Originally Posted by
marklyon
I certainly hope that exploding engines and structural flaws aren't normal. But, I wonder, when will these things actually be delivered, if at all?
Very important that we're careful with our words here:
The failure of the Trent 1000 engine, which powers the Dreamliner, resulted in “limited debris being released into the test facility,”
[Snip]
The malfunction occurred on Aug. 2 and was a so-called uncontained failure
[Snip]
Uncontained failures are “extremely rare” while engines are in use on a commercial airliner, said Paul Hayes, safety director at U.K. aviation consultants Ascend Worldwide, with “one or two per year, if that.”
While Ascend doesn’t track failures on test beds, they’re likely to be more common than on the wing as engines are in an environment where they’re meant to be stressed, Hayes said. The nacelle casings which house the turbines are also often removed and these would help contain debris under normal circumstances.
Bolding Mine
We don't know the complete nature of the failure, but it sounds like a turbine blade from the core of the engine (not the front fan that everyone sees) broke off and damaged the engine core. This is not as uncommon as folks think and its rarely catastrophic, even on an airliner flying full of pax.
To characterize this as "Exploding engines" is a bit strong IMO.