Big-azz pieces, is that called the engine cowling? Watch the video of the engine someone took from onboard the aircraft and the video someone took from the ground of the debris falling.
I think I’d need a change of underwear if I was on that plane!
Yeah, that uncontained engine failure would suck. Thank goodness no one in the air on on the ground got hurt.
What’s crazy was the hot section kept going. You could see it still igniting/burning.
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I’m not an aviation expert, so was the glowing orange area on the engine supposed to be like that? Obviously the outer covering was gone, but is that where a jet engine should be firing?
Good it didn’t totally fall off the plane and take a chunk of wing with it, thereby rendering it unflyable.
Also, can’t they shut off fuel supply to that engine to help prevent further ignition?
Fuel was no doubt cut. That’s metal on fire.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/high-bypass-turbofan
Yes, that glowing is part of the core in the diagram above. No doubt the pilots got some feedback that they had a failure, but they may or may not have gotten a fire warning. Shutting off the fuel is part of the procedure and I’m positive it was done, but it may be a few seconds before it actually happens depending on their checklist.
What I’m really curious to know is if that plane had sat in long term storage for awhile during the last year when United started parking planes. My experience is these things don’t like sitting dormant for long periods of time, seals dry up, etc.
CAPTAIN: “Attention passengers – when we reach the ground, we’ll need everyone to evacuate quickly.”
ME: “TOO late – I’ve already run the checklist for THAT procedure!!!” 
Crazy stuff, and a minor miracle nobody was killed!
My Brother and I flew from Tucson to Chicago to visit my Dad.
We were flying American and an American Flight was due to take off just as we were landing, that Jet lost an engine, flipped over in the air and crashed in to a glass factory just past the end of the runway, in full view of everyone in the Airport.
The intercom traffic explaining what had happened only made it worse.
We aborted that landing flew to Indianapolis, then Detroit and got in to Chicago an a hour and a half later.
Dad was damned happy to see us get off that flight.
Those pilots have some serious balls. Coming in on a single engine at high elevation and undoubtedly overweight from the extra fuel needed to reach Hawaii?
Balls, yes. But a crew of B777 are senior crews with a ton of experience, flight time, and training. While every emergency is different, they knew what to do.
The plane was in the air for approximately 25 minutes after departing DEN and executing a 180 back to DEN. No doubt the aircraft was at or near max landing weight. DEN has a 16,000 ft runway but looking at FlightAware it appears they landed on the nearest runway (RWY07) instead of vectoring around to the long runway. Either way, it probably felt like they were flying a mountain to land.
Very fortunate this did not happen mid flight over the pacific…
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I am no expert of passenger jets, but an engine falling apart or disintegrating reminds me of American 191 from 1979 where the entire engine separated from it’s wing pylon, and the damage to the wing caused hydraulic failures. I wonder if modern flight control systems have redundancies if part of the system fails?
I’m almost positive the airplane was grossly overweight when it landed. It ends up being a few more things for the mechanics to inspect after landing.
It almost would have been better if it was over the ocean as the parts would not have rained down over a fairly dense suburban area.
They do. I’m not a 777 person but all primary flight control systems have at least 1 or 2 redundant sources, or a way to mix flight controls to get the desired outcome.
I’ve flown to HI 4 times…that flight over the water always make me a little nervous…
Based on your username I’m assuming you’re a pilot?
Yeah, considering taxi time, a short 25 minutes in the air after departure, 250 people on board, and full load of gas for the long trip to HI, I’ll bet they were way heavy.
What are your thoughts on fuel dump? With the catastrophic failure and the engine still on fire and the urgency and ability to get it down at DEN and let the ARFF crews handle it on the ground, I suppose dumping wasn’t a viable option?
I dunno man… Mid pacific, engine on fire with it buffeting like it was in the video? Glad nobody was hurt on the ground but I’m thinking that plane and all on board could have really been in peril had this happened over the ocean.
OH58 - another accident that brought to light redundant (or not) systems was United 232 that crashed in Sioux City IA in 1989. DC-10 which the number 2 engine has a catastrophic failure that took out all the hydraulics. Amazing anyone survived that crash. What the crew did was absolutely incredible and heroic.
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You must be referring to the full fuel load-out. It’s 2900 nautical miles from Denver to Hawaii. I certainly can’t see dumping fuel to reduce weight as an option with the exposed engine internals red hot. Too bad future modern jets won’t have small cameras aerodynamically embedded in the fuselage so the flight crew could take a quick peek at the offending engine(s) and wing surface from the cockpit without relying on flight attendants or passengers for the visuals.
London to Chicago during the winter was my worst. Looking down and seeing all that ice wasn’t cool.
I apologize as I’m not intimate with the 777, but believe it or not, a lot of airliners don’t have the ability to dump fuel. What they do have is the ability to land overweight, you just have to weigh the current risk vs getting the thing on the ground ASAP. I think they absolutely did the right thing given their circumstances and proximity to a giant airport/runway.
Like you mentioned above, I don’t know why they didn’t take the longest runway in DEN, I guess they ran the numbers and figured they didn’t need to.
Also in respect to dumping fuel, sometimes it has ill consequences:
Dennis Fitch was the dead-heading pilot that just happened to be a DC10 instructor that ended up being the throttle man on that flight. I went to school with his son. My dad knew a couple of guys who survived that flight- one of which had survived another airplane crash that had fatalities…
I think this is the flight Averageman was talking about in his post on page 1. I remember hearing and reading about that. It was a DC-10 and one of the wing engines fell of during takeoff and it rendered the plane unflyable. Killed like 271 people.
I doubt they had a full tank of gas. Probably more likely a half tank. I am educated guessing they did not even have fuel in the center tank.
Also guessing they were in the 520,000-550,000lb T/O weight range. Not really heavy for the 777.
777 can dump and land overweight.
The more the descent rate at touch down, the more the rate the more inspections have to be done.