Because I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to air, pressure and force calculations, I tried to run a bit of maths on this but it’s actually hugely complicated to model in reality.

Well...

This is a little before my time - I think most of the incidents were - and you do have to bear in mind that more modern turbofan design and testing regimes means that a chunk of blue ice is going to do nothing more than momentarily raise the crews’ eyes from their crosswords.

Absolutely 100% spot on. I am sure there are people here old enough and/or educated enough to know the significance of My Lai - very little difference psychologically.

Of course. My reply was a tongue-in-cheek response to someone else and I’m not a walking encyclopedia on aircraft/airframe configs and accident scenarios, despite what a lot of people appear to assume when you mention you are a pilot!

Indeed. I’ve had a few replies in this vein and I think it’s my (probably inappropriate) ex-military humour not being well received or appreciated by civilians.

Whoever gave you that job needs a bottle of 25 year old single malt from every buffoon who couldn’t be arsed to use a plastic cover with a flag that costs a couple of dollars. They owe you too...

The choice in this situation is actually removed. Should a stress occur that poses a risk to the airframe, the engine is gone. Simple as...

Sadly, it’s not that simple. All modern turbofans are actually at least three independant compressors and turbines turning at different rpms on a common shaft.

You are absolutely correct in that Airbus flight controls are mathematically ‘summed’. A full-forward stick deflection from the left hand seat and a full-aft stick deflection from the right hand seat will result in nothing happening, but I’m pretty sure this was not the case here.

I genuinely can’t think of anything that’s fallen off that we didn’t want to fall off (important safety distinction, folks). The static wick count is basically “Glance up - enough? Enough. Carry on.” but never chunks of actual airframe. Once you start counting properly, it’s a trip down the rabbit hole into the MEL.

I’m struggling to imagine a scenario where you would get instant cessation of rotation of the spools; even with something like a catastrophic oil system failure or a flock of geese going right down the middle through the turbines, I’m not aware of any modern turbofan shaking itself off the pylon in that kind of…

Yeah... I think you’ve misunderstood everything I’ve written...

I do remember the trepidation as a young lad knocking on a stranger’s door and asking ‘please, sir, can we have our ball back?’

Bear in mind that in a fully developed stall, most of the big airliners will kind of mush down in a slightly nose-high attitude rather than the more spectacular wing-drop of light aircraft.

They got into a situation where they didn’t believe what the aircraft instruments were telling them. In Normal Law if you pull back on the stick until it hits the stops, an Airbus will give you the best climb performance it has *without stalling.* Pitch will be controlled by the aircraft and the autothrottle will…

I think you’re probably safe. However, if a giant rabbit appears and wants you to follow it into your yard, it might be a wise precaution to comply!

It’s not automatic on anything I’ve flown but among the first ‘recall’ actions is a requirement to pull the fire handle for your unamusingly awol engine into the ‘arm’ position - this cuts off all fuel and hydraulic supplies at the root of the wing and also close to the engine fairing, by closing electric valves.

I’ve just been texted by a colleague of mine who has read this with, essentially, a single word - ‘DHL’.

The A330... very much so. The tubes are basically a tapered metal device mounted on a stalk that face forwards - there is nothing to separate them from any light aircraft other than we have three - one for the captain, one for the first officer, one for the standby instrumentation.