Probably a dumb question, but why don't the pilots cut the fuel to the right engine after they know it's on fire?
I’m almost certain they did. You might be seen the runoff in the lines?
United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
91–100 of 483 posts
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#92"the right hand engine's (PW4077) inlet separated associated with the failure of the engine." This description is rather nonchalant but how can this possibly happen!? May this be related to the age of the aircraft? "Ground observers reported hearing the sound of an explosion like bang, smoke and saw the debris falling down." I mean, an engine about to explode sounds like the kind of thing that a routine pre-flight in…
Lots of passenger planes have been flightless for months as a result of travel restrictions.
It would be interesting to see how long this particular bird has been sitting on the ground.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#93Probably a dumb question, but why don't the pilots cut the fuel to the right engine after they know it's on fire?
There are long checklists for handling uncommon scenarios like this. I would expect that was one of many items on the list, but I'm not familiar with the checklists. It is possible that the explosion disabled the fuel controls.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a European who tuned in to US News for the US election I thought that was crazy. I'd watch a few of the right media orgs to see what they were saying and then stay on CNN/MSNBC etc for most of it. It's mad how so much of it every hour was essentially people just regurgitating stuff to fill the time. I mean OK what's happening is important but if you can't fill the airtime why not shift to other news (as in everyth…
The PBS News Hour is pretty solid, https://www.youtube.com/user/PBSNewsHour The weekly videos from Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus on Bloggingheads Tv is pretty good too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeamuoYuBeRnRRbmq5CmjVg
PBS news hour is a total of 6 hours per week (weekend shows are 30 minutes each). In those 6 hours, they cover more than any one of the 24 hour news networks. You're killing your mind watching 24 hour news networks, any of them.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#95I worked at a Large Internet Infrastructure Company for a long time, and saw software development practices that made my hair curl. All I could think was, "Gee, I'm glad we're not working on aviation software!" Seriously, though: software "engineering" could actually earn the name, if we had rigorous professional standards, regulatory oversight, and product liability.
General software requirements can change drastically in a short period. Heck one of our clients requested major parts of our solution to be rebuilt for the third time within 6 months to accommodate the whims of their new leadership. You don't see that happening with aviation software where requirements are set in stone.
So raise the price of the software so that you can afford more/better software engineers, to produce a more robust and flexible project. Then it'll be aerospace quality, aerospace costs.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#96Probably a dumb question, but why don't the pilots cut the fuel to the right engine after they know it's on fire?
They do, but there may be residual gas or punctures that cause a gas leak. That's why each side of the plane has its own fuel tanks as well.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a European who tuned in to US News for the US election I thought that was crazy. I'd watch a few of the right media orgs to see what they were saying and then stay on CNN/MSNBC etc for most of it. It's mad how so much of it every hour was essentially people just regurgitating stuff to fill the time. I mean OK what's happening is important but if you can't fill the airtime why not shift to other news (as in everyth…
I tried to do that, but even MSNBC these days seems to have fallen to hyperpartisan agitprop. I check nyt and cnn (both with a large grain of salt) periodically (~1x per week, for 5-10 minutes?) but unfortunately neither of those are quite as reliable as one would hope.
Reliable by what metric?
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#98You can hear the air/ground communications for this flight here via LiveATC.net. The pilots declare an emergency and then a mayday call beginning at 1:15 of the audio. https://forums.liveatc.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1...
You can hear the fire alert going off before the mayday. The fact that they requested a left turn at first it meant the controller knew the right engine was out and they'd need left turns to come in. Always find the level of training impressive and I'm glad they made it back safely. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
I don't follow how the right engine being out means left turns. Seems like you'd have extra thrust on the left side and you'd want to make right turns. They wanted to keep the right engine high? I'm not sure what I missed.
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
The straightforward captions are also delightful: > The aircraft seen in flight > The engine inlet in a garden > Engine debris on the Broomfield soccer field
It would be amusing if it turned out to be machine vision transcriptions.
"We are unable to determine if this is a puppy or a blueberry muffin"
Re: United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you account for oceans?
By having airports on islands, or by pushing up the number of minutes that the engines/operator are certified for.
For transatlantic flights, two important "backups" are in Iceland and in the Azores. I wonder how often airplanes actually have to detour to these airports...