I knew United was a bit of a shitty airline, but losing an entire engine ring mid-flight and having it crash into someone's front yard is a bit excessive, no?
https://nitter.nixnet.services/chrisvanderveen/status/1363232875232063493
@raucao Yeah, failure during takeoff is probably more dangerous. Still, when I'm flying between the mainland and Hawaii, it's hard not to be aware around mid flight that I'm nearly 2,000 km from the nearest airport in case we needed to make an emergency landing.
@harding Oof, yeah. That's a long way.
@harding ... You could still easily get to Hawaii if one engine stalled. But it literally burning is super scary. However, I wonder if it could even burn in the first place, at that altitude's temperature, and with hardly any oxygen.
@raucao right, one engine should be fine per the FAA's ETOPS policy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS
That doesn't make me happy about it, though. If there were more four-engine planes flying to and from HNL, I'd probably prefer to book them, but they're rare.
12,000 meters is only ~33% higher than Mt. Everest where people are on the edge of breathing, so I assume jet fuel and lots of other things can still burn.
@harding But it failed during the initial climb, which is more dangerous than failing mid-flight at cruising altitude AFAIK.
Amazing that the passengers were able to go on another flight from where they started, only 6 hrs later. Wondering how many of them stayed home after the shock.