Hunt Continues For Air France A380 Engine Fragments In Greenland

Simple Flying ^ | 11 May 2019 | Andrea Massey

[DUMBGRUNT]

Air France Flight 66 suffered an uncontained engine failure in September of 2017. The engine failure occurred while the aircraft was flying in the proximity of Greenland. Some of the missing engine parts are very important for the investigation into the incident. Accordingly, at this time, the hunt continues for the missing Air France A380 engine fragments in Greenland.

As CNN reported, “the entire front part of the engine, including the large fan and engine’s casing, completely sheared away.”

the French investigation authority BEA has stated that “Quite early in the investigation, it was established that the recovery of the missing parts, especially of the hub fragments, was the key to supporting the investigation of the cause of the engine failure.”

[DUMBGRUNT]

Better late, than never?

[House Atreides]

You’re right. September 2017 incident, what’s the rush. ;-)

[ThunderSleeps]

Got to be the definition of needle in a haystack....

[Kickass Conservative]

They were waiting for the Mueller Report to be released hoping they could blame POTUS Trump.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DUMBGRUNT. Kudos to the pilots for landing it.

[reed13k]

Well...if they have the GPS coordinates within a few meters, altitude and velocity at time of loss, and wind/weather information, it should be a simple calculation to determine a search are based on newtonian physics.

Still likely a large area, but the bigger concern I would have is the winter weather that have occurred in Greenland since then which likely buried it under ice and snow.

[Gay State Conservative]

A QANTAS A380 had a similar incident a few years ago.IIRC things were really,really dicey for a while but they landed safely.

[M Kehoe]

RR engines?

5.56mm

[DUMBGRUNT]

The outboard right-side Engine Alliance GP7000 engine failed and its fan hub and intake separated 150 kilometres (93 mi) southeast of Paamiut, Greenland, while the aircraft was in cruise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_66

[DUMBGRUNT]

Photo of damaged engine:

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-bea-cherche-a-rapatrier-en-france-l-a380-qui-a-atterri-d-urgence-au-canada.N598788

[cpdiii]

Uncontained Explosive disintegration of the Fan.

[M Kehoe]

Thanks.

5.56mm

[BwanaNdege]

[2111USMC]

The photo sure indicates that.

Not sure why they think they need to find the parts.

[Paal Gulli]

"...Well...if they have the GPS coordinates within a few meters, altitude and velocity at time of loss, and wind/weather information, it should be a simple calculation to determine a search are based on newtonian physics...."

You're six miles in the air, traveling 900 fps and a 10-foot diameter fan spinning at 3300 rpm slings itself to pieces. Those bits are scattered all over hell and half of Georgia. And until they find them they'll have no idea what configuration those bits were in, much less what trajectory they left the airframe on, which stymies your Newtonian physics.

To: 2111USMC

"...Not sure why they think they need to find the parts."

Failure analysis. Would you pay $25 million for an engine that occasionally tears itself apart in flight and no one knows why?

[Rebelbase]

It’s part of a glacier by now. The parts should turn up in about 5000 years.

[logi_cal869]

They know why. The risk was in the design. There is no geared turbofan with required thrust for this size of aircraft (it would require 8 engines, off the top of my head).

Non-geared turbofans experience instability in the fan due to supersonic speeds of the fan tips. The resonant frequencies introduced under flight conditions sometimes result in catastrophic failure; history is evidence. Put simply: The compressor section is in conflict with the operating envelope of the fan section. Difficult to test for on an engine stand. I don’t think they’re going to be able to resolve the design deficiencies.

Enjoy your next flight. /s

Ironically, Boeing put its chips in smaller aircraft rather than a competitor to the A380 (which required enormous engines), but is still also experiencing engine problems on both the 787’s Trent 1000 & GEnx engines and the 737’s LEAP engines (Leap-1A and Leap-1B), technically for the same reason outlined prior.

Fascinating technology in development of the next-gen engines (safer, quieter, more efficient geared turbofan, aka GTF) and an interesting 30-year development story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aPIEsnKb6o

Engine problems aside - as well as Kapton wire harnesses - I may never fly commercial ever again after watching this on the 737NG (and the corresponding problems with regulatory oversight, i.e. FAA):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxxtzBTxGU