This was my second thought!
I just spent way too long looking for that freaky story where a kid sees a woman in a rocking chair on the wing of the plane while they’re flying through a storm. I can’t find it, but I remember that image scaring me even more than the gremlin, it was so incongruous…
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Ron White reference in 1st post. Top of the line work!
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That’s one way to get two gates down at Denver
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I’d assume on that part, you’re only really in danger the exact moment the engine explodes. After that point, it’s spinning slowly only due to the force of the wind on the turbine blades, it’s no longer fast enough to eject parts into the fuslage. So i doubt that seat would be in any more danger than the rest of the plane.
Fire could be an issue, but then again, if the fuslage catches fire the whole plane is equally in danger there too…
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In my defense (well not really) the line is not original to White, either. I first read it in an article about a WW2 twin-engine plane, possibly the Mosquito, and it may go back farther than that.
My policy is to steal from primary sources as much as possible.
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Ha, good to know. I’m sure that comment has evolved multiple times over the years…
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ya, you’re right I’m sure. I must admit when I find myself seated in the middle of an airplane I do a quick “where will the shrapnel go” evaluation so maybe a little too focused on this unlikely outcome 
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One of my sayings is: “Nobody reads the maintenance logs until after the accident.”
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My understanding is that the practice now is to design planes with the assumption that a percentage of fasteners is counterfeit and to mix parts from different batches to minimize the chance that a bunch of counterfeit parts will be used together.
Not the case.
If a supplier cannot guarantee their supply chain then they stop being a supplier. It’s common for entire batches of fasteners to be discarded because the heritage cannot be determined.
In certain applications such as military or NASA the fasteners must verify compliance with the Berry amendment. Suppliers who want diverse customers know to just stock compliant parts.
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Its a bit biased though. Nobody keeps track of how many accidents are avoided through carefully reading maintenance logs.
Full disclosure, I work at a large company that makes things that go whoosh and zoom. I work on avionics, but not engines.
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Glad to hear it. Since I have no idea where I read the information I posted earlier, we can regard it as anecdotal and unreliable.
Don’t sit across from the engine. It can throw a titanium fan blade a quarter mile so your head wouldn’t even slow it down much.
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I was on a flight out of SFO to Boston in early 1990 when the rear engine of the DC-10 started to rattle and shake and then there were two catastrophically loud bangs – we were probably over about Stockton – then the whole airplane felt like an off-balance washing machine. As soon as the engine was shut down they started dumping fuel but did not circle around to burn off fuel and headed straight back for SFO. The plane was still very heavy and while the landing itself was fine, the plane bottomed out on the gear (that is, the full range of the gear). Mind you this on United just 6-7 months after UA232 that crashed in Sioux City, so the FAs must have been pretty nervous, but they were (of course) awesome.
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Some are calling this an uncontained engine failure because the nacelle and casing disintegrated and separated (probably due to aerodynamic forces rather than the initial “explosion”).
Although the fan blades are mostly intact and didn’t penetrate the housing so it’s not technically an uncontained failure. The engine casing did its job.
As did the pilots who train for these types of events.
Scary and dramatic for sure but not really all that dangerous all things considered. These planes are designed and certified to operate in all phases of flight on just one engine.
UA232 is an example of a catastrophic uncontained engine failure where the fan blades came off and severed multiple redundant hydraulic lines needed for flight controls. The pilots on that flight are true heroes and managed to land using nothing but differential engine thrust to steer.
Dramatic and scary for those involved but hardly warrants the wall to wall news coverage and breathless reporting with remote camera crews following NTSB trucks as they pick up debris from people’s yards.
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That plane wasn’t loaded properly on the ground. Once it hit the spin cycle…
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There’s a Democratic Socialist! On the wing! Of the plane!
