Part of engine cowl doors rips off during takeoff
Corrections and clarifications: A YouTube video that was placed in this post did not meet Paste BN standards and has since been removed. Also, the headline has been revised to clarify that the damaged part of the jet was the engine cowl doors, as stated in the story.
When you look out the window as your plane starts taking off, you might see a blur of gray concrete, other aircraft taxiing toward their own runways or a giant sheet of metal ripping loose from near the wing and spiraling away from the plane. That's the not-at-all terrifying image that one passenger on a Sky Airline flight filmed from his window seat.
The plane was taking off from Santiago-Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Chile when the metal — part of the engine cowl doors — tore away from the wing. The flight returned to the airport shortly after takeoff without incident. Well, without another incident. No injuries were reported and 122 of the 137 passengers were placed on a different flight to Copiapo. (We're slightly concerned where the other 15 passengers went; maybe they'd had enough air travel for the day. Or forever).
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According to an incident report posted on Aviation Safety Network:
"Sky Airline flight H2-112 returned to land at Santiago-Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Chile after both engine cowl doors of the no. 1 engine broke off during departure. The Airbus A319 took off from runway 35R at 07:39 hours local time (10:39 UTC). After losing both cowlings on the no.1 CFMI CFM56-5B5/P engine the aircraft circled back and landed safely on runway 35L at 08:04 hours."
According to ASN, this is "at least" the 39th time an aircraft in the Airbus A320 family has lost an engine cowl door.
"Sky Flight 112 suffered partial detachment of one piece covering an engine," the airline tweeted. "[This] fact did not imply risks to passenger safety." Sky – Chile's second largest carrier – has recently started offering extremely low-cost flights and hopes to offer air travel for the same price as a bus ticket. A round trip flight from Santiago to Copiapo starts at $58.