Here is an SMS exchange with our mechanic who is out at the airport in Jeddah:
“A Saudia tug just ran into a dreamliner inlet all the way to the fan blades.”
Me: “Who’s is it?”
“I think Ethiopian.” (Saudia after all)
It was a new SVA B77W that it happened to.
aha. Thanks. Either way it’s a bummer.
SVA?
SVA=Saudi Arabian Airlines “Saudia”.
That should buff right out.
Dang, John beats me out again!
Getting slower in your old age… :mrgreen:
So who’s right… the source here or the report on Emirates 24/7 that says they hit a pole on taxi…
Anyone know if an airline’s regular sheetmetal fab guy can work on an engine inlet like they would the aircraft skin or if that work is too specialized and the engine has to be removed and sent out?
Nacelle’s are as unique as the engine, itself. I would think the engine comes off the wing, wing is inspected, engine out of the nacelle, nacelle scrapped, engine inspected and so on and so on…
Comments?
I think they can remove the inlet from the rest of the engine.
I think you are correct too… but I would think from the severity of the damage they’d need to make sure there were no other issues…
There are a few advantages to being 8 time zones ahead of most of you.
i’m guessing that picture was taken by a passenger. i don’t see a pole, or a truck, but there are what might be skid marks behind the airport car. On the other hand airports a full of funny tire marks.
The nacelle should be able to come off by itself, whether they go any farther into the engine would depend on any visible damage to the fan blades or if there is any shrapnel laying in the engine.
I was basing my comments off the news article… I do realize that you had some eye witness confirmation to the incident but it didn’t seem to be all that reliable…
You’re right about that.
The whole inlet unbolts from the rest of the engine, the seam is just barely in front of the the fan blades.
Boeing will more than likely require that the engine be removed and the mounts visually inspected and probably X-Rayed.