Air France A380 engine failure

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Chris M
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Air France A380 engine failure

Post by Chris M »

Landed in Goose Bay after engine came apart over the Atlantic. Looks like the whole fan departed and took the cowling inlet with it.

Image

News articles right now are standard click bait "HORROR IN THE AIR" bullshit. Will wait till something reputable is posted before linking.

Here we go. Go CBC and rational reporting.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl ... -1.4315132
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Last edited by Chris M on Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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rookiepilot
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by rookiepilot »

Horror to me would be both engines on a 777 over the Atlantic. Although likely wouldn't be around to share this with the CBC.
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CAL
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by CAL »

So nothing up with the 380 power plants
Your suggesting everything crossing an ocean needs 4 engines?
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cncpc
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by cncpc »

Not to forget, well done the crew.
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wan2fly99
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by wan2fly99 »

Well to me I always like 4 engines going across any pond.
To each his own.
When flying back and forth from Europe I always hate to 3 to 4 hr over the water there

I know very rare for 2 to go out, but ask that Air Transat people that luckily landed on the island there

Also when I go flying GA, I never fly over water in a single or over cities if I can avoid.
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CpnCrunch
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by CpnCrunch »

wan2fly99 wrote: I know very rare for 2 to go out, but ask that Air Transat people that luckily landed on the island there
Not sure how an extra 2 engines will help you when you run out of fuel.
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Mick G
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by Mick G »

Seems very unusual for a mid flight cruise, I would have thought something like this would have appeared at takeoff
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rookiepilot
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by rookiepilot »

CAL wrote:So nothing up with the 380 power plants
Your suggesting everything crossing an ocean needs 4 engines?
No. Failures are exceedingly rare. After doing the polar route to HKG a few times on a 777, or the pacific, one doesn't think about it very much. I have lots of SE piston time 80- 100 mm from nearest airport, sometimes no roads or fields, which has seemed a lot riskier.
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Heliian
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by Heliian »

I'd be horrified if I saw the fan blow off over the Atlantic. It could have taken out a lot more with it too. Sure, stowing an engine out of four is nothing really but a complete fan failure like that could have been disastrous. Not to mention parts raining from the sky.

There has been a few engine problems with the relatively young a380 but this one is the most spectacular. Just saw an old headline from the Qantas failure calling it a possible "titanic in the sky". I didn't realize they hit an iceberg.
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goingnowherefast
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by goingnowherefast »

The failure in it's self isn't concerning, it's where did all the missing pieces go? The other engine isn't far away, neither is the wing full of fuel or the cabin full of pressurised air and people.

The fact that it's an uncontained failure vs a simple "it stopped working" is the scary part.

I'd feel more comfortable on a twin with no record of spewing engine bits everywhere than I would on a 6 engine plane that fails in this manner. Having said that, we don't know what caused the failure. It may be a manufacturing defect and not unique to the A380. Just a 4 engine plane is twice as vulnerable as a twin to suffer an engine problem.
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fish4life
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by fish4life »

CpnCrunch wrote:
wan2fly99 wrote: I know very rare for 2 to go out, but ask that Air Transat people that luckily landed on the island there
Not sure how an extra 2 engines will help you when you run out of fuel.

Hahahaha well said.

I thought to myself perhaps this one and the Quantas 380 had similar issues, upon some google searching it appears they went with different engines Quantas used the RR and Air France equipped their 380's with the GE. It would have been more concerning if it was the same engine type. I wonder what the 2 share in common, are the Pylons the same? Do they perhaps have some hidden flaw causing a bit of vibration that isn't noticeable? Lots of unknowns
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Chris M
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by Chris M »

goingnowherefast wrote:The failure in it's self isn't concerning, it's where did all the missing pieces go? The other engine isn't far away, neither is the wing full of fuel or the cabin full of pressurised air and people.

The fact that it's an uncontained failure vs a simple "it stopped working" is the scary part.

I'd feel more comfortable on a twin with no record of spewing engine bits everywhere than I would on a 6 engine plane that fails in this manner. Having said that, we don't know what caused the failure. It may be a manufacturing defect and not unique to the A380. Just a 4 engine plane is twice as vulnerable as a twin to suffer an engine problem.
A different picture shows dents in the slats. The fan coming apart is less dangerous than a high pressure disk - the whole fan in ahead of the wing and most of the available trajectories are into open air. The turbine disks have probably half of their arc occupied by airplane, so likelihood of impact is much higher (see Quantas A380 that sent disk fragments out through the top of the wing).

During the design process any engine failure is considered to be uncontained and infinite energy, so the preventative measure is to keep important things out of the ejection paths. At least that's how it works on the Global.
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CAL
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by CAL »

you have vastly more experience than me on that but I was under the impression that the airlines are all moving away from 4 engine airplanes...
either way scary site
rookiepilot wrote:
CAL wrote:So nothing up with the 380 power plants
Your suggesting everything crossing an ocean needs 4 engines?
No. Failures are exceedingly rare. After doing the polar route to HKG a few times on a 777, or the pacific, one doesn't think about it very much. I have lots of SE piston time 80- 100 mm from nearest airport, sometimes no roads or fields, which has seemed a lot riskier.
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Eric Janson
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by Eric Janson »

CAL wrote:you have vastly more experience than me on that but I was under the impression that the airlines are all moving away from 4 engine airplanes...
It depends on the Airline.

Mine added 2 A340 this year and I've heard there are more on the way. They are very cheap to acquire and my Airline has no problem finding work for them.

2 additional large 4 engine aircraft joining the fleet next year as well.

Personally when I'm out over the Indian Ocean at night with very little in the way of diversion options I'm glad to have 4 engines.
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A321
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by A321 »

Looks like some of the pax got a free night tour of Canada. Flight aware had a Nolinor 737-300 from YYR-YWG-LAX early Sunday morning with a departure at 01:00, Fuel stop in YWG 03:00-04:00 and arrival in LAX at 6:00am. Or maybe that was just the Air France Crew Shuttle for positioning?
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ahramin
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Re: Air France A380 engine failure

Post by ahramin »

The Nolinor was for the pax that didn't get on the 777.
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