Engine Drops out of B-52 During Training at Minot Air Force

[pawlee1]

By: Valerie Insinna and Aaron Mehta
Defense News

January 4, 2017

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. — An engine dropped out of a B-52 bomber during a training flight on Wednesday, the Air Force has confirmed following questions from Defense News.

Because the B-52 runs on eight Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines, pilots were able to land the aircraft safely without any injury to the five personnel on board. The Air Force has since dispatched a UH-1N Huey helicopter to recover engine debris, which was found located in an unpopulated area about 25 nautical miles northeast of Minot AFB, an Air Force spokesman said in a statement.

There were no weapons onboard the B-52, which belongs to Minot’s 5th Bomb Wing and was conducting a training mission, he said.

The service was not able to provide the root cause of the mishap, but the spokesman said an initial safety investigation has been initiated.

The incident could also ignite debate about whether and how to re-engine the service’s B-52 inventory. The Boeing-manufactured bomber has been flying since 1952 and is expected to remain operating until around 2040, depending on when it is fully replaced by the Northrop Grumman’s B-21.

USAF Looking at B-52 Engine Options

In 2015, Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes, deputy chief of staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements, said the service was especially interested in a public-private partnership, which would keep it from having to funnel procurement dollars into a new engine program.

“The idea is in a public-private partnership, somebody funds the engine and then we pay them back over time out of the fuel savings, which are generated out of the new engines," he said then.

Pratt & Whitney has proposed an upgrade package for the TF33-P-3/103 engines that would make them less expensive to maintain.

Analysts have also floated the Pratt PW2000, known as the F117 when installed on military aircraft, as a potential substitute for the TF33. Engine manufacturers General Electric and Rolls-Royce could also offer their own replacements.

There are currently 76 B-52s in the Air Force’s inventory.
Well it was like this boss ......................................
Courtesy of MSF

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The incident could also ignite debate about whether and how to re-engine the service’s B-52 inventory.

I really hate this modern style of "journalism" where they've clearly not got enough information to write a long enough article to publish on its own so they've googled "B-52 engine" and tried to relate it......

"Engine drops out" vs. "recover engine debris" - I'm sure what actually happened wasn't very exciting.

[Snoop 95]

Quite close to the Canadian border if it was 25 miles NE of Minot.

[nickowen]

"The dreaded seven-engine approach"

[jem60]

NICKOWEN, Thought exactly the same when I saw the thread title.

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It's easy to joke about losing one engine on a B-52, but to put some context around that losing two is serious. A six engine asymmetric approach is the "worst case scenario" that pilots train for.

[jem60]

I suspect it isn't half as bad as asymmetric on a Canberra or a Meteor tho'. Then again on a '52, it would depend on which were the two dead ones. Both outboard would pose a little problem, but again, not as bad as the aforementioned types. [Been talking to a Meteor F.8 pilot friend about this only last week.} As he said, at least you could cut the opposing thrust on the other wing to compensate if you ran out of rudder.. No choice in a meatbox or Canberra.

[H.A.Bucken]

'Drop out' v. drop off? Was it carrying a spare in the bomb-bay or on a pylon?? Actually, if it was one from a nacelle, it would suggest one had been undergoing maintenance and the job hadn't been signed off satisfactorily. Anyway, no-one got hurt!
'scenic in the mist'.

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Indeed, I remember when the RAF's Canberra T4 trainer crashed (2004) the topic of asymmetric training coming up - wasn't it too dangerous to even train for or something like that? The Buff losing two or more engines can cause significant hydraulic as well as power and stability problems, and probably some irritating electrical problems too.

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'Drop out' v. drop off? Was it carrying a spare in the bomb-bay or on a pylon?? Actually, if it was one from a nacelle, it would suggest one had been undergoing maintenance and the job hadn't been signed off satisfactorily. Anyway, no-one got hurt!
'scenic in the mist'.

I agree that there's more to this than what's been shared. If it was a regular powered up engine that literally dropped off of a wing then it'd almost certainly be a Class A mishap due to its value and they wouldn't just send a security forces Huey to pick some pieces up!

[adderman]

Hi folks.

If it's the whole engine the Huey might just be dropping off a couple of guards to secure the scene until a recovery crew can reclaim whatever fell off.

Either way thankfully nobody got hurt but someone's career might be on the line.

Mike

[mushbuster]

Reports suggest it ended up in a river, would have made a big splash as they weigh just short of two tons

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Wow, that's a big piece of aircraft to lose! Flightglobal initially said "Minot deployed its 54th Helicopter Squadron to search for engine pieces and has located possible debris in an unpopulated area about 25nm (46km) northeast of the base, the air force says." That makes a lot more sense!

I'm not an engineer, but it'd be interesting to know how easy it'd be for an engine to "slide" out of this fixing?

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Latest reports suggest the engine had a "misfire", shattered into many pieces and fell to the ground - that sounds a lot more common than an engine dropping off the wing!

[graham luxton]

I once video'd a 7 engine'd B-52H - this was at Fairford during the Allied Force bombing of Kosovo in 1999 when 96th BS 60-059/LA-r (96th BS special marks) was parked next to the fence at the West end for several days with one of its inboard engines missing from the port wing.

Whether this resulted from an engine mishap or maintenance issue I've no idea.