Engine problem after take off
 

A looooooooong old time ago (well, 1999 to be more specific) I was on board a BA flight from JFK to MAN.

The a/c developed engine "problems" pretty soon after takeoff - to the untrained ear it sounded like the capt was applying thrust, then reducing, in an effort to get the correct power. This could be totally wrong, though, and is frankly irrelevant I guess.

The capt issued a PA explaining that "as you can all hear, there is a minor problem with one of our engines" and that he was "working with ground engineers to sort it out."

All I wondered was this: do ground engineers have live access to the engine output and what could they have done to aid the capt while airborn; my guess being that they either say stay up or come down, surely there's no remote way of fixing things. Is there....!

Anyway, we carried on without problem. Just thought I'd ask the question.

Cheers all,
Teddy

obviously in the case of serious problems a turnback is the only route, however if its a minor snag the crew will often speak to the engineers to discuss the problem etc ,also some a/c automatically download technical data back to the maint base whilst flying

correct me if I am wrong but I would imagine that the ground engineers could use acars to obtain data from the engines thus relieving the crew of more work.
Its not real time data but it can be obtained quickly and then studied.
Then possible solutions can be radio'd back to the crew.

In the past I have seen engine performance reports on acars.

Then possible solutions can be radio'd back to the crew.

This is the important factor.

Consistent with available time, etc., the best outcome generally is achieved if the crew engages a variety of resources. A bit along the line of "two heads are better than one".

This is the underlyling principle of what CRM is all about.

remember that the crew have there set procedures. So in the case of engine problems after take-off they will normally inform MOC and return to the airfield. Thats when we usually get a call to meet the a/c on stand. If the engine is malfunctioning then get back on the ground and we can trouble shoot from there.
But if its minor things then they would probably speak to us and carry on with their journey.

The same thing happened when i flew from JFK to LHR last May. The problem was much more trivial though.(In-flight entertainment system kept on crashing). There was an announcement from the Captain saying that they would be speaking to ground engineers to try and get the problem rectified as soon as possible

if the crew have time to contact the Engineers, and they think they could help, they will try that option. A/C can't be remotely fixed from the ground, but after looking at downloaded reports of say engine parameters, it may give the crew some more guidance to make a decision. Often with things like IFE failures, assistance from the ground will enable a reset etc of the system to get it running again. (Have done this whilst flying on staff travel !)

One possible scenario (I have no knowledge of the actual event...):

There may have been high vibs at high power, but within limits at lower power. If they reviewed everything else and it looked OK, they could well elect to continue with one engine at low power, thus having the benefit of its electrical, hydraulic etc. services.