Questions tagged [engine-failure]
An engine failure occurs when one or more engines on an aircraft stop functioning normally. This is often assumed to mean a complete loss of power from the engine, but partial power loss and excess power are also engine failures.
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How miraculous was the miracle on the Hudson?
The "miracle on the Hudson" was extremely unusual - dual engine failures and successful off-field landings in commercial A320-size aircraft are very rare. The event has been dramatized and the crew (...
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Can the Airbus A380 safely fly with two engines out on the same wing?
I know twin-engine jets can safely take off and fly with one engine out (i.e. all thrust only on one side). Of course quad-engine jets are also able to fly safely in case one engine is out.
But is ...
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What is a "runaway supercharger"?
During World War 2, my uncle was a navigator for a B-17G bomber based in the UK. On return from a bombing run over Frankfurt, the crew was forced to bail out over Belgium at 3000 feet altitude. My ...
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Can the A380 ferry an extra engine, like the 747?
A useful little quirk about the 747 is that it can ferry a fifth engine on the wing, for when another aircraft is stranded somewhere in the world.
Does the A380 have the same capability? If not, how ...
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Is it even remotely feasible to turnback a single engine aircraft with an engine failure?
Note before reading further that I'm asking this question purely on theoretical grounds, though you are more than welcome to talk about practical aspects as well.
Now, my question. It's common ...
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Have there been any incidents caused by an inability to shut down an engine?
I read many items on the avherald.com site where it says "engine shut down during flight" or words to similar effect.
I'm wondering if there are any instances where an engine could not be shut down ...
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Why not just drop an engine on fire?
I am interested in the case of Qantas Flight 32 and similar incidents, where there was a fuel leak after a number two engine explosion due to the disintegration of the turbine disc. It was a very ...
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Can fighter aircraft glide?
In case of engine failure, do the fighter jets have such a stable airframe so that they can glide their way through to the nearest landing strip (As it happened in the case of Gimli glider)?
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Why should you not turn in the direction of an inoperative engine?
In two-engine aircraft with wing-mounted engines when one engine quits the aircraft will have a natural tendency to turn to the dead engine. So if you need to turn, it seems logical it should be ...
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Does a jet engine keep running when it can no longer be controlled from the cockpit?
On the Qantas Flight 32 incident, the Airbus A380's number two engine encountered an uncontained rotor failure and partially damaged the controls of number one engine as well.
According to Wikipedia, ...
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Why are all engines identical in typical commercial airplanes?
I come from the IT world where redundancy is in place to cover several cases, among other:
a statistical failure of a device (so we use more of them expecting that the event is independent)
a rogue ...
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In an engine failure, should I expect less range than with the engine in idle?
I fly a C172 (fix pitch propeller) and when my instructor and I practice a simulated engine failure, we do not turn off the engine, instead we set the engine to idle.
In an actual engine failure, ...
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What is a Vmc roll?
Many aviation discussions of the TransAsia GE235 accident include comments like "that was a Vmc roll". What is a Vmc roll and how should you avoid it and/or recover from it?
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Why do uncontained engine failures still occur?
One of the absolute requirements of an aircraft turbine engine (usually some sort of turbofan or turboprop) installation is that, in the event of a destructive failure of the engine, the engine ...
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Does a windmilling propeller create more drag than a stopped propeller in an engine out scenario?
For this question lets assume that we are talking about a fixed pitch propeller and not a variable pitch propeller. I do understand that variable pitch props should be feathered during an engine ...
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Are modern aircraft provided with analog consoles in case of a software failure?
I am curious about the redundancy they provide in modern era commercial aircraft.
Here are the questions:
If an aircraft suffers partial or complete software malfunction, do the pilots have the ...
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Does windmill restart often work for airliner engines?
There seems to be a certain class of airline accident where an airliner engine flames out followed by further unfortunate events. Very often, pilots are recorded as having attempted to restart a ...
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Do commercial flights continue with an engine out?
Do commercial flights continue with an engine failure? If you look closely at the attached picture it seems that one of the engines has a much smaller contrail than the other three. This seems to ...
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Can an aircraft continue flying and land safely following an engine failure?
Is it possible that an aircraft could continue to fly and then land safely on a single engine if another stopped working?
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How controllable is the 737 in single-engine manual-reversion flight? Is it controllably landable (or go-around-able) in this condition?
The 737 is practically the only civilian jetliner still in production1 to have provisions for flight-control manual reversion; in the event of a total failure of the A and B hydraulic systems, the 737’...
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Is there any legitimate reason for adding momentary power when descending at idle with full carburettor heat on?
Scenario: While demonstrating a simulated engine failure emergency landing a flight instructor puts on carburettor heat and reduces the throttle to idle of a small single engine Cessna. After a couple ...
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Can the APU provide emergency thrust?
By David Monniaux (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.0 fr], via Wikimedia Commons
Many larger airplanes have gas turbine APUs (auxiliary power units). It seems that their exhaust is ...
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What happens if an engine fails between V1 and V2?
What happens if an engine fails between V1 and V2 on a modern twin airliner?
As I understand it, at V1 you have enough runway remaining to safely stop and abort the takeoff. V2 is the lowest single ...
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Why do jet engines sometimes spit out flames after ingesting birds?
After seeing this video of a 757's engine catching fire because of a bird,
I wonder:
What happens to the engine?
Why does it periodically exhaust fire?
Is this some safety feature?
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In which direction should a turn-back be made after an engine failure on a multi engined airplane after take off?
In case one of the engines fails after taking off (let's suppose the left engine is the one that fails), which direction should we turn to go back to the airport? A left or a right traffic pattern?
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How fast does cabin air pressure leak after a total engine failure?
When an airliner loses all engines while at cruising altitude, two things happen:
The plane is a glider. It will descend no matter if you want to or not.
The cabin pressure is no longer maintained. ...
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Would in flight engine failure of the passenger jet be reported?
A passenger plane with two or more engines would probably land without big difficulties with one engine inoperative.
Would the passengers be notified, asking to take the brace position during ...
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Why isn't there a procedure for dual-engine failure in twin-engine airplanes?
I'm licensed to fly multi-engine aircraft. I currently fly the DA-42NG.
However, nowhere in my training and in the official POH was I introduced to procedures for handing a dual-engine failure in-...
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Does an A320 revert to Direct Law if both engines flame out?
In the case of a flame-out in both engines on the two-engine A320, does the aircraft revert to Direct law or does it maintain Normal Law?
An example is US Airways 1549 (the landing on the Hudson).
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How do engine manufacturers minimize damage from bird strikes?
What are the ways that engine manufacturers currently minimize the damage caused to engines in a bird strike?
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Could an airliner with only one functioning engine recover from a stall?
If a modern commercial airplane such as a Boeing 787 would stall with only one functioning engine, is it possible for the pilots to right it or would it require two functioning engines?
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Are jet engines designed in a way to make an explosion result in the least damage possible?
I know most engines are super reliable today, but do manufacturers do anything to at least make an explosion result in the least damage possible?
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Cessna 208B Caravan various emergencies
looking for help from some experienced Caravan pilots.
So for the 208B Caravan we have our emergency checklist,
which for engine failure tells us to power idle prop feather and fuel lever to idle and ...
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How does an engine failure affect the flight of an airplane?
I'm not even close to an aviation enthusiast, but after watching some videos I found I have a deep misunderstanding on how airplanes work.
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I've seen many cases where one of the engines fail and ...
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Have there ever been any accidents within holding stacks?
At a busy airport, up to a dozen aircraft waiting to land may fly the same holding pattern at the same time, separated vertically by 1,000ft. — a stack. Some ATC towers have dedicated Stack ...
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How does the weight affect the altitude that can be reached by trading speed after a total engine failure?
I recently read in the manual for The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II (a turboprop aircraft) about engine failure during flight at different altitudes and the gains from pitching up after the engine failure ...
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How can the pilot tell the center engine failed on a piston aircraft with three engines?
There are a few aircraft, such as the Britten-Norman Trislander, that use three piston engines -- one on each wing and one mounted along the centerline somewhere.
This is fine and good, but how do ...
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Can a tiltrotor fly safely with one engine?
I am curious about tilt-rotor feasibility (such as AW609) against fixed-wing and rotor-blade aircraft (conventional helicopters).
One important issue that immediately arises in my mind is that both ...
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How can a passenger tell if a flame-out / engine failure has occurred?
Reading this page, a retired American Airlines pilot quotes:
We tell passengers what they need to know. We don’t tell them things that are going to scare the pants off them. So you’ll never hear me ...
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What is the minimum altitude needed to return to the takeoff airport in a 737 after dual engine failure?
Last week, I had my first lesson in a 737 sim. The instructor, when talking about risks with flying the 737, said the only time it would be "game over", would be if you had a double engine ...
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Can an airplane engine fire be extinguished without shutting down the engine?
Airplane engines catch fire from time to time (and are falsely reported as being on fire even more often). In a modern airliner, the "fire handle" shuts down the engine, closes the fuel pipe, and ...
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Do airline SOP normally recommend an in-flight engine restart in the case of an unexplained shutdown?
You're flying along at cruise in say a 737 or similar twin-engined yet. Suddenly, one of your engines shut down for no apparent reason. (or no abnormal indications such as low oil or similar)
Do you:
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Is a single engine failure on the HondaJet recoverable?
Is it possible to recover from a single engine failure at cruising altitude on the HondaJet and safely land the aircraft?
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What Caused the Engine-Failure of Southwest Airlines Flight WN-3472?
What caused the damage on Southwest Airlines Flight WN-3472?
The inlet section of the engine is missing but the fan and nose-cone are still visible.
Pictures taken during flight even seem to show ...
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Why is there a maximum altitude to restart a jet engine?
On all the turbojets that I have flown the maximum altitude a pilot can attempt a restart is 30,000 FT MSL. What factors go in to deciding what the maximum altitude is for an engine restart / relight?...
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Single engine failure in a light twin after lift-off: what to do?
In a previous question the case about if a turnback would be feasible, specifically for a single engine aircraft, has been analysed.
But given a twin-engine general aviation aircraft and a single ...
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What are the reliability statistics for modern jet engines?
What is the actual numerical reliability statistics of the modern, large-aircraft, commercial turbofan engines available today?
e.g. How many running hours can we expect a failure after? Are there ...
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Why do Audio Engine Fail Alarms not state which engine has failed?
When an engine fails on e.g. a 737, an alarm sounds to indicate an engine fire (but not failure). Why however, is there no verbal alarm stating which engine has failed, in the same way that "...
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Will the landing gear work mechanically in case of total power loss?
In case of a total power failure in all the aircraft systems like engine failure and APU failure, would it be possible to use mechanical means (manually) to open the landing gear bay door and deploy ...
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What keeps an aircraft engine from flaming out at high altitude?
High altitude atmosphere has lower oxygen level. How do aircraft, especially the military ones, prevent engine flameout?
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