Gas turbine engines pull in massive volumes of air, creating a powerful vacuum at the inlet that can easily pull in birds, runway debris, or loose hardware. When this material hits the spinning compressor blades, it causes foreign object damage that can destroy the engine, trigger a compressor stall, or cause an uncontained failure. Ground crews meticulously sweep ramps and runways to prevent this.
Heard on the job
Shut down the right engine, I think we just ingested a gull on the takeoff roll.
Insider tip
Mechanics often check the acoustic liners and first-stage fan blades with a borescope if an ingestion event is even suspected, as micro-cracks can cause catastrophic failure later.