Southwest Plane Drops Engine Cover

[sk9tingfan]

I haven't gotten on a plane since February of 2019 and given the most recent events with planes, I may never fly again. This concerned an engine cover of a Southwest Boeing 737-800 that fell off the plane engine during takeoff out of Denver.

Southwest Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Boeing Engine Cover Falls Off

The plane returned safely to Denver on Sunday after the crew reported that the cover came apart during takeoff and struck a wing flap. No injuries were reported.

www.nytimes.com

 

[allezfred]

How did I know it would be a Boeing before I opened the thread?

 

[Vash01]

Boeing is having a lot of problems.

 

[once_upon]

I just have to ignore the reports, as I am flying in 8 days. I just can't obsess over it now.

 

[Vash01]

Accidents do happen. Cant stop traveling. We don't stop driving because there was a car accident.

Now if it's like a space craft blowing up, I may have second thoughts.

 

[MacMadame]

I just have to ignore the reports, as I am flying in 8 days. I just can't obsess over it now.

It's still safer than driving.

I'd want to know what led to this. The 737-800 doesn't have the history that the 737 Max does. If it was a Southwest screw-up, I'd stop flying Southwest until there was evidence they had fixed the problem. If it was a design flaw, I'd avoid that plane type. If it was "just one of those things," I would forget about it.

 

[LilJen]

Sigh. It’s worth finding John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight piece on Boeing…

 

[ballettmaus]

This wasn't a new plane, so, Southwest is responsible for maintenance.
Boeing also doesn't manufacture the engines.

There certainly is a lot going wrong at Boeing, however, this is on Southwest and their maintenance crew.

ETA: @MacMadame https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...ut-southwest-engine-cover-problem-2024-04-08/

The Seattle Times reported in 2022, that dozens of similar accidents have happened in the past three decades on 737s and Airbus A320s but none resulted in injuries. The paper said almost every cowling incident had been traced to maintenance errors tied to a fan cowl door latching failure missed during preflight checks.

 

[Judy]

Imagine being the pilot

 

[MacMadame]

This wasn't a new plane, so, Southwest is responsible for maintenance.
Boeing also doesn't manufacture the engines.

There certainly is a lot going wrong at Boeing, however, this is on Southwest and their maintenance crew.

ETA: @MacMadame https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...ut-southwest-engine-cover-problem-2024-04-08/

It kind of sounds like a design flaw to me. Not a major one but if something continually isn't maintained properly over various airlines, there is probably something in the design that makes it easy to improperly maintain it.

 

[ballettmaus]

It kind of sounds like a design flaw to me. Not a major one but if something continually isn't maintained properly over various airlines, there is probably something in the design that makes it easy to improperly maintain it.

I agree. At the same time, I wonder if it's one of those things where they weighed the risk of a lack of proper maintenance vs accessibility for repairs. But I don't know nearly enough about airplanes to know if there's another way to keep the cover properly closed while also maintaining easy access for repairs. So, it's possible that it's also just cheaper to produce it that way, so airlines are accepting the risks of a lack of proper maintenance as it hasn't led to injuries so far.

Interestingly, there were changes made to the engine after the incident where engine debris landed in the Denver suburbs a few years ago. Makes me wonder why there aren't changes made for this particular part when it seems to be an incident that's occurring frequently (by air traffic standards). https://www.denver7.com/news/local-...light-328s-engine-to-break-up-over-broomfield