Engine Failures:A Review of Recent Engine Failure Data and Considerations for Future Training

摘要

Many pilots will never experience an in-flight engine malfunction in their flying careers thanks to modern engine designs and vigorous preventive maintenance practices. In fact, present day turbofan designs are so reliable that the average in-flight shut-down rate is less than once in 10,000 flight hours. Within the business jet industry the number of reported engine-failure events for a recent 12- year period clearly reflects these trends. A review of business jet engine-failure events by Business & Commercial Aviation found 201 reportable incidents (15 accidents in the U.S. NTSB database and 186 incidents in the U.S. FAA incident database) in a recent 12-year period. Three of the 201 engine failures resulted in fatal injuries. Thankfully the remainder of the engine-failure accidents (12 out of the 15 total engine-failure accidents) and 186 engine-failure incidents were resolved without further aircraft damage and without injury to the aircraft occupants. However, after several high public accidents in the 1990’s involving misdiagnosis of engine malfunctions, some officials in the FAA and the industry questioned whether present training is adequate to correctly diagnose and respond to these relatively infrequent, but potentially significant, engine malfunctions.