turn they turn clockwise. Thus if something were to happen to the blades, like in this case, they wouldn’t go to the left. They would go to where the momentum is carrying them. The blades went through the engine compartment and on to the elevator section, which cut the hydraulic lines. (See fig 2) The engine examination was tougher than the tail section. If you have ever tried to put something back together and not have all the pieces, the task is almost impossible. The front section was that missing piece. It was found three months later in Alta, Iowa. This location is where flight 232 experienced the engine failure. Imagine seeing something like Fig 3 falling from 20,000 feet. Upon complete examination it was found that there was weakness in the metal of the blades, which was incorporated when it was made. Over time the crack grew. It took the blades nearly 17,000 hours to finally give way. This should have been detected due to the fact that maintainers frequently examine these blades. Granted the cracks aren’t visible with the naked eye but process known as FPI (field penetrates inspection) is done. In this process the blades are coated with a florescent die and after the dye has dried a florescent light is used and the blades are scanned. Cracks will show up under the light. This exact process was done approximately four months prior to the accident. The crack wasn’t detected. Page 7 One might say that the engine compartment should contain an engine failure. This is true, but this particular engine compartment wasn’t designed to contain a failure of this magnitude.CONCLUSIONS As a result of the research and analysis conducted, the following conclusions were developed. First is the issue of United Airlines maintenance practices. If the maintenance workers had done their job properly they would have found the crack long before the ac...
