In the June 2005 issue of AIN I wrote about a fully loaded British Airways 747 that was taking off from Los Angeles bound for London when one of its engines emitted a large fireball just after liftoff. I commented on the wisdom (or lack of wisdom) of proceeding on a 16-hour flight with one engine out and uncertainty about the extent of damage to the engine or the airframe.
A flight crew is at a real disadvantage when an event like this occurs because the information on which to base an intelligent decision is limited to the instruments and possibly whatever can be collected from the onboard reporting systems that transmit back to some company-designated location, such as a flight-operation center. A major concern in this type of event is that the rotating internal parts stay contained within the engine. These pieces contain a considerable amount of energy, and they have caused major damage in other events.
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