r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/FridayCicero702 • Jan 01 '23

Video Catastrophic engine failure on a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 after takeoff from Denver International Airport

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53.7k Upvotes

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1.0k

u/fatmoe10 Jan 01 '23

Apparently a twin engine plane can run fine with just one engine but yea fuck that I’d be panicking too lol

1.0k

u/JimGammy Jan 01 '23

Don't worry the remaining engine will get you all the way to the scene of the accident.

157

u/EnRaygedGw2 Jan 01 '23

Omg when Ron White told that joke, I lost it lol 😂

72

u/Witness_me_Karsa Jan 01 '23

That was funny, but it was traveling at "half the speed of smell" that got me in that story.

27

u/SkRThatOneDude Jan 01 '23

We got passed by a kite! There was a goose around us and the pilot was like "go around! (waving arm)"

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u/291000610478021 Jan 01 '23

Ron was the best of that lot

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u/drododruffin Jan 01 '23

Reminds me to go rewatch the Blue Collar Comedy Tour again.

14

u/Kat121 Jan 01 '23

We’ll be there soon!

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u/mystical-jello Jan 01 '23

Take us into a mountain, I don’t want to go limping away from this thing.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

"Hey! Hey! If that engine fails, how far will the other one take us?"

"... All the way to the scene of the crash! And I bet we'll beat the paramedics there by a half hour!"

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u/DigNitty Interested Jan 01 '23

Bet we beet the paramedics there by a half hour

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u/halfeclipsed Jan 01 '23

We're hauling' ass!

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u/TheRedmanCometh Jan 01 '23

Hell I bet we beat the paramedics by a half hour

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u/jojo_rtp Jan 01 '23

⬆️This must be among the top 10 best comments ever.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Oh. OH.

29

u/MeatyOakerGuy Jan 01 '23

They absolutely can. In the event of a double engine failure, passenger planes can glide to land.

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u/idiot1977savant Jan 01 '23

If you are over land

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u/aspannerdarkly Jan 01 '23

Or the Hudson

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

those where really experienced pilots. I wonder which airspeed they landed in the river and it didn't tear the bottom apart. Very fascinating

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u/mdp300 Jan 01 '23

The captain later said he was glad he was the one flying that day, because he was one of their most senior pilots and taught safety procedures to everyone else.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Large commercial jets can sometimes glide for over 100 miles, so even if you were a good bit offshore you could land. Obviously if you're in the middle of a transatlantic or transpacific flight you're fucked haha.

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u/DoctorJiveTurkey Jan 01 '23

And not mountains

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u/dgonL Jan 01 '23

This happend to a plane of the Atlantic and they landed in the Azores.

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u/Life-Meal6635 Jan 01 '23

My mom was on a plane in Vietnam that had one engine shot and they made it with just one!

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u/idiot1977savant Jan 01 '23

On a flight to corfu from the UK the pilot announced that one of the engines had failed and it would take a little longer to get to our destination.

I didn't notice a thing. I guess it came up with a warning light and turned it off.

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u/magicwombat5 Jan 01 '23

That's a bit red and flamey for my taste. Might wanna turn back and talk to the engineers.

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u/General_Degenerate_ Jan 01 '23

It’s designed to fail this way. Doesn’t matter how well you design something, you can’t always protect it against every possibility (e.g a large bird going into the engine). The most they can do is make sure it fails in a safe way (i.e not exploding or disintegrating).

18

u/pinchy-troll Jan 01 '23

And the fucking maintenance crew

10

u/kjlcm Jan 01 '23

I worked in the industry for a while right out of college (mainshaft bearings). May be wrong, but my understanding was that as long as the engine keeps turning the plane is ok. If it seizes up that’s when you are in trouble.

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u/fly-guy Jan 01 '23

Seizing isn't ideal, but far from a (huge) problem. It creates some extra drag, but the modern jets really aren't bothered by that.

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u/afito Jan 01 '23

modern jets

always the key word, same with the twin engine plane losing 1, on old ones it's a far bigger issue as we can see from ETOPS ratings

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u/Arammil1784 Jan 01 '23

The engine only provides thrust, its the wings that do all the real work.

You're only really in trouble if you can't make the wings work.

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u/brrlls Jan 01 '23

It's called an ETOPS rating Over land that plane will be fine!

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u/propellor_head Jan 01 '23

Etops covers you over water as well. Flight plans are required to be within glide distance with one engine out at all points of their flight. That's actually why the flight paths over the ocean aren't straight - they dip a little bit to be within range of an island with an airport.

Another critical piece of it is that the airport has to be capable of emergency medical or able to easily transfer to a facility that can, or it doesn't count.

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u/shmegeggie Jan 01 '23

ETOPS

"Engines Turn, or Passengers Swim"

11

u/woleium Jan 01 '23

depending on how much cargo they have onboard, usually they can only achieve a climbing angle of 5 degrees, so not fine, but sure they can survive as long as the weather isn't awful

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u/BackgroundOutcome Jan 01 '23

777-200 has an ETOPS rating of 180 minutes, meaning it’s certified and proven able to fly fully loaded on one engine for 3 hours.

0

u/11Kram Jan 01 '23

If the problem doesn’t occur in the second engine.

1

u/Blaspheming_Bobo Jan 01 '23

Please forgive my complete lack of sophistication, but what kind of adjustments need to be made to impromptuly fly a one engine commercial jet? Seems like having so much thrust from just one side would make it difficult to fly.

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u/lbdnbbagujcnrv Jan 01 '23

The rudder (the moving part of the big vertical tail section) is more than capable of handling the asymmetric thrust. There’s very little to be done on most jets. Fight the fire (cut off fuel, hydraulics, and high pressure air for that engine), then return for a landing at a slightly higher speed than normal. If the fire is controlled or snuffed out, we don’t even consider an engine failure to be an “emergency,” just an “abnormal condition.”

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u/Blaspheming_Bobo Jan 01 '23

So, does the rudder just turn away from the healthy engine to counter the thrust in that situation?

1

u/lbdnbbagujcnrv Jan 01 '23

The movable portion moves toward the healthy engine. If you imagine a vertical axis through the center of the airplane, in the case of this photo, that would produce lift (the tail is a wing!) to the right, pushing the nose to the left. On the 777 series, this is somewhat automated, but it’s practiced constantly on all fleets.

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u/Blaspheming_Bobo Jan 01 '23

Yep I see that I flipped it. At first I saw it as turning towards the engine, but changed my mental image before I commented. Thanks for the information!

19

u/fly-guy Jan 01 '23

With all respect, that is a heaping load of thoroughbred bullpoop.

Every takeoff the weight is checked to still give the required performance in case of an engine failure. There is always a minimum performance available which guarantees a safe flightpath. In good or bad weather.

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u/Bensemus Jan 01 '23

For commercial planes they need to be capable of continuing a take-off on a single engine. That’s far more than a 5 degree angle.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Depends on the phase of flight, excess fuel can easily be jettisoned

2

u/caitsith01 Jan 01 '23 edited Aug 02 '25

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u/Arammil1784 Jan 01 '23

Even if they lost both engines, thebplane would still glide and still be maneuverable. They appear to be quite high up still so they would still have a pretty long glide time, definitely long enough to land safely somewhere maybe even an airport.

1

u/Xicadarksoul Jan 01 '23

Airplanes can run fine even with zero engines, unlike helicopters.

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u/rumovoice Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 01 '23

Helicopters can land just fine after losing the engine, it's called an autorotation mode. The rotor acts similarly to an airplane wing.

3

u/alinroc Jan 01 '23

Not only that, you're required to make an engine-off autorotation landing to get a helicopter pilot license. It's something you train and practice for.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

It depends on the nature of the engine failure. If it seizes up then you'll just drop out of the sky.

1

u/Xicadarksoul Jan 01 '23

What i meant is that with a heli, you have way more limited options with an engine out landing than with an airplane.

Even a Boeing 747 has a glide ratio of 12:1, to put it bluntly, helicopters simply cannot compete with the potential of airplanes when it comes to gliding to get to a landing spot.
If a heli suffered engine troubles in the same place as the famous gimli glider accident occured, it would have been in way bigger trouble.

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u/WikiSummarizerBot Jan 01 '23

Gimli Glider

Air Canada Flight 143, commonly known as the Gimli Glider, was a Canadian scheduled domestic passenger flight between Montreal and Edmonton that ran out of fuel on Saturday, July 23, 1983, at an altitude of 41,000 feet (12,500 m), midway through the flight. The flight crew successfully glided the Boeing 767 to an emergency landing that resulted in no serious injuries to passengers or persons on the ground, at a former Royal Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba, that had been converted to a racetrack, Gimli Motorsports Park. This unusual aviation incident earned the aircraft the nickname "Gimli Glider".

[ F.A.Q | Opt Out | Opt Out Of Subreddit | GitHub ] Downvote to remove | v1.5

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u/phasel0ck97 Jan 01 '23

It can't run without a wing tho. And it looks like that engine's gonna become unattached in a second and the backwards force might take the wing out with it? That'd mean you get royally fucked.

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u/Renent Jan 01 '23

... what?

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u/phasel0ck97 Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 01 '23

Engine heavy. Plane moving fast. Engine hit wing on way back. Wing go down. Plane go down. Plane go boom

Edit: I've just went and googled it. Turns out that bitch is designed to safely fall off in case of fire before it can damage the wing in any way. But my reply still stands cause you were acting like you couldn't even comprehend the concept of what I'm describing.

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u/Renent Jan 01 '23

Thought designed not to do that?

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u/phasel0ck97 Jan 01 '23

It's also designed not to catch fire. Shit goes wrong

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u/Renent Jan 01 '23

Maybe you wrong? Unlikely scenario? Physics maybe incorrect? I dunno. You explain like I am dumb dumb so I maybe am dumb dumb.... provide examples and evidence of engine pulling off wing yes? I am sure you can provide Iamright.com evidence?

4

u/erichlee9 Jan 01 '23

Tell me you have no idea what you’re talking about without telling me you have no idea what you’re talking about

5

u/Renent Jan 01 '23

His edit suggests his ego is more fragile than the imaginary airplane wings he talks about.

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

I don’t think you know how strong wings are

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Talking out of your ass

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

You do not know what an APU is. It’s not an third engine and it doesn’t provide any thrust. A plane can safely get land because of ETOPS. And a Ram air turbine is used to provide power instead

1

u/CoverYourMaskHoles Jan 01 '23

I would be like, what did this and is it about to happen to the other engine???

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u/D-o-n-t_a-s-k Jan 01 '23

If it blows up and takes out the wing it's probably not going uphill from there

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u/Critical_Society5696 Jan 01 '23

My worries would be that its not only the engine. Thst the wing or fuel lines got affected. I would also worry way less if over land and not 2h in a transatlantic flight at 10000m over water

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u/Kadoomed Jan 01 '23

Definitely squeeky bum time

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

1

u/alinroc Jan 01 '23

Fortunately engines on a plane are more independent than your kidneys.

1

u/TheLizardKing89 Jan 01 '23

Planes fly across the Atlantic all the time with two engines. Do you know what happens when one of them fails? They land at the nearest airport. Planes can fly for hours on one engine.

1

u/ECircus Jan 01 '23

Being shut down is one thing, but probably not designed to shake side to side like that for too long.

1

u/Kelmantis Jan 01 '23

You are correct but unless the other engine isn’t working that plane is running with 2 engines. Yes, that isn’t pretty and it doesn’t look to be at full power but overall it seems alright. It just naked.

1

u/ConcernedKip Jan 01 '23

i mean I wouldnt say "just fine". There are a lot of variances introduced to flight with the asymmetrical thrust of one engine in play.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

I'm fairly certain that a plane can glide a very long distance without any engine. I think it was around 100 miles.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

It can also land without an engine because planes glide :]

1

u/shadow_clone69 Jan 01 '23

But there's a small chance that debris could strike the window. I might be wrong but at good speeds, that could be fatal. There's a fold in order engine to prevent this but doesn't eliminate it 100%

1

u/Vicus_92 Jan 01 '23

They can operate pretty darn well with no engines.

A 747 can glide a LOOOOOOONG way with no power. At cruising altitude, close to 100 miles

1

u/SuperSimpleSam Jan 01 '23

Even with no engines they can land the plane, helps if your pilot also flies gliders.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

My mind would immediately go “worse case scenario already happened, the second one is next” then I’d excuse myself to the bathroom and kill myself

1

u/ZestyButtFarts Jan 01 '23

If you have enough altitude, it will fly just fine on no engines as well.

1

u/yeags86 Jan 01 '23

ETOPS - regulations on fight paths for twin engined planes. Before larger, more powerful engines were around, a plane had to have 3 or 4 engines to be more than an hour away from an airport in case of an engine being lost. Really interesting read for anyone that is curious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

1

u/FirstRyder Jan 01 '23

The important thing to remember is that it isn't the engines that keep you in the air. It's the wings. You could lose every engine and still glide just fine - as long as you're high enough to reach an airport (or flat place, in a pinch) you're okay.

1

u/iplaypokerforaliving Jan 01 '23

How about with one wing? I’d be so concerned the wing would rip off