I just watched the movie "Sully", and I really enjoyed the effort put into making the movie as accurate as possible. As I'm working towards my PPL, I decided to apply some of my new aviation knowledge when watching the movie. I especially focused on the center MFD. I understood everything I saw, except for the Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) readings after the bird strike. I noticed that Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) and N2 fell, but EGT stayed in what looked like roughly the same position. I would have expected EGT to fall after the bird strike destroyed the engines, but it didn't. Is this normal? Did the flames seen coming out of the engines cover up a fall in EGT?
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3$\begingroup$ Normally, I wouldn't, but these looked really close to what I would have expected to see. Even if this is a mistake, the rest of the cockpit displays looked pretty good to me, which is pretty cool since a lot of movies tend to ignore those kinds of details. $\endgroup$– Curtis SchaffCommented Sep 10, 2016 at 14:47
1 Answer
No two bird strikes are the same when it comes to engine parameters, we can look at this incident.
Bird strike in both engines, yet only one showed above-normal EGT.
In a jet engine, the bypass air assists in cooling, damage will disrupt this air flow.
The core might still be running, or flammables (oil, fuel, etc.) might leak and catch fire.
In an engine fire, EGT-rise is one of the confirming factors.
However, according to the NTSB report for Sully's plane:
No in-flight or postaccident fire occurred.
So if it is just an engine failure, the engine will spool down.
Even if the damage prevented the windmilling, EGT should still drop. If the EGT sensors were damaged, an indication of EGT reading failure is to be expected.
Also the engine vibration indicator should show very high vibration after the bird strike.
(Source)