into the air, full of the joy of an imminent bird strike with a Thomsonfly 757 that sounds as though it may just be surging a bit in the starboard engine.

It must be the light blue colour and the red stuff on the tail. Perhaps the Thomsonfly pilots always try and take off to coincide with birds flying past. That'll be it.

shlittlenellie - I happen to know that the TOM aircraft weather radar has been modified to display avian activity on-screen enabling flight crew to identify and turn towards a possible target: Of course, when coupled to the autopilot in CRS mode on take-off this process is automated for greater efficiency, enabling the flight crew to concentrate on operating the engine surge controls and planning the return

video + radio
 

I didn't see this link on this thread. Sorry if it is a repeat.

Best,

PE

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircra...ideo-8457.html