B777-200
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
At approximately 6;000 FT climbing out a jolt was felt in the airframe with a mild shudder that decreased in magnitude over a period of about 30 seconds. The shudder reduced to zero. During the initial event the left EGT indication cycled rapidly from min to max and then failed. Except for the missing EGT indication; all engine indications were normal. An emergency was declared and ARFF was requested. A turn to 180 degrees was requested so that we would be on a right downwind for the runway. The Emergency Landing and Overweight Landing checklists were accomplished. A flap 25 landing was performed with a landing weight of approximately 620;000 LBS. Reverse was not used on the left engine and full reverse was used on the right. Manual braking was applied at approximately 130 KTS. All but about 1;000 FT of runway was used. After clearing the runway we requested ARFF perform a visual inspection of the left engine and the brakes. The onboard brake temperature system showed all temperatures less than 5.0 except for brake #5 indicating 5.1 and brake #9 indicating 5.5. Most brakes were indicating less than 4.0. ARFF said the left brake was smoking and applied water to all brakes; left and right side; to cool what I thought were fairly normal brake temperatures for this situation. I was unable to communicate directly with the Fire Chief. A discrete frequency was requested from Ground Control. We were told that we would have to communicate through the Ground Controller to the Fire Chief. I requested that we be towed to the gate to deplane the passengers. Ground requested we deplane the passengers on the taxiway using stairs. I requested a gate several times. I was unable to get the aircraft to a gate and the aircraft was towed to the ramp and deplaned using stairs. The passengers were bussed to the terminal.
[No additional information contained in this report.]
The crew of a Boeing 777-200 climbing through about 6;000 FT felt a jolt and a mild shudder that dissipated to zero after approximately 30 seconds; followed by failure of the left engine EGT. All other indications remained normal; an emergency was declared and a return and overweight landing was conducted at the departure airport.