Few flight situations are as terrifying as the words "the engine has failed." Even the thought of what is actually an extremely uncommon turn of events puts some people away from flying entirely.
One recent researcher estimate found that 40% of Americans have some form of flying-related fear while 5% have anxiety so bad they are unable to fly at all.
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One such incident unfolded on a Southwest Airlines (LUV) -) flight from Chicago's Midway International Airport (MDW) to Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers that was diverted to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) after the engine on the eleven-year-old Boeing 737-84H (BA) -) unexpectedly gave way.
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'We removed the aircraft from service for a maintenance review...'
"Flight #3163 with scheduled service from Chicago Midway to Fort Myers, Florida, safely diverted to Atlanta Friday evening due to a mechanical indication," a Southwest spokesperson confirmed to TheStreet. "The flight landed safely in Atlanta without incident and no injuries reported, where we removed the aircraft from service for a maintenance review and reaccommodated the 122 customers on another aircraft, with a delay of approximately three hours."
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The investigation into what caused the engine failure is currently ongoing but, in the moment, one of the flight crew members noticed that it was not working properly approximately an hour and twenty minutes into the flight and declared an emergency.
The flight was approximately 100 nautical miles northwest of Atlanta and received permission to land on runway 09L at Hartsfield Jackson from air traffic controllers. The plane was at 39,000 feet and was able to descend safely about an hour before midnight local time.
'We appreciate our crew's dedication to operating out of an abundance of caution and safety'
Southwest immediately classified the incident as a mechanical issue and took the plane out of commission while the 122 passengers aboard waited for a replacement flight. A new Boeing 737-800 was sent over and departed Atlanta at 12:48 a.m. to touch down at Fort Myers at 01:56 a.m. local time.
"We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate our crew's dedication to operating out of an abundance of caution and safety," the spokesperson further said.
Back in September, a similar incident took place on a long-haul Delta Air Lines (DAL) -) flight from Prague to New York. Shortly after flying out of Václav Havel Airport (PRG), the Boeing 767 emitted a plume of grey smoke from its right engine.
As it was less than 2,900 feet in the air and 30 minutes from takeoff, flight crew were able to turn the plane back around and land it back in Prague without any injuries for the plane to be taken out of commission and investigated. Another time, a Delta flight out of Minneapolis had an engine give way over Lake Michigan but the pilot was able to safely divert it to the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapide.
Numbers from the FAA show that engine failures occur once for every 375,000 flight hours — incidents that, while dangerous and scary when they do occur, are extremely rare when compared to the many other things that can go wrong aboard a flight.
