Narrative:

Right before lift off; I noticed an unusual noise. As the nose lifted up; the aircraft struggled to stay aloft. I could hear loud grinding noises; which sounded like it was coming from aircraft right. Then an acrid smell; like the smell of burning rubber; came into the cabin. We did not seem to be gaining any altitude. When I looked out the galley window from my jumpseat; I could see grass; then buildings; then houses with swimming pools. The grinding noises and odor continued. I knew that the cockpit was busy trying to control the aircraft; so I did not call them about the noise/smells. The captain called to say that we had lost an engine and would be returning to [departure airport] as soon as we burned off fuel. He made an announcement to the passengers about the problem; and said that as a precaution;emergency vehicles would be waiting for us. We landed and stopped on the taxiway. It was determined that we could not taxi to the gate because of damage to the tires (which is what I heard as we accelerated for takeoff) so we had to wait for a tug. We sat out there for a about an hour and 20 minutes with no air conditioning in 100 degree temperatures. A lot of passengers started complaining of heat-related symptoms; including a mother traveling with an infant. I believe that the captain considered taking the passengers off via stairs; but we anticipated that the tug would be able to get to us first before we could coordinate a bus to the terminal; etc.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-83 suffered an engine failure on takeoff and returned to the departure airport where it was discovered that tires had failed. After a significant in high ambient temperatures awaiting maintenance and a tow; the passengers; some of whom were suffering from heat related symptoms; were removed by bus.

Narrative: Right before lift off; I noticed an unusual noise. As the nose lifted up; the aircraft struggled to stay aloft. I could hear loud grinding noises; which sounded like it was coming from aircraft right. Then an acrid smell; like the smell of burning rubber; came into the cabin. We did not seem to be gaining any altitude. When I looked out the galley window from my jumpseat; I could see grass; then buildings; then houses with swimming pools. The grinding noises and odor continued. I knew that the cockpit was busy trying to control the aircraft; so I did not call them about the noise/smells. The Captain called to say that we had lost an engine and would be returning to [departure airport] as soon as we burned off fuel. He made an announcement to the passengers about the problem; and said that as a precaution;emergency vehicles would be waiting for us. We landed and stopped on the taxiway. It was determined that we could not taxi to the gate because of damage to the tires (which is what I heard as we accelerated for takeoff) so we had to wait for a tug. We sat out there for a about an hour and 20 minutes with no air conditioning in 100 degree temperatures. A lot of passengers started complaining of heat-related symptoms; including a mother traveling with an infant. I believe that the Captain considered taking the passengers off via stairs; but we anticipated that the tug would be able to get to us first before we could coordinate a bus to the terminal; etc.

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.