Calchas

Welcome to FlyerTalk njwalsh. Thanks for making your first contribution here today, as you are the first eye witness to this engine "incident" we have. :-)

Already looking forward to your future posts. ^

Jamier45

Should be a nice €600 for each pax, why can't I be on flights like these?

rapidex

Because you get offloaded to often^

Jamier45

That's only happened once, I also like to say I was 'offloaded' as I didn't even get on the damned thing!

Ancient Observer

Dear Mr Jamier,
thank you for your e-mail to us. We are sorry it has taken us so long to respond, as we wished to investigate your claim thoroughly, and we are currently very busy, although your e-mails are important to us..
Thank you for flying with BA.
We have carefully examined the events that you describe, and we have to reject your claim for Compensation.
The events that you describe were not within BA's control, they form an exceptional circumstance, so we are not liable for compensation.
I realise that this is not the reply that you wanted. However, you will understand that we treat all customers fairly. We are unable to make an exception in this case.
I look forward to you flying with BA again.

Yours B Goaway.

Ancient Observer

There is nothing wrong with 3 engine flights across the Pond. The CAA and EASA are quite clear about that. However, the FAA might have been grumpy again. They get grumpy with furriners.

tinkicker

Surges have lots of different possible causes and although they look and sound dramatic often don't do damage requiring an engine change, indeed they don't necessarily require the engine to be shut down in flight.

It wouldn't be unusual for the engineers to have a quick(ish) look inside the engine with a borescope (small camera on a flexible wand) and if everything is OK then off it goes again.

headingwest

Sounds frightening nevertheless.

Anyone know how much one of these engines cost?

tinkicker

The RB211-524 isn't a current production engine so we could look at scrap values: This older version of the RB211 on eBay went for $35,000 ... RB211

OK it's not quite the same... well not the same at all but that's one extreme.

If we look at a brand new Trent 900 that would power the A380 list price is in the region of $20 million ish for the engine, if you just want the engine. But many (most/ almost all) modern engines are acquired as a service package and stated values are typically in the region of $45 million over the contract life for Rolls Royce "Total Care".

Pickles

Yea, they happen all the time, nothing to see here.

Petrus

Let's not forget that most of us, even those flying a lot, will never experience an engine surge.
I am a very frequent flyer with a solid understanding of flight, airplanes and airmanship. Yet an engine surge would freak me out initially also, and then IF the failure was contained with no flames or smoke coming I'd probably figure out what had happened.

So saying "they happen all the time, nothing to see here" is quite the simplification, n'est pas?

Pickles

I guess the sarcasm didn't come through then. Engine surges aren't supposed to happen, as far as I know.

Petrus

Ah! ^

DYKWIA

And blame Indian outsourcing.

ahmetdouas

As far as the plane stability is concerned, this is a total non event in a 3 engine plane. Surge happens, engine shut off. That is probably why the passenger did not notice any change in altitude!

However seeing fire from a plane window can never be a pleasant experience!

So the issues here are psychological, not physical.