qantas 747 engine failure
 

recently QANTAS had a 747 engine failure, returning to a US airport fortunately of an outer engine but the news reports suggest the engine wasnt shut down until passengers reported vibration and sparks coming from the engine

shouldnt the pilots have known about it first?

Take news reports with a grain of salt. A large one at that. :8

Hi lynn, ditto what the capt says.The crew would be aware of the vibration via their instruments and via the airframe if it was bad enough very quickly.
Other parameters would also indicate problems.They have comprehensive check lists to carry out in the event of non normal events.
Given the damage I think it largely shut itself down. Even so checklists must be carried out.
Pax may have seen initial sparks moments before the crew was alerted to problems by engine monitoring instruments but for the media to suggest the crew acted on alerts from pax alone is a load of nonsense imho.

Trust what the media says about as far as you can vomit a whale.
The sparks continuing to come out the back would be what's left of the rotating bits rubbing. They'll still rotate because of the airspeed of the aeroplane and so would decrease as the plane slows and also the offending bits get rubbed away.

Thinks......ahh...perhaps we could invent a jet engine with feathering fans to keep the punters happy??

NOT!!:\

G'day ;)

They are coming, mostly to the very large fans to add a reversing feature. But methinks they will only show up after the geared fan proves itself. (added complexity and regulatory chalenges etc.)

I suspect however that in the QF incident that the still good IP and HP compressors were feeding the aft LP turbine.