Ice Inside Jet Engines Causing Flameouts

Wall Street Journal:

Quote:

Airline Regulators Grapple With Engine-Shutdown Peril Investigators Find
New Icing Threat; FAA Proposes Rules
By ANDY PASZTOR
April 7, 2008; Page A1

As a Qatar Airways flight dodged thunderstorms on approach to Shanghai in 2006, it encountered a problem that, until recently, was considered virtually impossible: nearly four miles above the earth, both engines of the big Airbus A330 shut down at the same time.

The engines quickly restarted and the pilots managed a safe landing. But the incident, along with similar ones before it, set off alarm bells throughout the industry because of the cause: ice inside the engines.

Modern jet engines long were thought to be impervious to internal icing. But airlines, regulators and weather scientists now think otherwise, and have been scrambling to figure out how to handle the hazard. Despite some progress, the shutdowns keep happening. [Full Article]