NEWS: Where Did The Engine Go? A 747 cargo plane loses engine in flight

An engine fell off of a Boeing 747 cargo plane in mid flight today. The engine may have detached and fallen into Lake Michigan. The Jumbo Jet belonging to Kalitta Air was travailing from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport .




It was over the lake that the pilot felt he had suffered a mechanical failure. After radioing in, he noticed that one of the engines were missing. A search being coordinated by the FAA and NTSB is underway to find the engine. There were no reports of injuries, andthe plane landed safely


[edit on 10/21/04 by FredT]

[edit on 10/21/04 by FredT]

Both planes? Where'd the other plane come from -- I only saw one mentioned.

In any event that plane is lucky. Others who have had engines falling off have not been so lucky:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by titian
Both planes? Where'd the other plane come from -- I only saw one mentioned.

In any event that plane is lucky. Others who have had engines falling off have not been so lucky:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well, a 747 has 4 engines, and they are technically supposed to be able to lose 3 and land safely. Of course this depends on the crew flying it, but it is designed to be flown on one engine.

The plane in your link (from 2001) had only two engines, and "should" be able to land with one. That of course depends on the experience of the crew and the hope that one engine loss doesnt cut flight control cables, the second hydrolic system lines, or major fuel lines for the second engine.

I also dont see where your "Both planes" statement is coming from? Did I miss something? The poster only mentioned one, the one in the article.

[edit on 21-10-2004 by Milk]

EDIT: Sorry, there is only 1 plane involved in the incident and only 1 engine fell from the plane

Originally posted by Milk
Well, a 747 has 4 engines, and they are technically supposed to be able to lose 3 and land safely. Of course this depends on the crew flying it, but it is designed to be flown on one engine.

The plane in your link (from 2001) had only two engines, and "should" be able to land with one. That of course depends on the experience of the crew and the hope that one engine loss doesnt cut flight control cables, the second hydrolic system lines, or major fuel lines for the second engine.

[edit on 21-10-2004 by Milk]

Actually that BBC article mentioned two incidents. The article was an FAQ of sorts about the AA Flight 587 crash in 2001 in NY. Within the article (second paragraph) was a reference to the second, a DC10 in 1979, that had three engines. The question is which engine fell off. If the aft-mounted center engine fell off, well, there goes the tail, rudder and elevators.

[EDIT]: The article first mentioned that both planes landed safely. FredT was editing it as you posted Milk.

[edit on 10/21/2004 by titian]

Clearly the engine entered into a tangent universe where a giant rabbit named Frank will coax an interdimensionaly gifted youth into repairing the damaged fabric of space-time by sacrificing himself. (For those who haven't seen Donnie Darko...ignore the above statement lol).

No but seriously, just out of curiosity: how does a plane's engine simply "fall off?" Is this a common thing?

[edit on 21-10-2004 by AceWombat04]

I was just about to say has anyone seen Donnie darko and the part where men who looked like MIB but worked for aero space told them not to say anything in a signed contract to what they have seen etc. In return they got their house repaired and possibly a nice little money package now I'm not sure if that how it works but best way to stop people worrying is cover it up as quick as you can.

Its not good for that business if the planes engines are falling off then the people who use that plane to travel will get worried or never use that plane ever again Causing them to loose money big time.

Oh, another "damn good reason why I don't fly " thread.....

Human beings work on these machines folks. Mistakes ARE going to happen.

Originally posted by Ambient Sound
Oh, another "damn good reason why I don't fly " thread.....

Human beings work on these machines folks. Mistakes ARE going to happen.

Yes they do but this should not ever happen at all with all the checks they do on the planes to make it safe as to rule out any human error. So whos responseable for not doing their job properly and putting hundreds of lives at risk.

Originally posted by SE7EN
So whos responseable for not doing their job properly and putting hundreds of lives at risk.

Right.
This was however a cargo plane and no passengers, I think.
But if it could happen to this one, it could happen to another.

The question is: Was it human error? Or was it sabotage?

Where did the engine go? You're kidding right? How would you not notice an engine falling off the airplane you are flying? I'm no aeronautical engineer but my limited knowledge tells me that due to the lack of any areodynamic properties capiable of producing enough lift to fly the engine probably fell straight down. So... Where exactly was the plane flying when this happened? It's got to be around that vicinity in little bits scattered all over the ground. Or in the lake.


[edit on 21-10-2004 by tacitblue]

[edit on 22-12-2007 by sanctum]

The pilot had noticed that he was having some mechanical problems and until he turned to looks he didn't know the engine was missing. It's possible that the equipment on-board hadn't registered the missing engine for a while, so for all we know it could have fell off up to five minutes before realising it.

As for its descent, the plane (depending on height) could have been going anywhere from 200-550 mph, so the engine would not have dropped straight down. it would have had some sort of forward velocity which could have had it cover a huge distance. In saying that, the most likely place it could've gone is the lake, since i'm sure somebody would've noticed a whole (turbine?) engine dropping from the clouds!

In case of catastrophic engine-failure Boeing has mounted the engines with fuse-pins that makes the engine and pylon leave the wing instead of causing damage to the wing structure.

I guess it was one of the outboard engines (1 or 4) that fell off, as the inboard engines in most cases takes the outboard engine of the wing if it falls off.

Damn, my Wife has to fly from ST.louis to Denver for business in Febuary so I better not let her see this. Sounds like Illegal aliens are doing the mechanical work on the planes( cheap labor) and had some left over bolts in their pockets when they got home.

Thank God the plane landed safely or else it would have been labled a "terrorist sabatoge" attack.

I believe there's only 3 or 4 super hi-tensile bolts that actually keep these engines attached to the wings

Originally posted by Pilgrum
I believe there's only 3 or 4 super hi-tensile bolts that actually keep these engines attached to the wings

Yhea something like that - could even be 2 bolts for each engine can't remember. Funny thing is they are actually designed to break at a given stress! of course that stress is super super high, but designed that way they are (so as to try to protect the structure of the aircraft when one engine throws a wobbly). I can remember an episode of seconds from disaster where an inside engine (pretty sure it was a 747) detached when at full throttle, the engine raced forward firstly, then as the 747 caught up the engine took out the other one on that wing, talk about bad luck, with both engines and loads of wing gone the 747 went down - think it hit a block of flats in Amsterdam but don't quote me.

Originally posted by Now_ThenI can remember an episode of seconds from disaster where an inside engine (pretty sure it was a 747) detached when at full throttle, the engine raced forward firstly, then as the 747 caught up the engine took out the other one on that wing, talk about bad luck, with both engines and loads of wing gone the 747 went down - think it hit a block of flats in Amsterdam but don't quote me.

That was a EL AL B747-200 in 1992.

More details here:

www.corrosion-doctors.org...

news.bbc.co.uk...

This reminds me of a very ironic story I was told when I was in flight attendant training:
Apparently the McDonell Douglas (I'm pretty sure it was them) had an engine that malfunctioned from not being made right. It fell out soon after takeoff and landed....right on the McDonell Douglas factory!!!
No one was hurt, fortunately.

Great, it's not bad enough I hate flying. Now I have to worry about an engine falling out of the sky on my head!

Edit: here's a newer "engine falls off plane" story:

engine falls off in S. Africa





[edit on 12/22/2007 by DiabolusFireDragon]

Almost all of the recent ones were OLD aircraft that were probably flying past their retirement dates. When you fly do research into the airlines you're flying on. If you're flying short distances, you want to look for 737-600s or later. If you're going longer distances, you want either 747-400s, or 777s. For the 767s, you want -300s or -400s. These are just the Boeing planes, but if you want more information on what to look for, U2U me an email address, and I'll pass on the latest planes flying, that have good safety records. I'm not going to be around ATS much anymore, so I might not get a U2U for awhile, but if you pass on your request I'll do my best to help out through email.