Narrative:

Cruising at FL330; we felt a strong vibration and the aircraft yawed and rolled off to the left as the left engine failed. We were relatively heavy and started a shallow descent because we could not maintain altitude. We accomplished the appropriate boxed items. There was an airport about eighty miles off the nose so we were cleared direct at FL270. The flight attendant called up and reported a lot of vibration and later said that a passenger briefly saw flames come from the engine. We advised the flight attendant of our diversion plan and told him to secure the cabin for arrival in approximately ten minutes. We accomplished the engine failure/fire/severe damage/separation checklist and single engine landing checklist on our slow descent and uneventful landing. The first officer did a great job communicating with ATC and accomplishing the remainder of the QRH procedures. We elected not to attempt a restart because of time constraints; high egt; vibration; and no oil in that engine. I did not have time to contact dispatch but called operations to alert them to our arrival. We did land overweight; at just under 120;000 pounds; and had the firefighters inspect the engine area and landing gear. They saw nothing and recommended we proceed to the gate. Upon arrival; I called dispatch and maintenance control; made logbook write-ups for the engine failure; hot brake inspection; and overweight landing inspections.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 flight crew experienced left engine failure in cruise flight over mountainous terrain. They ran the checklist; shut down the engine; declared emergency; and diverted to the nearest suitable airport.

Narrative: Cruising at FL330; we felt a strong vibration and the aircraft yawed and rolled off to the left as the left engine failed. We were relatively heavy and started a shallow descent because we could not maintain altitude. We accomplished the appropriate boxed items. There was an airport about eighty miles off the nose so we were cleared direct at FL270. The Flight Attendant called up and reported a lot of vibration and later said that a passenger briefly saw flames come from the engine. We advised the Flight Attendant of our diversion plan and told him to secure the cabin for arrival in approximately ten minutes. We accomplished the Engine Failure/Fire/Severe Damage/Separation Checklist and Single Engine Landing Checklist on our slow descent and uneventful landing. The First Officer did a great job communicating with ATC and accomplishing the remainder of the QRH procedures. We elected not to attempt a restart because of time constraints; high EGT; vibration; and no oil in that engine. I did not have time to contact Dispatch but called Operations to alert them to our arrival. We did land overweight; at just under 120;000 pounds; and had the firefighters inspect the engine area and landing gear. They saw nothing and recommended we proceed to the gate. Upon arrival; I called Dispatch and Maintenance Control; made logbook write-ups for the engine failure; hot brake inspection; and overweight landing inspections.

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.