This TACA 110 episode has to be the most amazing feat of flying in this entire series -- starting with the fact that the 29-year-old pilot, Carlos Dardano, had only one eye - lost when he was shot in the face while flying a ferry service around the country during the Salvadoran Civil War. It's also one of the few episodes where no real crew error was involved. During a Level 4 thunderstorm, the brand-new Boeing 737 was preparing for a landing when it lost its engines. The crew managed to restart both engines, but they were not providing any thrust and promptly overheated. To avoid a catastrophic fire, the crew had to shut off both the normally very reliable CFM-56 engines.
They couldn't reach any airport, and their second option for landing, the highway, was rejected for fear of additional loss of life. Therefore, they were going to attempt to ditch the plane in Michoud Canal, one of the many canals in and around New Orleans. However, at the last minute, the crew spotted a narrow, soggy levee adjacent to the water. Despite his loss of 3-dimensional vision, Captain Dardano managed to deadstick the landing on the levee, using a side-slip to get there (side-slips are intended for gliders & light planes, not 47-ton jets). He also managed to stop the plane in time, despite having no reverse thrusters to slow the plane. For the first time in history, a 737 without any engines landed safely outside of an airport. All the passengers were fine.
Jet engines are made to handle thunderstorms and hail, so it took a lot of time to recreate the reason why the brand-new engines flamed out. The problem was that the engines were only at 35% power because they were in idle/descent mode, slowing for the landing. While larger hail was still kept out by the engine's design, at the slower speed, smaller hail was able to get in, past the fan and compressor blades, to the engine core. That quickly melted hail, added to all the rain coming in, overwhelmed the engines, causing them to fail.
To avoid similar problems in the future, the manufacturer made several modifications to its CFM-56 engines: Adding a sensor to force the combustor to continuously ignite under heavy rain or hail conditions; modifying the engine nose cone and the spacing of the fan blades to better deflect hail away from the engine core; and adding more bleed doors to drain more water from the engine. Truly an amazing story!
They couldn't reach any airport, and their second option for landing, the highway, was rejected for fear of additional loss of life. Therefore, they were going to attempt to ditch the plane in Michoud Canal, one of the many canals in and around New Orleans. However, at the last minute, the crew spotted a narrow, soggy levee adjacent to the water. Despite his loss of 3-dimensional vision, Captain Dardano managed to deadstick the landing on the levee, using a side-slip to get there (side-slips are intended for gliders & light planes, not 47-ton jets). He also managed to stop the plane in time, despite having no reverse thrusters to slow the plane. For the first time in history, a 737 without any engines landed safely outside of an airport. All the passengers were fine.
Jet engines are made to handle thunderstorms and hail, so it took a lot of time to recreate the reason why the brand-new engines flamed out. The problem was that the engines were only at 35% power because they were in idle/descent mode, slowing for the landing. While larger hail was still kept out by the engine's design, at the slower speed, smaller hail was able to get in, past the fan and compressor blades, to the engine core. That quickly melted hail, added to all the rain coming in, overwhelmed the engines, causing them to fail.
To avoid similar problems in the future, the manufacturer made several modifications to its CFM-56 engines: Adding a sensor to force the combustor to continuously ignite under heavy rain or hail conditions; modifying the engine nose cone and the spacing of the fan blades to better deflect hail away from the engine core; and adding more bleed doors to drain more water from the engine. Truly an amazing story!
