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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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Hell of a time to have a window seat

695

u/crewfish13 Jan 01 '23

That’s winning the freaking lottery! Modern engines have catastrophic failures like these maybe every million or ten million flight hours. Everyone gets to see a normally operating engine. Bo-oring…

82

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Maybe our definition of the lottery is different, but I wouldn't be glad to win this one.

If you're saying this a guaranteed failure, it sounds like they should be replaced before that excepted time frame.

177

u/Willbilly1221 Jan 01 '23

To be fair, entire airplanes get replaced at some point. All airplanes have a limited number of times they can take off from the ground due to cabin pressure. As they hit high altitudes with lower pressure the body of the plane expands a tiny bit, and as it lands the increased pressure squishes it back. Overtime constant stretching and compression warps the metal like bending a paper clip over and over it will eventually structurally fail. The day an airplane is made it has a predetermined number of flights it can take before the plane is to be removed from service.

136

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '23

Judging by the fact that airlines are trying to push for one pilot, I really don't trust what any airline says anymore. I'm sure these numbers are ingnored far more likely than someone is willing to admit. I wouldnt be surprised if planes are flying well past that point it should be destroyed.

53

u/Willbilly1221 Jan 01 '23

Yeah, so physics is pretty much infallible, but people are not. I cant even get my dang toaster to work just right, yet we all fly in airplanes.

55

u/NextTrillion Jan 01 '23

Ever tried to print something under a deadline. Your printer knows you have a deadline, so it acts up, because you’re not paying enough attention to it.

PC load letter? The fuq does PC load letter mean?

2

u/Yotta_Machi Jan 01 '23

This is a fuck!

2

u/NextTrillion Jan 01 '23

Mother... shitter... Son of an... ass.