oops - open engine latch on transcon flight
 

I thought folks would enjoy this photo - CO 1703 on Monday, Jan 23 - we flew from EWR to SFO with a port-side engine latch open.


http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/...0_06/latch.jpg

I assume this is why God invented redundancy. Multiple latches, yes?

Ha - as a traveler, I really wanted to get to SFO and not make a landing in the middle of the country to close it. As an engineer, I observed multiple latches, no vibrations, and figured if this was all it took to bring down a 737-700, we'd have known about it by now.

I figured I'd ding my call button if things degenerated :) And we landed without incident.

"There's an engineer on the wing."

As a traveler, if I noticed something out of the ordinary like that, I would have told the FA to tell the pilot. And then let the pilot decide how important it is, because I'm not an aeronautical engineer.

Because I'd rather make a normal landing in the middle of the country than an abnormal one.

Nice pickup to notice it.

The thing is, though, you would probably have to be an aeronautical engineer (or at least a pilot or aircraft mechanic) to notice something like that in the first place...

Eek! Glad it worked out. I usually freak out a bit when I look out at the wing and think, "That's all that's keeping us from plummeting to our deaths!" Even if the engine dies, we could still glide for a while with the wings.

I think I might have reported it as well. There supposedly a woman on AQ 243 who noticed a small crack in the fuselage on boarding but didn't report it. :(

At 500 knots there's liable to be little warning between "trouble" and "catastrophic failure".

Some engineer decided to paint that bright red for a reason. At 500 knots a little airflow under that piece... not sure I'd want to see how that ends.

No kidding, not to mention how much it might have contributed to extra fuel used...

Assuming it was like that prior to departure and didn't pop up while in flight, that doesn't speak very well toward the pilot that did the pre-flight walk-around.

Not if you were a Twilight Zone fan growing up. :D

Good point, except I remember that being a lot more obvious than an open latch... ;)

LOL, many years ago on my first ever flight on a 732, I actually asked one of the flight attendants why so much oil was dribbling out of the engines.

I think one of the all time aviation experiences was sitting in the cabin while the L-1011 did its "death shake" as the engines were turned on...

It was totally normal, but if you didn't know it was coming, it felt like the plane was about to fall apart...