re: Passenger on an American Airlines flight recorded when a bird struck an engine last night

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it's on fire the whole time you're sitting there

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Fair point

I hit some birds flying a Cessna once. Cracked the windscreen, dented the fairing but all was fine. Except the shite stains in my pants when it happened.

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I thought basically anything solid through a turbine = totally wrecked turbine

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Unless there is loss of blade fragments in the compressor section, any bird fragments are pulverized before they reach the turbine inlet nozzles and blades. Of course they are inspected and once deemed serviceable they usually put back in service.

This thread has some interesting information. Good stuff.

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it really depends on the scenario, I've shut down an engine and had to divert and not a soul outside of the cockpit(on the jet,) was aware that there was any non-normal situation at all

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except when they got off the plane at New Iberia Regional Airport instead of Dallas

I could see where shutting down an engine several hours into a flight may not draw much attention since many folks are either zonked out or engrossed in a movie. Post take off that may slip by some until you have handled the situation and made the announcement that you are returning to the airport. If I am flying with my wife I would have to keep my mouth shut unless it was too obvious due to the engine shaking like an unbalanced load in a clothes dryer.
Curious as to the circumstances of any engine shutdown you have had. Have you had a birdstrike?
I am assuming that an engine failure on takeoff is practiced quite frequently in a simulator but I would think it is a real pucker inducing event in real life. The one aspect of handling emergency procedures that most fail to appreciate is doing it quickly and correctly the first time through since your time to act at low altitude is severely constrained. As a friend who was a paratrooper told me, you have the rest of your life to deploy your reserve chute.

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it's on fire the whole time you're sitting there

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Very true but a bit unnerving when you actually are looking into the engine or happen to catch the last bits of that duck l orange come out the exhaust.

It's pretty dark in that video and most birds that fly at that altitude are already settled in for the night.

Owls and other night birds don't fly at those altitudes.

Unless the lighting on the video is way off, that's a weird time for a bird strike.