In what must have been a very scary moment for passengers, a Philippine Airlines 777-300ER engine failed shortly after takeoff, sending flames spewing in the air over Los Angeles.
PAL Flight 113 took off on-time from Los Angeles International at 11:00AM on Thursday. As one passenger described it, the trouble began shortly after takeoff:
As soon as it lifted off the ground, we heard four large bangs. The right side, interior side engine blew up and was on fire.
Is a plane suppose to spew flames? #airplane #lax @AmericanAir @flyLAXairport pic.twitter.com/62sqcnsW8M
— Big Red (@andrewblakeames) November 21, 2019
Fine. Classic engine failure; a compressor stall on an engine which results in a quick flame-out due to a small amount of unburned fuel vapor reaching the exhaust phase and igniting. This is common when engines experience compressor stalls and result in a loss of thrust.
But to dismiss this story as a routine engine failure really doesn’t speak to the absolute horror passengers, even experienced travelers, must have felt onboard.
Seriously, imagine you just hear the pilot or purser say, “Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight” and then all of a sudden you hear four loud bangs, look out at the engine, and see fire. The story is not just about the objective danger passengers faced, but about the subjective fear they experienced on the basis of the engine failure.
After pilots radioed mayday, the aircraft returned to LAX, even before it dumped all its fuel onboard. With fuel still present and 342 passengers onboard, the landing blew the aircraft’s tires, though no injuries were reported.
One additional tidbit. It seems the flight attendants panicked as well. As one passenger told NBC 4 Los Angeles, “I know flight attendants aren’t supposed to panic, so at that point I’m like this is pretty serious.”
CONCLUSION
Philippine Airlines has not gone on the record yet to explain what may have caused the engine failure. Passengers were accommodated on other flights and the aircraft is grounded pending a detailed maintenance check and engine repair.
image: Adam Taylor / Facebook
I had this happen to me on Air France out of Paris in an original 747-200 some years ago. It was fairly concerning even though I knew it was a routine compressor stall. No one likes to see flames shooting out of a flying metal container filled with fuel under any circumstance.
Similar experience as well in that when we landed the flight attendants hugged each other and crossed themselves in relief. Awfully glad they showed a bit more composure prior to landing!
Preface: Not a pilot.
Total overreaction for the pilot to call mayday right? A 777-300 has like a 300 minute ETOPS rating and he’s 10 miles off the coast…
No calling Mayday and declaring an emergency is the proper response to an engine failure.
It’s the sort of event that after you’ve been in the business for a while is more of an annoyance than something life threatening. Most pilots go their entire career these days without ever losing an engine but I’ve lost so many in the sim over the years I honestly doubt something like this would even bump my heart rate.
That being said it’s a serious event and you respond accordingly.
They should have dumped the fuel prior to landing though, right?
I would expect them to dump fuel but it could be their procedures dictate otherwise.
I was shocked to hear they blew the tires on landing. That being said if they landed very heavy brake heat could have melted the fuse plus in the tires which would not be unexpected. And given how well major media outlets cover stuff like this it’s very probable that much of the initial reporting was wrong.
OK, fair enough! The news report and passenger commentary seemed to point to a crew (maybe just FAs and not pilots) who didn’t keep their cool…
I sure hope that commentary is wrong. For the crew there is nothing to get excited about here.
> “After passengers radioed mayday, the aircraft returned to LAX,…”
How nice that they allow passengers to come up front and work the radios for the crew when they’re busy managing tasks during an emergency…something to look forward to next time you’re sitting in business class!
By the way…is this routine, or worth declaring an emergency over? Losing an engine is always a serious incident (well, in a single-engine plane, it’s more than that), absolutely worth a mayday in this case. But panic-inducing for the crew? Only for the ignorant or those easily panicked. If anyone working that flight freaked out, they should be in some other line of work.
“After passengers radioed mayday,”
Really? The passengers radioed mayday?
Uh, already fixed well before you comment surfer. See C150 Pilot above.
“The right side, interior side engine…”
The passenger further reports that the right side, exterior side engine has fallen off! Oh, wait…
My God, newscasters are so exaggerated and dramatic. The music, the faces, the inaccuracy.