Imagine this. You’re going about your busy day without much thought about what’s going on above your head and then Bam! There’s a bit of an explosion and pieces of metal start falling, some the size of a BlackBerry–others bigger. Not as big as a house, but bigger than a BlackBerry.
“Was Chicken Little right?” you might ask yourself and whoever else is close by, providing those people weren’t beaned by the falling objects.
This scenario is similar to what happened yesterday when an American Airlines flight out of LaGuardia heading for Chicago had an engine explode. Luckily, the plane was designed to fly on just one engine so the plane headed to JFK and landed safely.
Also, luckily, the engine parts fell over an industrial area. Instead of landing on Jimmy and Susy playing on their backyard swing set (although it is still cold out so perhaps they wouldn’t have been out in the backyard), the parts landed on top of a warehouse and scattered across a parking lot, cracking windshields and one of the building’s skylights.
Can’t you just hear the “My words!?” and “What the heck?!” of the people working inside the building? Particularly when they went outside and saw the small pieces of titanium like metal scattered every which way.
There is an investigation to find out what caused the explosion. The McDonnell Douglas-80 plane had 88 passengers on board who now have an interesting story to tell about the time they helped make the sky fall.
The airline’s take is that these things happen. True, but a bit unnerving. I’ve been on three planes that have been diverted because of engine trouble. I wonder if anyone had to duck and cover down below? [via wcbstv.com]