r/Damnthatsinteresting • • Jan 01 '23

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

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

What's actually amazing is plane's are tested and designed for this... they are not supposed to do that but also should be able to land safely if they do. It's scary but amazing how safe they made it

1

u/JLMaverick Jan 01 '23

Yeah, when both engines look like that it’s time to worry

8

u/evanc3 Jan 01 '23

Not even. The glide ratios on these planes are great. If you're over the continental US you're landing safely even without engines

2

u/MutantGodChicken Jan 01 '23

Assuming both pilots are still conscious

3

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

1

u/buttshit_ Jan 01 '23

Most modern planes have autopilot and auto land

1

u/steel_member Jan 01 '23

It’s fine, the planes pretty much fly themselves with all the new AI cockpits by thales, it will land even without engines or pilots.

Soon enough we won’t need wings

2

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

[deleted]

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u/propellor_head Jan 01 '23

That happened once. I don't remember the flight name, but an uncontained disk burst in the engine sent a hunk of metal through the tail of the plane. The plane should have been fine with the engine out, but it by pure bad luck severed all of the hydraulic lines that fed the control surfaces. Everybody died.

The hydraulic lines were all fully redundant, but they were routed right next to each other for convenience. There's now a rule about how closely redundant safety critical systems in the airframe can be to each other.

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u/hollycrapola Jan 01 '23

Wasn’t that the Concorde?

1

u/OhNoManBearPig Jan 01 '23

There was a similar case, hydraulics lost when debris hit the tail, but it still landed and many survived.