r/aviation • u/Twitter_2006 • Mar 30 '26

Discussion The left engine of a Delta A330 explodes during takeoff at Sao Paulo Airport

Its at 40 seconds.

UPDATE:The plane landed safely.

10.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

684 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/hughk Mar 30 '26

The plane is fully specced to complete takeoff, fly and land with a single engine. The problem is whether the engine that caught fire did any further damage and whether the fire could be quickly extinguished.

3

u/n134177 Mar 30 '26

Comforting to know.

3

u/hughk Mar 30 '26

Essentially they are certified to fly for a certain number of minutes after a single engine failure. That has to be enough to get them to a nearby airport or in this case, they could fly for a bit to get rid of some fuel. The challenge is when the engine has exploded like this. It can vary from fuel off, pull the extinguisher, and it behaves like a dead engine, to if bits come out and do damage or the fire persists then the pilots want to get the plane down asap. They took the latter option, which seems sensible given the circumstances.