Airlineratings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas has appeared on Channel 7’s top-rating Sunrise morning show discussing the Qantas Boeing 737 engine drama.
Thomas told viewers that an engine shutdown on the Qantas Boeing 737NG, which is powered by two CFM56 engines, is extremely rare – one in 95 years of flying, on average.
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And an engine shutdown in the cruise part of the flight is even rarer with 99.95 per cent of engine failures happening within 15 minutes of take-off.
Typically, those take-off engine failures are because of bird strikes.
For two engine failures for independent reasons, you would have to fly for 7,000 years – back to the Ice Age.
All twin-engine commercial aircraft are certified to fly on one engine.
When the aircraft is certified to fly it must be demonstrated that it can take off fully loaded and suffer an engine failure on take-off and continue to climb.
There are 33,000 CFM56 engines in service around the world and it is the most reliable engine in commercial service.
Qantas was named the world’s safest airline earlier this month by Airlineratings.com.
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