Delta 717 Engine cowling unscheduled departure
 

CNN - Those with a window seat got quite the view: The piece covering the plane's right engine -- or cowling, as it's called -- had come off.

Can anyone confirm that this is actually visible to passengers?
On the F28 the front of the engine nacelle was visible through the small (tiny) window in the aft lavatory but on the 717 I think this would be very difficult to see from any passenger window.
It would also be a bit unusual, I think, for passengers to be told the exact nature of the problem such that it would prompt last-row passengers to even try to see that far back.

I seem to recall 'loss of secondary structure' as being USAF's criterion for 'moderate' turbulence back in the '60s. Possibly apocryphal, though.

My very first flight in any plane was in the next-to-back row of a DC-9. Pressing my nose HARD against the window, I could just make out most of the fan inlet (grossly distorted by the thick pressure glass), and that's about it.

No way could I have seen as far back as the missing cowl section on this 717.

I've ridden DL's MD-88 and DC9 and you certainly would have been able to on those. I can't confirm the 717 but from this image my guess is that you would also be able to: Photo: N974AT (CN: 55034) Boeing 717-2BD by Akib Rubaiyat Photoid:8255352 - JetPhotos.Net

Quoted from seatguru:

The window seats in rows 28 and 29 have no view because the engines are directly outside the windows. The engine intakes are exactly even with the back edge of the windows in row 27 so the view is limited.

FAA - Uncontained engine failure
 

FWIW, per Avherald.

"The Delta Fan Club."

Engine inlet and forward cowls easily seen on the Douglas/Boeing 717s that operate in Aus. 23 or 25 rows of seats depending on configuration (dual/single class).

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mFYMlurYd8w/hqdefault.jpg

They are visible