Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 Engine Failure
Discussion
KrazyIvan said:
Training/procedure and real life are not the same, but if you don't think anything they did was note worthy, then fair enough, me personally I still think they deserve a virtual pat and recognition on the back for job well done in a difficult situation.
Quite. For anyone's general interest - here's some conjecture from a fellow pilot. Assuming that the crew were made aware of the engine damage & failure first, they will have been 'securing' the engine (shutting it down and isolating it from the hydraulic, oil, fuel & air system) and initiating a shallow descent to an altitude they can maintain with one engine. A well-rehearsed and frequently trained procedure.
I'm guessing that during this procedure they received warning of the decompression - so emergency descent initiated. Another well-rehearsed procedure.
However, to have two at the same time would induce some startle-factor, and undoubtedly cause some initial confusion. I'd suggest that chances are they were running checklists, scanning for traffic, manoeuvring and liaising with ATC at the time of the depressurisation - which was itself likely to be a sudden, rather violent event in this instance.
I doff my professional hat to them - it appears they handled it brilliantly.
Edited to add: I've a couple of mates who fly for Southwest. I understand that their training and operating philosophy is very practical, big picture stuff. Exactly what you want with multiple failures going on.
Edited by Testaburger on Wednesday 18th April 16:19
I think they did a fantastic, professional job.
The only reason I commented was that someone seemed to be saying that they were surprised they did so well. I wasn't surprised at all. By and large, aircrew do their job properly and professionally. It's the exception when they don't.
The only reason I commented was that someone seemed to be saying that they were surprised they did so well. I wasn't surprised at all. By and large, aircrew do their job properly and professionally. It's the exception when they don't.
Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 18th April 16:10
I feel really bad for the guys at Southwest for having two of these blades let go in two years.
The containment HAS done its job initially, the bit that is missing is the inlet cowl. I think once the blade comes off it actually travels forward, and then once out of balance the engine will be shaking incredibly, and thus the inlet cowl then breaks up. Lots will have gone through the engine itself, and some up and over the wing.
We (I am an Engineer at another operator of these engines) were all looking at the photos of this event and the last one in the office this morning, remarkably similar.
As alluded to by another poster, there is a worldwide huge effort being put into the testing of these fan blades.
Of course, the crew (including those in the back) all seem to have done a fantastic job in a very stressful situation
The containment HAS done its job initially, the bit that is missing is the inlet cowl. I think once the blade comes off it actually travels forward, and then once out of balance the engine will be shaking incredibly, and thus the inlet cowl then breaks up. Lots will have gone through the engine itself, and some up and over the wing.
We (I am an Engineer at another operator of these engines) were all looking at the photos of this event and the last one in the office this morning, remarkably similar.
As alluded to by another poster, there is a worldwide huge effort being put into the testing of these fan blades.
Of course, the crew (including those in the back) all seem to have done a fantastic job in a very stressful situation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/18/sout...
“If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an airplane at about 600mph and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face, then I think I can probably tell you there was significant trauma,” Phillips said of Riordan.
Obviously early reports will be sketchy but it wouldn't surprise if this was accurate given her involvement. What a totally horrific and abnormal event - fatal injuries due to impacting the external structure of a plane at 30,000 feet. Wtaf?
“If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an airplane at about 600mph and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face, then I think I can probably tell you there was significant trauma,” Phillips said of Riordan.
Obviously early reports will be sketchy but it wouldn't surprise if this was accurate given her involvement. What a totally horrific and abnormal event - fatal injuries due to impacting the external structure of a plane at 30,000 feet. Wtaf?
Is one engine enough on a 737 to maintain full cabin pressurization?
Witness reports are of a bang, the oxygen masks dropping, about 10 sec, then the window blowing out. Seems too quick to have a loss of cabin pressure just by loosing the fan off the front of one engine no? (ie before the gross window failure lead to depressurization) Might be the eye witness account just got the order wrong?
Witness reports are of a bang, the oxygen masks dropping, about 10 sec, then the window blowing out. Seems too quick to have a loss of cabin pressure just by loosing the fan off the front of one engine no? (ie before the gross window failure lead to depressurization) Might be the eye witness account just got the order wrong?
Something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned on here, is that from all of the pictures I've seen of the interior of the aircraft during this incident, not one passenger has their oxygen mask on properly! They all appear to be wearing them over the mouth only, not nose and mouth.
AshVX220 said:
Something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned on here, is that from all of the pictures I've seen of the interior of the aircraft during this incident, not one passenger has their oxygen mask on properly! They all appear to be wearing them over the mouth only, not nose and mouth.
Not surprised at all. Virtually all modern day passengers tune out at safety briefings, even if they haven’t got headphones on. Emergency situations are fortuitously so rare that most people will revert to a distant memory of what they think they need to do. The best crew performance is when they are strong in directive action in the actual emergency but all crews these days, flight deck or cabin, are in a similar boat to the pax with scarce real world experience of these situations so it’s a combo of great training and intelligent thinking on the hoof.Speed 3 said:
AshVX220 said:
Something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned on here, is that from all of the pictures I've seen of the interior of the aircraft during this incident, not one passenger has their oxygen mask on properly! They all appear to be wearing them over the mouth only, not nose and mouth.
Not surprised at all. Virtually all modern day passengers tune out at safety briefings, even if they haven’t got headphones on. Emergency situations are fortuitously so rare that most people will revert to a distant memory of what they think they need to do. The best crew performance is when they are strong in directive action in the actual emergency but all crews these days, flight deck or cabin, are in a similar boat to the pax with scarce real world experience of these situations so it’s a combo of great training and intelligent thinking on the hoof.AshVX220 said:
Something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned on here, is that from all of the pictures I've seen of the interior of the aircraft during this incident, not one passenger has their oxygen mask on properly! They all appear to be wearing them over the mouth only, not nose and mouth.
Picture and story of the masks is front page on stuff, one of nz's big news sites. Imo could be helped by shaping the mask so it's actually obvious
RobDickinson said:
AshVX220 said:
Something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned on here, is that from all of the pictures I've seen of the interior of the aircraft during this incident, not one passenger has their oxygen mask on properly! They all appear to be wearing them over the mouth only, not nose and mouth.
Picture and story of the masks is front page on stuff, one of nz's big news sites. Imo could be helped by shaping the mask so it's actually obvious
Eric Mc said:
I'm sure they must have initiated an emergency descent so I expect they must have spoken to ATC about that. After all, ATC has to clear other traffic out of the way to allow the aircraft to descend through traffic safely.
In an event like that you’d quite often not expect to hear from the pilots until long after the descent is initiated, if you’re lucky they’ll squawk 7700 which lights them up like a Christmas tree on radar and burns through any height filters controllers have set up.Aviate, navigate, communicate.
Eric Mc said:
And they would need to react instantly and correctly to both in order to do their best to to get the aircraft safely on the ground in minimum time.
Nitpicking, but an important skill for flight crew - especially difficult in a situation such as this - is to be able to control the impulse to just start doing stuff when startled. It’s the whole system 1 vs. system 2 thing (for anyone who has read Thinking Fast and Slow ) - allow time for your modern cognitive ability to catch up with the instinctive, primal part of your brain.I’m surprised by how articulate the captain sounds while wearing an oxygen mask. When I transmitted while wearing one I sounded like someone doing an impression of Bane through a kazoo.
Edited by Prawo Jazdy on Thursday 19th April 08:46
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