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Still images from airport surveillance video show the left engine of UPS flight 2976 separating from the wing during takeoff, preventing the jet from climbing higher than 30 feet and dooming it to a fiery crash which killed the three crewmembers and 11 people on the ground in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this month. ... In a rare move, the NTSB drew a parallel to a previous disaster—the 1979 crash of American Airlines Flight 191, in Chicago which killed 271 on board and two on the ground. The plane involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, the forerunner to the MD-11. ...

[NTSB images](https://poal.co/static/images/9c3333cc7439c6c6.png) >Still images from airport surveillance video show the left engine of UPS flight 2976 separating from the wing during takeoff, preventing the jet from climbing higher than 30 feet and dooming it to a fiery crash which killed the three crewmembers and 11 people on the ground in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this month. ... In a rare move, the NTSB drew a parallel to a previous disaster—the 1979 crash of American Airlines Flight 191, in Chicago which killed 271 on board and two on the ground. The plane involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, the forerunner to the MD-11. ...
[–] 1 pt

I remember there being a crash years ago that was probably covered on Air Crash Investigations. It was a 747 I think (4 engines) and one engine broke off mid flight, surged forward (due to the remaining fuel and sudden lack of load as it was detached) and took out the other engine on that wing after it lost thrust.

The cause ended up being dodgy aftermarket shear bolts that are used to attach the engines. These are bolts that are specifically engineered to break at known locations and loads, so that a massive unexpected load on the engine will break off just the engine rather than the wing (a theoretically slightly less catastrophic failure).

Seeing the image of the engine torn off and flying over the plane looks very similar to what happened in that older accident. One of the big issues with engine loss seems to be that the fuel (and hydraulic fluid) keeps flowing after the engine has separated. Perhaps some failsafe to automatically shut off the flow of these flammable fluids would help? Though in this specific case there may not have been much that could be done with a fully laden plane losing an engine at V1 on takeoff.

[–] 1 pt

DC-10 and MD-11 are getting old. I wonder if this is going to do them in.