Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 245; Flight Crew Total 8000; Flight Crew Type 878
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Rejected Takeoff; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Cleared for takeoff while in position on the runway - pushed power up to 40% and then began pushing up to takeoff power - aircraft started veering left - pulled power back to idle. At first thought maybe I had not waited until power stabilized at 40% and the reason for veering left at start of takeoff roll was because of uneven engine spool up - tried one more time to push up to 40% and something was obviously wrong. We notified tower of the problem and pulled off the runway to have the fire trucks look at us after other aircraft advised us of excessive smoke on #1 engine. We shut down the engine and waited for the fire trucks to look at and clear us and then we taxied back to the gate on one engine. Maintenance immediately advised us that it was probably going to be an engine change due to seeing metal fragments in the bottom of the engine and the engine was not spinning freely.
B737 First Officer reported apparent engine power loss when thrust was increased for takeoff. Rejected takeoff was executed and the aircraft returned to the gate for maintenance attention.