B737 flight crew experienced rev light in-flight and complied with QRH procedures. During descent th...

Narrative:

In flight we had an intermittent rev alert over the left engine N1 gauge and a small N1 fluctuation for a couple of seconds. The QRH reverser unlocked checklist was accomplished. Thrust levers responded normally; no yaw or shudders; and all engine parameters were normal. On descent into ZZZ; as thrust was reduced out of about 14;000 feet we experienced a significant shudder; pop and large loss of engine power. The rev alert was illuminated. We shut down the engine as stated in the QRH reverser unlocked checklist. An emergency was declared and we were told to fly direct to the airport. The QRH engine failure/shutdown checklist and one engine inoperative checklists were accomplished. Performance numbers were checked. I had an uneventful single engine landing. I did the best I could and used the most applicable QRH checklist for the alerts we were getting. We were not sure if this was an engine power problem or a reverser problem. Shutting down the engine was definitely the safest option if the reverser was deploying in any way. I would handle things basically the same way if I faced this same situation again.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew experienced REV light in-flight and complied with QRH procedures. During descent the engine shuddered with an associated N1 rollback. The engine was subsequently shut down and an emergency declared.

Narrative: In flight we had an intermittent REV alert over the left engine N1 gauge and a small N1 fluctuation for a couple of seconds. The QRH reverser unlocked checklist was accomplished. Thrust levers responded normally; no yaw or shudders; and all engine parameters were normal. On descent into ZZZ; as thrust was reduced out of about 14;000 feet we experienced a significant shudder; pop and large loss of engine power. The REV alert was illuminated. We shut down the engine as stated in the QRH Reverser Unlocked checklist. An emergency was declared and we were told to fly direct to the airport. The QRH Engine Failure/Shutdown checklist and One Engine Inoperative checklists were accomplished. Performance numbers were checked. I had an uneventful single engine landing. I did the best I could and used the most applicable QRH checklist for the alerts we were getting. We were not sure if this was an engine power problem or a reverser problem. Shutting down the engine was definitely the safest option if the reverser was deploying in any way. I would handle things basically the same way if I faced this same situation again.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	858622
Time
Date	200911
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 237
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 160
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

B737 flight crew experienced rev light in-flight and complied with QRH procedures. During descent the engine shuddered with an associated N1 rollback. The engine was subsequently shut down and an emergency declared.