The passengers of flight DAL 104 Delta Air Lines They lived a few seconds of panic aboard a plane that was going to take them to Atlanta, in the United States: The aircraft’s turbine exploded shortly after takeoff.
The dramatic moment, which occurred on the night of Sunday the 29th, was recorded and never ceases to impact. It happened at the Guarulhos International Airport, in Sao Paulo.
The conversation between the pilot and the control tower, which was recorded and later shared in the media, makes it clear that the event never made the captain desperate. «Affirmative, we need to return»said the pilot, who later confirmed that at all times adequate conditions existed to carry out the return maneuver.
Finally, the plane was able to touch down without additional technical problems, and the passengers were treated after the panic.
As soon as the plane took flight, the left engine emitted flashes that led to an explosiontherefore small fragments of the vehicle fell on the airport as a rain of debris engulfed in flames.
As if the accident were not enough, a green sector of the land caught fire and, although it did not become serious, it required the urgent fire service of Guarulhos.
Delta Air Lines canceled the flight, apologized to those involved and issued an explanatory statement stating that The situation was due to a technical failure in the left engine. Other flights were delayed due to this incident.
Why can an airplane turbine explode?
An airplane turbine, or jet engine, can explode or suffer catastrophic failure for several reasons, although in practice experts usually talk about “uncontained engine failure”.
This occurs when an internal part, such as a disc or blade, breaks at high speed and metal fragments pass through the casing. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), these events are extremely rare, but can result in serious damage to the aircraft.
One of the most frequent causes is material fatigue. Turbines operate at extreme temperatures and spin at thousands of revolutions per minute, putting their components under continuous stress. Over time, microcracks can form that are not always visible in standard inspections.
If one of these cracks grows and causes a critical component to break, the energy released may be enough to cause an internal explosion. Investigations of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) linked several incidents to this phenomenon.
Another relevant cause is the impact of external objects, especially birds. If a bird is sucked into the engine, it can damage the compressor blades and cause a sudden loss of operating stability. Although motors are designed to withstand these impacts, in extreme cases the damage can lead to serious failure.
Finally, there are also factors such as manufacturing defects, maintenance errors or design problems. For example, using parts with microscopic flaws or incomplete inspections can miss critical damage.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) noted that the combination of high pressure, heat and speed makes engines extremely demanding systems, where small defects can escalate quickly. Even so, modern aviation has multiple containment and redundancy systems that make this type of failure very rare compared to the number of daily flights.
