Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid That Your Plane Will Lose Its Engine
The gruesome story of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380’s pre-disaster is still fresh in the minds of passengers, but a commercial jet that has lost its engine is usually not something to fear. Not only does it rarely happen, but when it does, pilots and planes are ready to deal with it. Here’s what you need to know about these types of incidents and why Flight 1380 was more serious.
Engine failure is rare
If there is anything to gain from this, know that it is quite rare for a commercial airliner to lose its engine. The 18-year-old Boeing 737-7H4 used on Flight 1380 was powered by two CFM56-7B turbofan engines, one of the most popular jet engines in the world. It is used on over 6,700 aircraft worldwide, so if you have flown at all, chances are good that you have flown with these workhorses. They are also considered to be some of the most reliable engines ever made, with an in-flight downtime of just one incident in 333,333 hours of use .
Mechanical failure, like engine loss, accounts for only about 17% of all fatal accidents . And there are only about 25 incidents involving jet engine failure in flight or on the ground every year , which is less than one incident in every million flights worldwide. Engine malfunctions can be caused by mechanical problems or poor fuel quality, but more often than not, these incidents are caused by unusual accidents that cannot be avoided, such as birds flying into turbines.
Pilots are trained to fly with or without one engine
Although engine failure is extremely rare, for most commercial pilots it is not too much of a problem. They had been carefully trained for many hours on how to handle a lost engine for this particular aircraft. When these events do occur, passengers are a little scared, but they rarely lead to further complications or death. In fact, engine loss is such a tutorial for commercial pilots that they can’t even do anything about it. Pilots can deflect the plane and make an unscheduled or emergency landing, but not always . If it made sense to continue flying to the destination on one engine, they will.
Even with all engines turned off, the aircraft can still glide and coast to a safe landing – also known as a dead center landing – thanks to the aircraft’s inertia and good old fashioned gravity. Or, if the engines shut off during takeoff, as happened when a flock of geese shot down a plane from US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009, the pilot could “rush” and make an emergency landing on the water if the airport is near a body of water.
Airliners are built to fly safely with one engine
Commercial aircraft are designed with a number of redundant safety features, including the ability to fly long distances using just one engine. Loss of an engine results in a loss of some of the aircraft’s thrust, but this only affects a few things :
- The plane will not be able to maintain the maximum altitude, so it flies at a lower one.
- The remaining engine runs a little harder.
- The aircraft becomes less economical, which reduces the flight range.
Essentially, the loss of an engine means the plane cannot fly as far as it could with all of its engines. Makes sense, right? Beyond this loss of range, however, aircraft are more than capable of flying safely without huge loss of capability.
In fact, before an airliner is allowed to fly long distances or fly over uninhabited areas such as the oceans and the Arctic, it must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Extended Range Dual Flight (ETOPS) flights . A huge part of this certification includes the aircraft’s ability to fly with one engine. For example, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is ETOPS-330 certified , which means it can fly for 330 minutes (or five and a half hours) with only one engine running.
What made Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 different
If engine loss isn’t such a big deal, why was it so bad for Southwest Airlines Flight 1380? Two words: a punctured fuselage. The main cockpit you’re sitting in is under pressure after takeoff – so you can feel comfortable and, you know, breathe and all that – but if the fuselage bursts in mid-flight it could cause serious problems. Namely, violent pressure equalization, which is a force that can suck people out.
An engine failure can be anything from a loss of engine power to an engine exploding in a fireball. Violent events like the latter are even worse. Approximately 20 minutes after the start of flight 1380, one of the 24 titanium alloy fan blades of the left engine broke off, causing the engine to be completely destroyed. Usually, a debris from such an explosive event travels through the engine, but the event somehow sent the debris into one of the windows in the plane’s fuselage, shattering it. At that time, the pilots had two problems, which together constituted one serious problem. Not only did the engine fail, but also the air pressure in the cockpit rapidly dropped, as a result of which one of the passengers on board died. Due to this set of adverse circumstances, the flight crew had to act quickly and was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Plane crashes like engine failure do happen, but they are rare. And even when they do happen, they are unlikely to develop into anything serious. What happened on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was a tragic, terrifying ordeal, but don’t let any coincidence scare you. Without a doubt, it is still the safest form of transport.