Engine That Dropped Off Jetliner Found on Cattle Farm in Florida

MADISON, Fla. — An engine that dropped off a Northwest Airlines jetliner was found Friday on a wooded cattle farm near this North Florida town, federal officials said.

The 3,500-pound Pratt & Whitney engine, which dug a 4-foot-deep crater, was spotted by a Madison County sheriff’s helicopter pilot and was immediately secured until a federal air-safety investigator could reach the site.

“It was roped off, and we were told not to mess with it,” Madison County sheriff’s dispatcher Fred Register said.

Ted Lopatkiewicz, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the nearest investigator was in Tampa, 200 miles from the site. He said the engine would be inspected and then moved to the nearest maintenance facility for further examination.

Sheriff’s deputies said the engine was found on the property of a rancher who reported hearing a loud crash Thursday. Deputies were not able to follow up on the tip until after fog cleared Friday.

The engine, one of three from a Boeing 727, fell off Thursday’s Flight 5 from Miami to Minneapolis. The flight was diverted to Tampa and landed safely with 145 people on board.

Officials believe that the engine will provide the best evidence as to what caused the mishap.

Investigators found the forward-right lavatory had leaked blue-tinted water over the outside of the aircraft. At the 35,000-foot altitude where the right tail-mounted engine fell off, the fluid could have frozen and entered the intake of the engine, an official said.

“That is a possibility,” said Andrew Alston, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Tom Cole noted that engines on a 727 are designed to break off if sudden vibrations threaten to tear a plane apart, and the so-called “blue ice” could cause such vibrations.