Engine ingestion standards

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Member for

18 years 8 months

Posts: 1,101

How big living bodies can be ingested by an engine so that the plane remains?

The biggest flying birds include bustards, mute swans and I think turkeys, having MTOW in the region of 30-40 pounds. Are the engines built and tested so that ingesting them can be dealt with?

At least birds seriously bigger than that cannot fly and therefore can only be ingested on ground. As can other living bodies. An Air France jet recently met a cow, but I think did not ingest the cow. Some years ago, a ground worker in some airport, I think a Chinese, was ingested. He died, as intended - has anyone heard what was left of the engine and the rest of the plane?

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,121

Most birds which go through engines are too small to be felt... it's not uncommon for an engine to go through its periodical checks... and the engineers find bird remains from a while ago still there... even though no birdstrike was recorded.

A man has indeed been sucked into a jet engine.... he was an airport worker... who rode his scooter across the runway to save time... trying to beat an oncoming A320.... he lost.... At the Rolls Royce office there was a joke advert for a newish scooter... dropped once... not very tasteful....

The Rolls Royce engineer I spoke to said the most interesting video he's seen of foreign objet ingestion was of a toolkit.... a ground test was been done... and the engine sucked open the drawers on this big toolchest... then individually sucked out the tools... one by one....

As for the bigger birds... engines are tested... I've seen the videos.... they get the RSPB to lovingly kneck chickens... and fire them into the engine... the engines tend to be ok as long as the beak or feet dont catch a blade on the way through... they're the hard bits and do the most damage. Not sure on the procedure after an bird ingestion... I guess an engineer would check it out before it flies again!

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 89

There was a "World's amazing video" a few years back about a guy who got "ingested" into a harrier engine. Since the engine intake is small, he didn't go in it seems. He only got seriously injured. According to the video, the WAV people tried to locate him for a long time, and there was an interview with the guy too. I would assume the WAV guys do due diligence, and the video sure didn't look like fake.

It is available online here

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 123

There was a "World's amazing video" a few years back about a guy who got "ingested" into a harrier engine. Since the engine intake is small, he didn't go in it seems. He only got seriously injured. According to the video, the WAV people tried to locate him for a long time, and there was an interview with the guy too. I would assume the WAV guys do due diligence, and the video sure didn't look like fake.

It is available online here

I remember that...

He did go through the engine... His helmet took the force of the blades as he went through. Escaped with cuts, bruises, burns and fractures. If you look closely he rolls out of the back.

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20 years 10 months

Posts: 2,513

I couldn't watch the video on this computer for some reason but I believe it was a US Navy sailor and he was sucked into the intake of a Grumman A-6 Intruder.

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 89

He did go through the engine

I wonder how that is possible. Is there enough gap between the blades for a man to pass? I downloaded the clip and checked frame by frame, and lo behold, the mac could be seen actually falling down on the other side.

And my bad, the AC is an A-6 Intruder.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,121

No way theres enough space for a man to pass between the blades... it's impossible! No man is that small! I've also heard of a man being sucked into the intake of an aircraft... but not being killed because by sheer luck, the intake narrowed, and he got stuck... the angine then flamed out and stopped... Lucky guy! I forget which type it was that this happened... An A-7 Corsair has also killed a man before... the engine intake is huge on that... The A-7 had a reputation for FOD damage to the engine... because of the engine intakes location.

I cant open that video either... but if it is an A-6... there ain't no way that you can got through the engine unharmed! The way it could be done is if you remove an engine from the airframe and climb through the space thats left!

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 997

With a bird strike or ingestion the normal proceedure would be to boroscope the compressor to look for any damage there. On the big fan engines is has been found that more often than not the fan tends to centrifuge the bird out clear of the core so it is rare to find any debris. But the M.M. says check any way!
In the A-6 incident the guy was prevented from going all the way in by the stators in front of the first stage of the engine compressor. There are a few survivors of engine ingestion about, all human!!. These guys were "luckily" ingested into engines that had stators in front of the compressor blades. The incidents I have heard about where people walked away were on a VC-10 and a 737-200.
Non survivors include incidents on a Bae-146, a suicide on a B747-100 and recently in Russia sombody was sucked into a CFM-56 on a 737. The only bits of him left were his shoes.
As an engineer I always try to keep as far away as possible from a running jet engine. Some times we have to go up close to do leak checks. This is safe only if you follow the maintenance manual proceedure and use the right safty equipment.(Run guards, harnesses etc)
I always follow the rule "The only safe running engine, is a distant running engine!"

Rgds Cking

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 18

I remember when i done my work experience with British Airways Engineering at Glasgow about 7 years ago (i was still at school), the shuttle from LHR reported a power surge on one engine on approach and thought it was a bird strike. We went out to the plane after it landed and i asked what we were looking for and was told basically blood and feathers.
It was only a visual inspection, no boroscope or anything was used. Just sharing what i remember although it was a while ago so may not be accurate no more :D

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 89

Here is the link to the video in mpg format on RapidShare. this file is bigger, but should play on all players.