B-52 Loses Engine While Flying Over North Dakota | Military.com

Wow, wonder if that engine was recently swapped? Shades of 1995 at KBAD? I had just taken off in front of the jet that dropped the pod, flew a full training sortie and landed before they finally did.

Hope this isn't a becoming a systemic issue... Oh yeah, and SECAF is in town right now...

I'll be the first to chime in with the "dreaded 7 engine approach" comment.

Hopefully everyone on the ground is safe.

Almost seems like the pod itself would have fallen off...in that case the even more dreaded six-engine approach.

I'm guessing that there is a "yoke" on each pylon, which has (typically) three attach points for the engine....in such a scenario, one engine can come loose, and the other stays.

Those mechanics end up working at AA and Delta. The government should send the planes to El Salvador. They have far more experience and work for less than military personell. Think of all the tax dollars that would be saved with the added benefit of airframes staying intact.

Never flew it and I know nothing of the airplane. My only qualification is that I saw one up close on a ramp. Why the acronym?

Big? Ok, yes.
Ugly? Not in my opinion
Fat? No way. Proportionally, it is long, lean and slender looking.
Fu***r? This one totally belongs to those that fly/have flown her.

Compared to a B-58, the B-52 looks pretty fat and ugly.

Military equipment is maintained at roughly three levels...


Organizational (squadron): Routine maintenance, possibly including engine swaps. This is done by active duty folks, and as you pointed out they have less experience than their civilian equivalents.

Intermediate: More in-depth capability, active duty augmented with civilians.

Depot: Heavy repairs, periodic heavy airframe checks, SLEPs. This work is done by experienced contractors and/or civil servants with few or no active duty.

The catch: The organizational maintainers have to be forward deployable (such as 9 months at sea on a warship), and even able to pick up a weapon and shoot bad guys if it comes to that. For this reason they have to be active duty and willing to tolerate the lifestyle which precludes many older experienced folks.

So the military isn't as dumb as you think...they use experienced civilian maintainers where they can, and less experienced but combat-capable active duty where they must.

Indeed, after the 1995 pod dropping incident, the T.O. was updated to include the dreaded "3 pod approach"...

"Everyone grab a throttle, we're going around"