An Air Canada Boeing 777 jet took off from Toronto’s Pearson Airport and almost immediately suffered engine failure. Bits of the engine broke, were ejected out the back, and parts of the engine fell to the ground, one bit smashing a car’s windshield.
The pilots immediately registered the loss of one of the two engines, circled around to dump fuel, and then made an emergency landing back at Pearson. The plane was originally bound for Tokyo.
Surprisingly, there were no injuries, and no fatalities. Neither on the plane, nor on the ground.
Appropriate authorities are investigating, but early suspicions point to metal fatigue in the aircraft.
The most important observation is that despite a catastrophic failure of an engine, there were no injuries. While this is no doubt partly luck, it is also partly due to many redundant elements in the aircraft, good training for pilots, emergency readiness in the tower, and other accumulated risk reduction initiatives.