Square Pegs....Round Holes (JAL B744 eats baggage container)
 

From today's Brisbane Times Brisbane Times - Brisbane News, Queensland News & World News

Flight grounded after engine sucks up object


May 12, 2009 - 11:30AM
A Japan Airlines jetliner preparing to depart Los Angeles was grounded after one of the plane's jet engines apparently sucked up a cargo container, officials said.

Television footage showed the large object wedged into an engine as the plane sat on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport.

JAL Flight 61 had been leaving the gate at around 1:30pm (2030 GMT) when the unidentified object blocked one of the engines, according to Los Angeles World Airports, the agency which operates the airport.

The 245 passengers on board were transported back to the airport's Tom Bradley International Terminal. No one was injured.

An investigation was underway.

Link to story with photo is here Flight grounded after engine sucks up object

Any ideas as to how this happened? Apprentice baggage handler perhaps????:E

Quote:

JAL Flight 61 had been leaving the gate at around 1:30pm

Unquote.

That looks to me though the airplane is well and truely out on the taxiway!

No wonder all the pax were transported back to the TB terminal!

Q: I haven't been there for a couple of years, do the 747s still need to be pushed back all the way to the taxiway from the TB terminal, before they can start the engines?

FD

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ne_afp226b.jpg

Image from the BBC.

Aerial video from CNN:
Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Was just thru there recently, yes we had to be pulled in and pushed out with engines off. Quite a tight fit around that TBI terminal !

So what was a container doing on the taxiway? assuming engines idle at pushback to the taxiway.

JL engine suck up container at LA
 

Wonder how this could happen? First time seeing this.


Japan flight grounded as engine sucks up object

shows why ground personnel need to be very wary around aircraft with running engines as those engines do not discriminate when it comes to ingesting objects large or small.

You'd be surprised how light a ULD is when empty, have seen unsecured ULDs sliding across the tarmac in the breeze several times. Maybe it was windy at LAX at the time?

Everyone remeber where we parked ..
 

I'll be much more careful where I leave my C172 in future:eek:

Imagine the captains face and what he said when he looked over at the engine with a ULD stuck in the intake
" たわごと ! "
Is ritual suicide with the crash axe or plastic butter knife part of JALs SOPs ?

747 eats baggage cart
 

The Press Association: 747 engine 'eats up' baggage cart

Anyone else see this on the news? How on earth did that happen!!

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1519835,00.jpg


Ouuuuch........

Link to BBC article.........

BBC NEWS | Americas | Japan jet engine sucks up object

Doesn't surprise me a few years ago taxiing for rwy25 at LA, a baggage container was running backwards across the taxiway, having detached itself from the back of a train of them. The driver was still going oblivious to his last container now sitting on the center of the taxiway!

176 lb container (if empty), and an engine that produces 100 times that at idle.

Wonderfully apt title for this thread, although I remain perplexed as to just how exactly this is in the Non Airline Transport Stuff forum when it concerns an incident involving a major aircraft from a major airline at a major airport!:confused:

Jack

PS And yes, I have read the forum's raison d'etre ...

Took a trip from Heathrow around the bay of Biscay on Concorde with my dad about 20 years ago. It was a very windy day and before we boarded we were allowed to wander round the aircraft to take pictures. Sudden gust of wind and a ULD that was sat along with a few others on the apron tipped up, briefly flew a few yards and then dropped on its top. A few seconds earlier and it would have dropped onto half a dozen passengers.

Not the first time, not the last time...

If seen these containers beeing blown over ramp areas during strong wind conditions or by jetblast... and if they come close to a running jet engine, they become a perfect plug :eek: