A Norwegian flight traveling from Rome to Los Angeles encountered engine trouble after takeoff. Within minutes, the Boeing 787-8 reportedly rained down over 100 “glowing pieces of metal” on an unsuspecting town below.
DY7115, operated by a 787-8 with Rolls Royce Trent engines, took off as scheduled from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport on Saturday. But moments after takeoff, the aircraft suffered engine failure…forcing a quick return to Rome.
Never rising above 3,000 feet, pilots navigated back to the airport and successfully landed. None of the 298 passengers or 12 crewmembers were injured.
But the townspeople in the initial flight path did not fare so well. No one was injured (although one man was allegedly hit by aircraft debris), but over 100 pieces of the aircraft engine fell from the sky, breaking at least a trio of windshields and causing sidewalk damage.
Bits from the left engine of a 787-8 Dreamliner (LN-LND) Norwegian which took of from Rome for LAX fell in the Isola Sacra region of Fiumicino. The 787 (298 pax) returned to FCO, landed safely. No injuries on the ground, but a few cars damaged. https://t.co/6Cq3eULgs1@JacdecNewpic.twitter.com/IZEz5lhE8A
— Aeronews (@AeronewsRO) August 10, 2019
The aircraft, registered under LN-LND, was first delivered in 2014. Italian authorties are investigating the incident.
CONCLUSION
As if that was not bad enough, passengers reported Norwegian left them stranded in Rome after the delay. But at least no one was injured. If those unverified pictures above actually came from Norwegian 787 (and there is no reason to suspect otherwise), the human damage could have been much worse…
(H/T: View from the Wing // image: Norwegian)
Hi Matthew,
yes, local newspapers were quick to point out how those were actually engine parts, with a couple of bystanders who had to rush for cover to avoid getting hit by them. That was one lucky miss because if one of those pieces had hit someone, that would have meant certain death. A birdstrike was also considered as a possible cause.
I wonder if this will lead to service disruptions for BA due to these engines…again.
Looks like HP Compressor blades off the Trent in that guy’s hand. Don’t know if those blades let go or if they were secondary damage due to something else but the Trent has had issues with Stage 2 HPC Blades/Disc recently.