I was at DTW flying to ROC (Tuesday 10-5) on a DC9 and the left engine bearing apparently disintergrated when the Pilot started the engines (while at the gate) We waited awhile for the mechanics to see if they could fix the Left Engine, but when they figured out the problem we were told that they would bring out another DC9, and the one we were on was not flying anywhere for awhile.

The pilot said that the engine bearing can disintergrate inflight, and if that had happened it would have been catastrophic.

Has anyone been on a DC9 with an inflight engine failure?

RC

Years ago I was on a TW DC-9 that had a wingflap malfunction on takeoff. The plane took off from STL at a very funny angle, circled around, and landed again almost immediately. I was 12 years old and I was on the last leg of a 15+ hour journey home from Italy, so I was half-asleep when it happened. Although I felt the unusual angle of the takeoff, I didn't realize what had happened until we landed again and I looked out the window to see STL instead of the MLI I was expecting. Then the pilot made an announcement.

I also very vaguely remember some sort of enginge trouble in a TW (or maybe Ozark?) DC9 in a separate incident, although I was probably no more than 5 at that time, so all I remember is that we took off and landed again (in STL), and that my parents were pissed about the delay.

Ah, childhood TW memories...

RC, when he said "catastrophic", is it your understanding he meant that towards the engine, or towards the airplane? The aircraft can still fly with the 1 engine.

RC (or azj or someone who is mechanically expert?)
I am curious about the nature of the failure as well. Does a disintegrating bearing generate metal parts flying through/out of the engine, or is it contained? I seem to recall that when a fan breaks, it does throw out sharp parts that can cause damage to other parts (the United DC10 that crashed in Iowa?).
OTOH, when that 727 or DC9 engine ingested the chunk of ice from the lav (over Florida, wasn't it), didn't the engine just fall off?
Thanks.
tom

If the engine seizes up inflight, I believe the pylons that hold the engine to the fuselage are designed to break, separating the engine from the aircraft, before the vibrating engine endangers the whole plane or ruptures the fuselage.

Also the nacelles are designed to contain flying parts. It doesn't always work -- I read an NTSB report of a DC9/MD8X aircraft that had an engine seize up during takeoff and spray parts into the rear fuselage, killing a couple of people -- but design is meant discourage this,

That may be the Delta MD-88 in PNS back in (I think)1998 or 1999. Looked like someone took a can opener to the fuselage. Luckily it happened on the ground or there could have been a lot more casualties.

Hi Y'all,

The term "catastrophic" is a common aviation term referring to the type of engine failure. It means the failure was immediate (ie: a seizure) and due to/or caused physical damage to the engine versus a failure where the engine simply stopped running. The term in no way implies any direct serious threat to the aircraft or its occupants.

As mentioned by BearX220, turbine engines are designed to break away from an aircraft versus staying attached and shaking the @#@$ out of the wings/fuselage (and the passenger's pants). Turbines spin at 50,000+ RPMs (educated guess, not fact) so being off balance by the least little bit can cause quite a shake-up.

As mentioned by others, there have been instances of engine failures (I think "break-up" would better describe the condition) causing serious damage/fatalities. Both UA at Sioux City and DL at Pensacola involved engines where turbine fan blades and/or the "hub" that holds them, literally broke apart and "slung off" blades at an extremely high velocity. This is extremely rare.

A frozen bearing may cause an engine to suddenly seize ("catastrophic failure"), and is no minor deal. It may cause a few tense moments in the cockpit depending on when the failure occurred (possible worst case being right at "rotation" on the take-off roll) but pilots are trained to handle these things (they go back to the simulator to practice it every 6 months !!). But the situation is not as grave as the term would imply.

Steve

NW also had the incident with the 727 over Gainesville, FL in which the entire engine simply fell off. Theres a picture of it somewhere online if I remember correctly.