The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has begun investigating a September 5 uncontained engine failure on a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-200 carrying 127 people. Flight 1418 had just taken off from Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport bound for Orlando when the engine, identified by the NTSB as a Pratt & Whitney turbofan, failed and ejected shrapnel. The crew immediately shut down the engine and safely returned to Atlanta. No injuries resulted from the incident. Delta’s 757s use Pratt & Whitney PW2037 turbofans.
The latest uncontained failure involving a U.S. passenger flight comes less than six months after a CFM56-7B turbofan on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 ejected a fan blade during a flight from New York to Dallas, killing a passenger seated next to the window that shattered as a result.