Featured Maps: Uncontained Engined Failures (8 November 2010)

Last week's uncontained engine failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engine on an Airbus A380 operating Qantas Airways flight 32 SIN-SYD has led to an assortment of comments in the press about the rarity of such events. While uncommon, uncontained engine failures do occur more frequentlty than one might expect. In letters A-98-125 and -126, dated 3 December 1998, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited (in footnote 17) the following numbers of uncontained low-pressure turbine (LPT) failures:

• General Electric CF6-50: 25 uncontained LPT failures
• General Electric CF6-80: 6 uncontained LPT failures
• Pratt and Whitney JT8D (through -17AR model): 55 uncontained LPT failures
• Pratt and Whitney JT9D: 64 uncontained LPT failures

Those statistics don't include Rolls-Royce engines nor do they include high-pressure turbine (HPT) or compressor or fan portions of engines.

Combing personal correspondence easily produced a list (hardly comprehensive) of uncontained failures of engines from various manufacturers, which form today's featured map:

Date	Flight	Location	Aircraft	Engine	Reg
3 Nov 1973	NA 27 IAH-LAS	near Albuquerque	DC-10-10	CF6-6K	N60NA
Featured Map: Decompression Defenestration
19 Jul 1989	UA 232 DEN-ORD	near Sioux City	DC-10-10	CF6-6D	N1819U
9 Jun 1995	ValuJet 597 ATL-	Atlanta	DC-9-32	JT8D-7B	N908VJ
24 Jan 1996	AA 1745 PHL-SJU	Philadelphia	A300B4-605R	CF6-80C2A5
7 Jul 1996	DL 1288 PNS-ATL	Pensacola	MD-88	JT8D-219	N927DA
7 Sep 1997	CP 30 PEK-YVR	Beijing	767-300ER	CF6-80C2B6F
22 Sep 2000	US ground test	Philadelphia	767-2B7ER	CF6-80C2B2	N654US
6 Mar 2001	FedEx	Boston	DC-10-10	CF6-6D	N375FE
19 Oct 2002	UA 185 BOS-SFO	Boston	767-222	JT9D-7R4D	N607UA
8 Dec 2002	NZ 132 BNE-AKL	Brisbane	767-219ER	CF6-80A	ZK-NBC
5 Oct 2003	EDW 565 MIA-ZRH	Miami	A330-243	Trent 772B-60	HB-IQZ
2 Jun 2006	AA ground test	Los Angeles	767-223ER	CF6-80A2	N330AA
4 Jul 2008	SA ferry JED-CGK	Jeddah	747-306	CF6-50E2	HS-VAC
NTSB id ENG08IA030 NTSB letters A-10-098 through -101
26 Mar 2009	Arrow Air 431 MAO-BOG	Manaus	DC-10-30F	CF6	N526MD
FlightGlobal: PICTURE: Arrow Cargo DC-10 sheds large engine parts over Manaus Aviation Herald: Accident: Arrow Cargo DC10 at Manaus on Mar 26th 2009, dropped parts of engine on houses NTSB letters A-10-098 through -101
2 Aug 2010	Rolls-Royce ground test	Derby	-	Trent 1000
FlightGlobal: FAA confirms Trent 1000 failure was uncontained AvWeek: Oil Fire Suspected In Trent 1000 Failure
30 Aug 2010	QF 74 SFO-SYD	San Francisco	747-438	RB.211-524G/H-T	VH-OJP
ATSB: Uncontained engine failure and air turn-back Near San Francisco Airport, USA 30 August 2010
4 Nov 2010	QF 32 SIN-SYD	Singapore	A380-842	Trent 892	VH-OQA
ATSB: Qantas Airbus A380 inflight engine failure