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Gyroscopic forces are amazing.
When the plane rotates on take-off the engine, whose fan is basically a big gyroscope, doesn't want to go with. That puts tremendous force on the mounts that are forcing the fan to change plane with the aircraft.
Those same spinning forces send the engine off over to the right.
Also of note is there's enough fuel and fuel pressure in the feed lines to run the engine after it has separated from the wing. That's why it got so far above the wing when it broke free. Frame 5 shows the smoke of it flaming out.
Damn.
I think that the only airport they could have brought it down safely once this happened is Edwards Air Force Base.
That plane was 34 years old, and they're saying that metal fatigue is at fault. There are REASONS why airplanes are inspected regularly.
ReplyDeleteThe plane was being inspected at the recommended interval and was only about about 75% that interval when the failure occurred.
DeleteIt's likely that fatigue rates were higher than calculated and new intervals will be issued. It should also be noted that the intervals HAD been working up til now...
The DC-10, MD-10 and MD-11 were nearing the end of their economic life anyways so this will be a non-issue before too long.