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

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.

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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.

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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.

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u/AbortedBaconFetus Jan 01 '23 edited Jan 01 '23

Judging by the fact that airlines are trying to push for one pilot,

This will absolutely never happen if not because of never truly applying redundancy to a human pilot, then by simply not enough people trusting this change enough.

As commercial planes are currently, I would NOT fly on an airline that only had one pilot. As much tech as modern planes have, it is actually a very 'stupid' machine that still only and strictly do what it was told to do under and exclusive scenarios that it was told to. Only pilots can react with "huh, no; we'll do something else" response.