As a trans Atlantic flight was on it’s way to England, the passengers were enjoying a nice catered meal when the captain came in the public address system and commenced to inform the passengers that they were experiencing a little engine problem and had to secure it. But not to worry as this 747 had four engines and was more than safe, but they would be twenty minutes late getting to the gate.
A short time later he made another similar announcement that they had secured a second engine, but once again assured the passengers, everything would be just fine, but they would probably miss any connecting flights as they would be about two hours late.
Another hour or so passed when he came on again with the message that a third engine had failed and that the airplane had no choice but to continue on but they were still calculating their arrival time.
About this time, a gentleman who was sitting in business class turned to another gentleman sitting next to him and said, I have a meeting to attend in the morning and if that other engine quits, I’m going to miss it because we’ll be here all day.
I have been blessed that in my career I have only shut down an engine three times. One was precautionary, one was due to failure and the third was required due to ingestion of a coyote which also required my only rejected takeoff.
So to my knowledge, I have never heard of a competent pilot shutting down an engine in flight for any reason other than for safety purposes.
I’m not a pilot but I have flown many times and I think I know why you are asking the question. While flying in an airliner jet, you probably heard what sounded like the engines being turned down, after the plane took off and flew for a while. When that happens, the engines are not actually being shut down. Instead, the pilot is simply throttling back the engines (that is, reducing the speed of the engines) because the plane is now cruising and no longer needs the extra power that the engines had in the first part of the flight when the plane was climbing to the cruising altitude.
BTW, you can also google for more information about mid-flight engine shutdowns in airline jets, using “mid-flight engine shutdowns in airline jets” as the search text. You should see search results that clearly show that such engine shutdowns are not normal and occur only if there are problems with one or more engines.
