This is an excellent example of why any prudent traveler [to the Far East] should generally
stick with North American carriers, Western European carriers and a few
other carriers like Quantas, Air New Zealand, and Singapore.
A pilot for a Chinese carrier requested permission and landed at FRA
Frankfurt, Germany) for an unscheduled refueling stop. The reason became
soon apparent to the ground crew: The Number 3 engine had been shut down
because of excessive vibration, and because it didn't look so good. It
had apparently been no problem for the tough guys back in China: they
took some sturdy straps and wrapped them around several of the fan blades
and the structures behind, thus stopping any unwanted windmilling (engine
spinning by itself due to airflow
passing thru the blades during flight) and associated uncomfortable
vibration caused by the suboptimal fan.
Note that the straps are seatbelts....how resourceful!
After making the "repairs", off they went into the wild blue yonder with
another revenue-making flight on only three engines! With the increased
fuel consumption, they got a bit low on fuel, and just set it down at the
closest airport for a quick refill. That's when the problems started: The
Germans, who are kind of picky about this stuff, inspected the
malfunctioning engine and immediately grounded the aircraft.
(Besides the seatbelts, notice the appalling condition of the fan blades.)
The airline operator had to send a chunk of money to get the first engine
replaced (took about 10 days) The repair contractor decided to do some
impromptu inspection work on the other engines, none of which looked all
that great either.
The result: a total of 3 engines were eventually changed on this plane
before it was permitted to fly again.
