Engine Inspection Reveals Damage Consistent With Similar Incidents

Runway debris sucked into the engine of an American Airlines MD-83 during takeoff may have been the cause of the subsequent failure of one of the plane’s engines, the airline said.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith told Newsday company engineers inspecting the problem Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine observed damage “consistent” with engine failures caused by ingestion of foreign objects in similar incidents.

"To some trained eyes, it sure looked that way," Smith said.

As ANN reported, the airliner made an emergency landing shortly after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) Wednesday morning, due to engine failure.

WCBS-2 said Flight 309 was on climbout from LGA en route to Chicago O'Hare with 88 passengers and five crew when the flight crew reported a loud bang, followed by the spooling down of the twin-engine aircraft's right engine. Online flight tracking data shows the MD-83 departing LGA to the northeast, then immediately looping back towards New York.

The aircraft later made a safe emergency landing at Kennedy Airport at 8:36 am, about 20 minutes after taking off from LaGuardia.

As the plane's flight crew responded to the incident, debris from the engine rained down on the College Point section of Queens. "We heard a very, very loud sonic boom or explosion, followed immediately thereafter of about 30 to 45 seconds of debris raining down, everybody was quite alarmed," said one witness. "We immediately suspected it was a problem with a plane."

Reporters and FAA investigators found metal fragments, presumably from the aircraft, on the roof of a warehouse on 123rd Street. Those scraps were collected by Federal Aviation Administration investigators for analysis.

No one onboard the plane or on the ground was injured.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.faa.gov