Today a Longtail Aviation Boeing 747-400F suffered an inflight engine failure soon after take off; as a consequence, its turbine blades fell over the village of Meerssen in the Netherlands.
According to the AvHerald, the 30 year old aircraft, with registration VQ-BWT and performing flight LGT-5504 from Maastricht (Netherlands) to New York JFK (USA), was in its initial climb out of runway 21 when the trouble started; one of the right-hand engines had suffered severe damage (cause currently unknown) and began to distribute engine parts over Meerssen village.
A resident in Meerssen reported that he heard a loud bang, he then spotted the aircraft with streaks of flames coming from one of the right hand engines; metal then began raining from the sky. The next video shows black smoke coming from one of the right hand engines.
“Many people are shocked in Meerssen, because they saw the plane fly over with a burning engine.”
said fire service spokesperson to The Telegraaf
The aircraft stopped its climb at FL100 and then entered into a hold, to dump its fuel and divert to Liege, Belgium, before heading for a safe landing on runway 23L, about one hour after departure.
Meerssen village is located about one to two nautical miles past the runway end, several cars have been damaged and an elderly woman has sustained minor injuries. The Dutch Safety Board (OVV) has already started an investigation.
Clearly turbine blades. A separate and distinct issue than Denver.
Marc
The FAA AD is not for all PW400 engines; only for the ones with the 112inch fan, the 4094 series on the 777. These fan blades are hollow and require more frequent inspections. If it was all PW4000’s there would be a lot more aircraft affected! A300-600’s, A330’s, 767’s, 747-400’s, MD-11’s etc.
WHO IS THE ENGINE MAKER? FAA needs to put safety specs on HIGH BYPASS ENGINE DESIGN. It won’t of course.
1500 hours PST, 21 February 2021: The FAA has just issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive for all Pratt & Whitney 4000-series high-bypass turbofan engines (UAL328 was a United Airlines B777-200ER powered by two PW4090 engines; 6T5504 was a Longtail aviation B747-400F powered by four PW4056 engines). Early reports indicate that the FAA EAD requires immediate inspections of all PW40xx-powered engines on aircraft operated in U.S. airspace. The Japan Aviation Authority has just issued an Emergency Order grounding (and prohibiting) all PW-engined B777 operations in Japan, effective immediately. United Airlines has also just this hour GROUNDED all of its PW4090-powered B777 aircraft.
@Visionist – You should look into what ETOPS ratings are about. This aircraft technically could have flown the entire flight on one engine.
Hopefully the lady makes a full recovery.
This is why quads will always be better than twins.