What happened
The flight crew of N52DC was climbing through flight level 280 when they experienced a violent shudder in the airframe. Immediately following this event, indications of a left engine failure were observed. A visual examination of the left engine revealed that the fan section had separated, resulting in an uncontrollable failure and tearaway.
Despite the severe mechanical issue, the airplane was landed without any further incident. No injuries or fatalities were reported during the event.
The investigation
A post-accident examination of the recovered parts was conducted to determine the root cause of the engine failure. The inspection focused on the components of the left engine that had failed.
Findings
The technical analysis revealed that the fan disc failed catastrophically. The failure was attributed to low cycle fatigue within the metal structure of the disc. This mechanical degradation led to the separation of the fan section during flight operations.