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First saw this in the WSJ. An amazing shot. Note that the blades really are hollow inside (I guess to reduce weight). Thankfully nobody was harmed in this near miss. Landing that 777 with a sizable load of fuel onboard couldn’t have been easy,
I remember reading a newspaper write-up on the Boeing 777 in the spring of 1995 shortly before it entered service. Was revolutionary at the time because until than jumbo (twin aisle) jetliners had always had at least 3 engines, which provided more redundancy. The key to going to just 2 engines for extended over water flight was getting the engine reliability numbers high enough through testing to make it safe.
It’s been a good plane - though becoming outdated. I’ve been on one once - crossing over from London on an American flight couple years ago. Normally in this situation pilots would dump a substantial amount of fuel to get the landing weight down for a safe landing. In this case they apparently thought that too risky with the fire and possibly compromised airframe.
Unrelated: The 737 is somewhat unique in that it lacks fuel dump capability. I was on one that needed to return to the airport after takeoff once and what the pilots did was circle at low altitude over water for 20 minutes (increasing drag) to burn off a quantity of fuel & lower the weight before landing on the short runnway.
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And a shot of what's left of the engine:
Looks like the pilots earned their pay on that one.
It’s been a good plane - though becoming outdated. I’ve been on one once - crossing over from London on an American flight couple years ago. Normally in this situation pilots would dump a substantial amount of fuel to get the landing weight down for a safe landing. In this case they apparently thought that too risky with the fire and possibly compromised airframe.
Unrelated: The 737 is somewhat unique in that it lacks fuel dump capability. I was on one that needed to return to the airport after takeoff once and what the pilots did was circle at low altitude over water for 20 minutes (increasing drag) to burn off a quantity of fuel & lower the weight before landing on the short runnway.