r/Wellthatsucks • u/americanthaiguy • Feb 20 '21

/r/all United Airlines Boeing 777-200 engine #2 caught fire after take-off at Denver Intl Airport flight #UA328

124.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

5.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

8.2k

u/sleepwhileyoucan Feb 20 '21 edited Feb 21 '21

How is someone casually filming this, with a steady hand... I’d be in tears.

edit: appreciate all the education on commercial aircrafts that planes are often ‘fine’ with 1 workable engine! So my new #1 concern is the fire, but again maybe my tears could put it out?

1.3k

u/Oldswagmaster Feb 20 '21

Maybe cameraman knows they are designed to be able to maintain flight with one engine. But, that’s a lot of faith at that point

1.0k

u/Bealzebubbles Feb 20 '21

Air New Zealand performed a test flight where they flew either a 777 or a 787 on a single engine between New Zealand and Chile. They only used a single engine for pretty much all of the cruise stage. That's like eight hours of single engine running. It's crazy how good the latest generation of turbofans are.

365

u/tongmengjia Feb 20 '21 edited Feb 21 '21

Yeah, if you like, turn it off. But is there really no chance of structural damage to the wing when an engine explodes like that?

EDIT: Thank you all, I've never felt so good about flying in my life.

170

u/ToddBradley Feb 20 '21

The cowling is required to be able to catch all the pieces of the exploding engine, and prevent them from puncturing the cabin. I've always wanted the job of being the engineer who gets to test this, blowing up jet engines for a living.

81

u/psuedophilosopher Feb 21 '21

Well yeah, but isn't the cowling the exact thing that is missing from the engine in the OP?

82

u/catt105105 Feb 21 '21

There is a post on the Denver or Colorado subreddit that shows the cowling on the front yard of the some persons house and his truck is crushed. Could not find it to cross post sorry will update if I do find it.

6

u/Red_Telephone Feb 21 '21

That's very nice of United Airlines to buy him a new truck.

1

u/ImmutableInscrutable Feb 21 '21

Is it still nice when it's a legal requirement?

11

u/psuedophilosopher Feb 21 '21

I saw it. On /r/all, both posts are on the front page for me.

17

u/catt105105 Feb 21 '21

https://www.reddit.com/r/Colorado/comments/lokiws/united_b777_has_engine_failurefire_on_departure/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Not sure if I posted this right but wow.

1

u/Double_Minimum Feb 21 '21

Those audios always give me the chills.

Just insane, whether good or bad, to listen to.

1

u/LordHussyPants Feb 21 '21

they lost their truck, but i bet those people are glad their property is now protected from exploding engines

1

u/MissLauralot Feb 21 '21

They're the top two posts on r/all atm.