Recent Air Plane Engine Failures.

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I've never really made a thread before so I apologize if it is awful. I have noticed on the news recently that there seems to be a lot of engine failures in planes in the past few months. I had been a little anxious about flying home but told myself that those things happen to other people and would never happen to me. Last night a flight I was supposed to be on had to make an emergency landing due to engine failure. I'm not sure how to insert a link I've just pasted it here. I am feeling extremely anxious about flying and continuing my way home and I am wondering what other members think. Does it seem like a justifiable concern that there is something odd happening to plane's engines lately, or a mere coincidence that I was worrying about engine failure all day and then my flight's engine failed?

www.cbc.ca...

reply to post by blackmore23


Just a note OP. That little voice of warning or caution has saved my life more than once in ways I couldn't have known and could not have even guessed at, when I felt it. For whatever reason, I just left late on a load or took a different route when it wasn't the logical one to look at or just turned right when left might have worked just as well. One such case...I'll never forget because it was one of the worst accident scenes I've seen. I had a feeling so strong at a Texas truck stop...with no idea why? I actually called my wife to comment on it and hung out another 30 minutes or so before leaving.

An hour up the road, a Werner truck literally ran over and destroyed a Texas Department of Public Safety patrol car that pulled off the shoulder from something and directly into his path. It looked very fresh when I passed it ...like maybe within the last 30 minutes fresh. If you have a sense of something wrong? I wouldn't ignore it. Just my 2 cents.

reply to post by blackmore23


I wouldn't be super worried about it. Engine failures happen, but 99.9% of the time the crew reacts perfectly, the aircraft reacts perfectly, and everyone walks off it sitting on the ramp. It might not be where you were supposed to be, but you walk off the plane just fine. Even with the engine failures that have happened, the odds of the plane safely arriving on the ground are extremely good.

For a good example, look at the recent British Airways A319 out of London. Both engine cowlings ripped off, damaging the aircraft, and starting a fire on one engine. The aircraft circled around, came back and landed just fine (turned out the mechanics hadn't secured the cowling the night before after working on the engines).

reply to post by blackmore23


I started a thread once a few years ago about this same thing. Seems it really is more common than anyone realizes until you somehow tune into the frequency of aerial disaster, accidents and close calls.

I always worry about loved ones flying...

There should be more money funneled into the safety of aircraft and maintenance imho.

reply to post by blackmore23

No worries. Engine failures happen but rarely. And if they are reported, well maybe the MSM had a slow day and no nukes and nerve-gas was thrown around and nos school kids shot to bits and pieces, so they use a bit of an engine out scare to keep the ratings up. tell you a simple secret. As an ex commercial pilot I had only ONE goal on each flight. To land safe and sound. So I couldn't care less if the 90yo granny s**t her knickers or not, I wanted to survive. So with proper training and my own and all other pilots survival instinct and drive, the situation is not scare at all. Unlike the bus driver that simply pull to the curb and calls the tow-truck we cant park at the curb at 30,000ft. So for your piece of mind understand that WE pilots want to make it home for supper and family, so our selfp[reservation is what keeps you safe.

Originally posted by antar
There should be more money funneled into the safety of aircraft and maintenance imho.

If you look at the sheer number of flights as opposed to the number of accidents/incidents, the safety ratio is staggering. Over the US alone, in a single day there are as many as 84,000 flights, as many as 5,000 a minute at its peak. Of those, somewhere around 28,000 are commercial flights. Even taking the lower number of flights (28,000), and figuring the number of accidents that happen it's truly staggering.

In 2012, worldwide, there were 119 registered accidents, resulting in the deaths of 794 people on aircraft capable of carrying more than 6 passengers (not including helicopters, balloons, or combat aircraft). Of all of those, there were 23 fatal airline accidents, resulting in 475 fatalities on board, and 36 on the ground. Of those 23, only 11 were passenger aircraft.

Considering how many millions travel through Atlanta, and O'Hare alone every year, I'd say that's a pretty damn good record already.

The good news through all of this is that even if both engines shut down you'll probably still be just fine. Engines provide power for sustained flight, but even without them the airplane will still work. It has wings, controls, and guys steering it. It won't fly forever, but the people in charge of flight safety are aware of those limitations and have put regulations in place to ensure that aircraft will be able to land safely even if unbelievably unlikely circumstances create a problem.

Most commercial airliners are quite capable of flying safely with an engine out. Making an immediate landing is just an extra safety step. You are safer in a airliner than you are sitting at your computer composing this post.

Machines are only as good as the people that build and most importantly...MAINTAIN them There will always be a human factor regardless of how far the technologies advances Apart from defective manufacturing process and QA, the bottom line is people maintaining the technologies. I'm sure a big percentage is attributed to human errors. However considering the numbers posted by Zaphod58, its not too bad.

Personal experience six years flying on a 50-60 year old jet, I can only think of 4 times we had an engine go out. Still got three good ones on there. Our pilots practice one engine landings all the time. There really is not anything to worry about.

A good example is we had an engine flame out on take off roll after s1. It was one of the outboards so after flying to a safe altitude we actually shut dowm the other outboard engine and flew with the middle two. We then climbed to 10k feet to dump fuel cause we were too heavy to land.

I guess moral of the story is stuff happens. If its one of the relativity statistically few catastrophic accidents then the way I look at it is its my time to go.

There was a certain man named Charlie who was a pleasant fellow but not very bright. One day Charlie was on a flight from Toronto to Kansas City to visit his sister and her family. About Fifteen minutes into the flight, the captain announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, one of our engines has failed but there is nothing to be concerned about. We still have 3 engines left. However, our flight will now take about 1 hour longer than scheduled. We apologize for the inconvenience.

About thirty minutes later the captain announced, “I regret to report that one more of our engines has failed. There is still nothing to worry about as we have 2 engines left. However our arrival in Kansas City will now be delayed by about 2 hours.

Another hour passed when the captain announced, "This is quite unusual, but unfortunately one more engine has failed. Not to worry however. Believe it or not we are still able to fly successfully with just one engine. However our arrival in Kansas City will be delayed by about 3 hours. Just then Charlie turned to the man in the next seat and said, "Boy, if we lose one more engine, we'll be up here all day!"

Flying is not inherently safe but the last decade has been excellent....best not to fly......but it's record beats all other modes.....

And the mechanics......they're drunk.!....on night shift they're all drinking.....like fiths in their lockers....from a pilot...

That's why we shut Braniff down at DFW regional......new york union lack of common sense and morals ....and we shut 'em down hard.!