144
The Boeing 767
If it’s Boeing I ain’t going
That bird is probably older than you are
Just testing if people will pay extra for a nonexploding plane.
Was it just surging or like a compressor stall or something? FOD like a bird ingestion or something?
I mean, Boeing has/had quality problems, serious ethical failures, but also birds exist.
(I’m not good at explaining this, maybe should have found an explanation online somewhere instead.) You know those stages of a combustion engine - intake, compression, ignition, exhaust, all happening in sequence in an engine’s cylinders? Turbine engines do them too, but in a straight line and constantly. The front of the engine is obviously intake, but compressor fans do the compression just using fast and powerful fans, no seals or valves needed. Ignition lights everything up, exhaust can just flow out the back. (It flows over some more fan blades that steal some power from the expanding gases and use it to keep the whole thing spinning.)
Unless something goes wrong with the compressor fan blades, that is. If compression is too weak and the ignited air/fuel mixture can flow back out the front of the engine, that’s bad. And yeah, it happens sometimes, with any engine. Almost never with both at the same time. (Both engines failing at once low to the ground is like a once in a generation thing, and yeah it’s really really bad. And really really rare.)
I have seen news stories describe engine surges as "bursting into flames" before, but that's not the case here.
The video of the incident shows a small but sustained flame emerging from the bottom-rear of the engine, well below the engine's core.
There was an engine fire but in typical journalistic fashion it was far short of bursting into flames.
Unlikely to be boeing's fault as they don't make the engines, just the airframes.
Edit: An engine surge/compressor stall is the plane's version of a backfire. Big bang and a burst of flames. Very exciting, but very little danger beyond the loss of thrust. This incident wasn't a surge, but the last time I saw mainstream news say an engine "burst into flames" it was.
but also birds exist
Lotta people on the internet who would disagree with that one buddy
I’m not going to fly Boeing. I don’t trust the US to have enforced strong and transparent building standards. EU with Airbus all the way.
I know it's a Boeing, but I think it's an important detail that the aircraft manufacturers don't make the engines. The 767s are powered by CF6, Whitney JT9Ds or RollsRoyce RB211s etc. modern airliners have engine fire extinguisher bottles that are activated within the cockpit to put out the fires (the same switch also cuts fuel to the affected engine so the fire doesn't reignite)
But isn’t Boeing responsible of the maintenance?
the responsibility for maintenance of the engines falls on the airline. occasionally you do get defective parts which are on the manufacturer, such as the Rolls Royce Trent 1000s which had issues with the intermediate pressure (IP) turbine blades being more susceptible to fatigue cracking related to corrosion. that was on Rolls Royce
Not at all. The airline is responsible for maintenance. Engines may be maintained by the OEM, but these ancient engines, that may not be the case.
This is a lovely opportunity for people to realize corporations don't care about you, it's not just Boeing, every single one of these companies will go as far as they can get away with to maximize profits.
Don't be an Airbus fangirl/boy either, they have better regulations preventing them from being as shitty as Boeing, and they certainly enjoy the better reputation. But corporations are not your friends.
I rather doubt this happened solely because the airline is saving money somewhere. This is an old bird, I bet the engine has 30000 cycles on it. Probably something let loose in the compressor during take off. Nobody was hurt, everyone did exactly as the book says to do. The system worked. Keep investing in sound regulation and keep the airlines accountable for their maintenance and we all get home safely.
I think I will be forgoing air travel for the foreseeable future.
Delta flight 446 landed safely, and the plane taxied to the gate on its own with no sign of a fire at that point. Passengers were able to deplane normally...
Delta said customers were reaccommodated on a new aircraft to their final destinations.
This was little more than an inconvenience for the passengers. The news always uses deliberately alarming language to entice a click. There was an actual engine fire this time, but it was a small one that appears to be out before they landed.
Commercial aviation is orders of magnitude safer than cars. The occasional incident is national news because they are rare. Fatal car crashes happen so often they aren't even newsworthy.
Oh, just a small engine fire. Gotcha. My bad, that’s cool then. And definitely no recent pattern of problems with Boeing planes either, so that’s also good.
The engine is located far from the passenger cabin and it has fire suppression systems that probably put out the fire in flight. They have procedures for this that handled the situation so well they didn't even have to evacuate the aircraft.
Fires are a risk with any combustion engine. Clearly they mitigated that risk effectively since no one was in any real danger
Boeing doesn't make the engines.
So do you want me to compile a list of recent vehicle recalls and the alarming amount of cars that just spontaneously catch on fire?
How about the amount of biking deaths?
An engine fire of any size is a serious emergency, and Boeing's recent safety record should get executives fired if not jailed. That said, commercial aviation remains thee safest way to travel long distances. Incidents like this are newsworthy precisely because they are so rare.
If you search up ATC recordings on YouTube you can find that go arounds like this are fairly common. If you're really afraid of Boeing's systemic issues, understandably, avoid flights with Boeing planes and you'd be fine.
That’s pretty much my plan. I also don’t need to fly very often.
Engines have nothing to do with the airframe.
Listen mate. You fly as many Boeing planes as you like. I wish you all the best. I am going to pass.
Just keep your feet on the ground
TSA ≠ NTSB
Yeah, saying that TSA investigates engine fires is like saying that toll booth operators respond to tire blowouts.
They do??? TIL
*me at a tollbooth later* "Yeah, how much is your tire service?"
Uhhh, I don't know. Gimme like $50 now, and call me if you get a flat?
The neat part is they both got budget cuts! ntsb actually does something but they both got cut
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
144 points (99.3% liked)
News
33712 readers
549 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS