The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the July 10 Ryanair/Malta Air Flight 1879 engine failure. The findings raise a new and still-unresolved question: whether a pattern of undetected bird-strike damage played any role in the fan blade fatigue that ultimately caused the blade to fracture.
According to the report, released August 13, roughly 37% of the fracture surface on the failed fan blade showed features consistent with metal fatigue. Investigators also disclosed that flight crews had reported four suspected bird strikes to the same No. 2 engine over the preceding 12 months, with bird remains recovered after two of those earlier incidents. Maintenance inspections following all four reports found no damage.
What the Preliminary Report Found
The NTSB’s account traces a chain of physical evidence recovered from the wreckage of the CFM56-7B26 engine that powered the No. 2 position on the Boeing 737-8AS involved in the accident. Fan blade No. 10 fractured through its dovetail, the root section that locks the blade into the fan disk, while two additional blades, Nos. 16 and 21, lost material at their outer tips.
Metallurgical examination of blade No. 10’s fracture surface identified ratchet marks consistent with multiple fatigue origins, along with fretting damage around the dovetail contact area and its adjoining shim. Scanning electron microscopy then confirmed fatigue striations across roughly a third of the break. Investigators traced the fatigue origin to the blade’s concave side near the trailing edge.
Separately, investigators recovered bird remains, including feathers, from several locations inside the engine, among them the forward face of the integrated drive generator oil cooler and the lower fan case near the thrust-reverser split flange. The Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab is now analyzing those remains for species identification.
An Open Question, Not a Determined Cause
The NTSB has been careful to note that the presence of bird remains does not establish that a bird strike caused the fan blade to fracture. The report states plainly that the investigation is continuing and that its preliminary findings remain subject to change.
What the report does establish is a maintenance history likely to draw scrutiny. The engine underwent ultrasonic fan blade inspections under CFM Service Bulletin 72-1033 Rev. 3 in November 2025 and again on May 24, 2026, just 253 flight cycles before the accident, with no findings either time. CFM introduced that service bulletin after an earlier CFM56 fan-blade-out event killed a passenger.
Investigators now face an unresolved question: whether repeated bird encounters, even ones inspectors cleared at the time, could have introduced or accelerated a fatigue crack that ultrasonic testing failed to catch before it grew large enough to fail catastrophically. As FODNews reported when the NTSB previously pushed back on Ryanair’s early FOD claim, airline leadership had pointed to a foreign object strike within days of the accident, well before investigators had access to the physical evidence detailed in this report.
The aircraft also had not yet received hardware enhancements mandated by three 2025 FAA airworthiness directives covering the fan cowl, inlet, and exhaust nozzle fasteners on CFM56-7B-powered 737s. Regulators issued those directives after the 2016 and 2018 Southwest Airlines fan-blade-out accidents, and they carry a compliance deadline of July 2028, meaning the modifications were not yet legally required at the time of the Ryanair accident.
Recap: How the Investigation Got Here
FR1879 was climbing out of Thessaloniki, Greece, bound for Memmingen, Germany, when the No. 2 engine failed, sending debris through the fuselage and shattering a cabin window at row 11. A passenger was partially pulled through the opening before others aboard pulled him back in. FODNews covered the initial incident as the crew returned the aircraft safely to Thessaloniki.
In the weeks that followed, FODNews examined the early FOD-related theories surrounding the failure, before the NTSB’s public statements complicated Ryanair’s preferred narrative.
The NTSB’s final report, which will assign probable cause, is not expected for 12 to 24 months. Boeing, GE Aerospace, and Safran Aircraft Engines are participating as technical advisors, alongside accredited representatives from Greece, Malta, and France.
Sources
- NTSB Investigation DCA26FA274 — Official Preliminary Report
- Al Jazeera: Engine debris shattered Ryanair window, pulling passenger out, NTSB says
- South China Morning Post: Bird remains found in engine after man nearly sucked out window on Ryanair flight
- FODNews: Ryanair FR1879 Fan Blade Failure Shatters Window, Injures Passenger Over Greece
- FODNews: NTSB Opens Investigation Into FR1879 Fan Blade Failure and FOD Claims
- FODNews: NTSB Rebukes Ryanair’s O’Leary Over Early FOD Claim in FR1879 Investigation
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