A few photos are worth a thousand words.

[NakedGary]

Not wanting to beat a dead horse but a few photos are worth a thousand words. Note the
passengers as the safely deplane from the Nationwide B-737. Two thumbs up for the
crew of this aircraft. Both the flight deck crew and the cabin crew did an excellent job.
Safety is what it's all about.

Credits: dailymail.co.uk images: barcroft media


Engine falls off passenger plane during takeoffLast updated at 15:16pm on 8th November 2007

Terrified passengers were forced to adopt emergency brace positions after an engine FELL OFF their aeroplane during takeoff.

Crash landing procedures were rushed into action when machinery separated from the right wing and plummeted on to the runway.

The Nationwide Boeing 737 plane had been taking off from Cape Town Airport, South Africa, at 3.30pm on Wednesday when the drama unfolded.

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The damaged plane. The circle shows where the engine fell from the plane, carrying 106 passengers, was continuing to climb as debris fell to the ground and the pilot was instructed to turn back and make an emergency landing.

Airport fire and rescue services rushed to the runway to clear the wreckage before the plane came down.

The Flight CE723, which had been bound for Johannesburg, eventually touched down safely as passengers braced themselves for a crash landing.

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The engine lies near the runway.

South African businesswoman Ronel Derman, 46, said she had been in a seat directly over the wing. "I heard this huge bang, and the man next to me said: 'That's our engine that's just fallen off'. I couldn't believe it. He had to repeat it to me," she said. "The plane started to shake a bit, but what was amazing was the staff and passengers. Everybody was so calm. There was no hysteria, no nothing, it was amazing."

While the plane was making a wide turn and dumping fuel, cabin crew took passengers through the emergency procedures, getting them to take off their shoes and practice bending down.

"They didn't know what to expect. It could have been a hard landing. It could have been anything," said Ms Derman. "I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life, ever," she said.

When the plane had come to a stop surrounded by fire engines, the pilot walked into the cabin, and passengers cheered.

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The damaged wing is inspected

The airline said: "At take-off it was reported that the right hand engine separated from the wing. The aircraft continued to climb out. "The aircraft returned and landed at Cape Town International Airport without further incident."

The Civil Aviation Authority's executive manager for air safety investigations, Gilbert Thwala, said investigators were looking into the incident.

No passengers or crew were injured. Passengers were taken to a holding area where Nationwide representatives and trauma counsellors were on hand.




"Yes sir, the gear is down. Okay, you're the boss. I'll check it again".

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[newfred]

I have spoken to two S.A. flight captains of S.A. airforce,they have the highest respect for both the flight deck crew as well as the cabin crew, when this drama unfolded.First they had to get rid of the fuel , before they landed the plane with one motor only.Whe in south africa are only to glad it ended well.

[usmc1]

The fortunate thing is that the engine did not sheer off the wing. We'd be reading a different story then. Man, oh man, I'll bet there was some sincere hand-holding, praying and tightening of sphincters on that airplane. Poor clean-up crew, bet they had a mess or two.

Scary stuff. I was in a single-engine forced landing once. T'wasnt fun.

[missouriboy]

It's happened before!

The same thing happened to another Boeing aircraft 12-15 years ago in Chicago, but I don't remember if it was a 737. In that accident the plane pancaked over and went straight down nose first, killing all 270 passengers and crew. I saw a grainy clip of this on TV news at the time.

Pilots studied the film and tried to analyze the reason for such loss of control, and took the problem back into the Flight Training Simulator for that aircraft. One by one, they all "crashed" the same way until experimentation finally revealed a way to counter the sudden forces that cause loss of control in such an incident. Their discoveries resulted in additional standard training procedures to cope with such an event.

Though the loss in that first accident was a terrible price to pay, everyone aboard this plane can thank their lucky stars that the airline industry had already learned how to recover control after this catastrophic event.