dweeb

AF 66 made an safe emergency landing in Goose Bay after an engine failure.

MSPeconomist

Is that yellowish thingy almost under the wing the failed engine?

How are they taking care of passengers? Any update on when you're likely to leave?

dweeb

Inflight photo of the front of the engine.

MSPeconomist

This would be catastrophic engine failure. If you took the photo, you were aware of it at the time. Was there a jolt or loud noise? Were passengers generally aware and/or panicking?

I assume the aircraft was too high at the time for this to be a bird strike.

dweeb

Yea, that was the engine. Airbus A380. I am not on the flight, but have a family member on it. They are still on the plane. No way to get off yet. Stairs don't reach. They haven't been told much on the aircraft. We will have to wait and see.

dweeb

I got a text saying that the engine had fallen off. If you look at the second photo, from where they were sitting, it does look like the engine is missing. It wasn't until they were on the ground that family member was able to confirm that the engine was still there. They said that it sounded and felt like a torpedeo hit the plane.

MSPeconomist

Is this the first A380 to do an emergency landing at Goose Bay? I'm surprised that they're not prepared for it with a set of appropriate stairs.

Maybe DL can send rescue flights from BOS to get passengers out of there quickly. There might even be a couple spare airplanes sitting around since this is Saturday.

ADDED: I assume normal JV protocol would be for DL mechanics to try to fix the aircraft, but DL doesn't have any A380s. Also, it looks like they need a new engine, which I guess would mean sending it in on a big cargo plane. The best option might be to fly it out without passengers to some major maintenance base if it can be flown with an engine gone.

Any information on how close they were to Goose Bay when this happened?

dweeb

If you look at this photo from the tail camera, it does look like the engine is missing.

MSPeconomist

What a cool photo! I'm surprised the pilots didn't turn off the cameras at the first sign of trouble.

smallmj

The NY Daily News says they were in the air about 2 hours after the engine blew out.

CosmicGirl

That's the front side. You can see the pylon connecting (what's left of) the engine to the wing.

There are a number of pictures and a video on Twitter. The inlet, the fan, and most of the cowling appear to be gone. There don't appear to be any signs of fire as far as I can tell based on the pictures and I think the yellow stuff might be hydraulic fluid.

dweeb

As per my family member, yes, thta is correct. From time of incident, to landing was about two hours.

dweeb

Opps,
Thank you for letting me know about the correct side of the engine. I updated the text to reflect that. They were really lucky that there was no fire, and no structual damage to the wing.

rfett2

Glad everyone is ok! Will AF ferry in another aircraft, or will they possibly have their North American partner Delta fly aircraft in?

CosmicGirl

Looking at ADS-B data it appears to have happened over Greenland at 13:49/50 UTC. You can see the altitude loss and airspeed fluctuations. Looks like they lost about 6,000ft in 10 minutes.