AA 757 from Hawaii lands safely at LAX after one engine quits

*sniff* I thought I was special

Current or not.... I assume one of your ratings was on a B747, correct....? Wow, that means you could also fly an A380 if you had do.....

One of the latest industry discussions suggest the problem was a faulty EPR indication. The RB211 engine in the AA 757's has indicators for N1, N2, N3 and EPR. Because the engine has three independent fans/turbines generating increasing air pressure the three N's are the rotating speeds of those turbines. EPR is an indication of engine pressure. RB211's have a history of occasional faulty EPR readings, but because it is not easy to know if there is a real fault or not it is wiser to shut down the engine if they're fairly close to arrive, as this flight was.

That is a perfectly plausible explanation, but the report comes from a pilots discussion group and is just as reliable as are ours on the subjects of miles and points. That is to say, I suspect this is what happened, but I would believe it until there is an official report. In the end most of these cases generate drama because they are rare, but are actually not emergencies at all.

BTW, any failure of flight equipment in flight must be reported, so you'll sometimes hear a pilot reporting that navigation sensor #4 has failed. No problem. In fact, airplanes used for commercial flights must have a "minimum equipment list" that states what equipment must work if the aircraft is to be dispatched. There are lots of things that do not need to work for dispatch, mostly because all major systems are triple redundant and communications and navigation equipment is too.

I have no Boeing or Airbus type ratings. Mine are all in "little stuff". CE525S, CE500, DA10, LRJET, and another one I forget.
The DA10 is a Dassault Falcon and is a very cool airplane. The LRJET is the original Learjet and is good for all the original models. It is the prize because the original Lears were notoriously difficult to fly (half of the original LR23 fleet crashed in the first year, spawning the modern system of type ratings), and my most treasured one CE525S. The "S" means I am certified to fly it as a single pilot, and single pilot jet type ratings are fairly rigorous.

You are!!

Cool.... well, big or small bird, Im guessing your chances of landing a B744 is better than that of any MS Flight Simulator expert...

I am pretty good at crashing it, though. Sometimes I even hit the airport.

We are flying LAX-HNL in May, I hope my wife (who hates flying) doesn't hear about this.

I'd rather be on a 757 than a DC10 on this route!

Yes, and I'd rather have Brussels sprouts than beets with my dinner. Though, frankly neither sit all that well!

Apologies to any beet farmers on here. Or Belgians.

Wow!

There is a night and day difference in miles per fatality between the two models.

Twice I've been on flights that have "lost" an engine after the midpoint. On the second one, we followed emergency procedures (end service and store all loose items, brace position, instruct the exit rows, etc.) and were met by fire equipment.

better get re-certified so you can come to Maui for my airplane ride.

Just checked into my koa flight, on a side note i learned while checking in koa is the only domestic code that begins with k, kinda interesting

Alaska seems to hold several counterexamples. See http://www.airportcodes.us/us-airports.htm.

At only 1 hour off-shore I'm not even sure it needs to be ETOPS rated so much as over-water equipped. Either way, there is a margin of error built in, but still not so comfortable as a passenger.

Aramean, I agree of course on the margin of safety and also agree on the passenger discomfort nevertheless. Where I am missing something is your not being sure it needs to be ETOPS rated. It is roughly 4 - 5 hours overwater from Kona to Los Angeles, so why wouldn't it have to be? It turns out the shutdown wasn't until one hour off the California shore, but obviously no one knew when that rating requirement was put in when such a shutdown would occur. So I would think ETOPS mandatory of course. As I say, what am I missing in your post?

I think what he's saying is that an aircraft could fly off-shore with one hour to the nearest airport and wouldn't require ETOPS. For KOA-LAX, of course, you're further away from an airport during significant parts of the flight, so ETOPS would be required.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

"ETOPS applies to twins on routes with diversion time more than 60 minutes at one engine inoperative speed."

I believe AA 757's have 3 hour ETOPS capability--what I meant was that the 1 hour was within that time period.