The engines cant be the original ones, dont they usually update them?
Depends on the condition of the engine, total time since last overhaul, cost of another overhaul, etc. That's actually one of the things they're looking into, from what I've read. If it is one of the original engines, then the maintenance logs are going to be even more scrutinized. There's tons of checks they do, especially on older turbines, so something like this likely should have been caught and the engine overhauled or replaced.
Edit: Also, if the engine was replaced fairly recently, some of the blame could fall on Pratt & Whitney (that particular plane is listed as having PW400's installed).
Could it have been bird or debris?
Possible, but pretty unlikely IMO. Bird strikes are something specifically tested for in the early stages of certification. They fire large frozen chickens into an engine running at full speed to make sure the debris stays contained in the engine. They also place explosives on the root of some of the blades during testing to manually separate them, just to make sure everything stays inside the engine.
US Airways 1549 ended up in the river because both engines got hit by large geese, and a CFM-56 (used on the A320, 737, etc.) is a lot smaller than a PW400. But IIRC, those engines kept the debris inside as designed.
If it had been debris on the Denver flight yesterday, it would have happened during takeoff, rather than at 10,000 feet. Birds are still a possibility, but it would have to have been a lot of them to cause an uncontained failure like that (the PW400 is a large engine). I'm no engineer, but this seems like fatigue on an older engine that wasn't inspected properly.
My Brother worked for PW about 2 years supervising rebuilds on F15 engine contract. Union workers are garbage and the entire industry is just a giant subsidized clusterfuck.
This is one of their gimmicks for instance. The factory and shop is in Connecticut. To avoid taxes on inventory the warehouse for parts is in another state.
If they have to replace a fucking part that has to be fabricated they send in the order, they make the part in the same complex, they ship the part out of State to the warehouse that can then fill the order and ship the requested part back to the shop.
Backwards ass pageantry.
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