Nando Times

Emirates Airlines jet aborts takeoff after engine explodes

The Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (January 31, 2001 10:32 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - An Emirates Airlines jet carrying 213 passengers aborted its takeoff from Melbourne Airport after one of its engines exploded during takeoff, officials said Wednesday. No one was injured.

Airport spokesman Geoffrey Conaghan said the Boeing 777-300 was charging halfway down the runway late Tuesday when flames began spewing out of the engine and takeoff was aborted.

Flight EK069 was heading for Dubai via Singapore when the engine exploded, strewing bits of metal over the main runway. Passengers said they saw flames shooting from the engine and smoke filled the cabin.

"It was an absolutely terrifying experience," British passenger Joanne Hume told television Channel Nine News. "I thought, 'My time is up.'"

The aircraft returned safely to the terminal and no one was hurt, airport officials said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said a preliminary investigation indicated a fan blade may have come loose and been hurled back through the engine.

Cleanup crews working in darkness took several hours to remove debris from the runway. Other flights were diverted to the airport's second runway.

Emirate Airlines said the engine had not caught fire, but sparks and smoke belching from it may have looked like a fire to passengers.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 31, 2001

Answers

The triple 7 has 2 engines and because this plane makes transoceanic flights this marvelous engine is designed to ingest fan blades and still perform. The inside of the cowling has a kevlar lining so that a wayward blade will not penetrate the fuselage. A bird strike or hail can damage fan blading. I have a suspicion that as the jet cruised down the runway, the engine inhaled a large piece of fod (foreign object debris) on the runway which it could not pass. The intake of this engine is about 14 feet high and is very low to the runway. Anything on the runway is going to get sucked into this powerful engine. This happened to the Concorde. Continental Airlines left some debris on the runway which the Concorde hit and the rest is history.

-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@progdigy.net), February 03, 2001.