A Delta flight was forced to make an emergency landing when one of the plane's engines failed

Outcome bias: the tendency to evaluate prior decisions according to whether the outcome was good or bad.

I agree... when pilots stop being pilots and start being supervisors... That is when the problem takes over.... Most of the problems today in the Airline industry are the result of bad supervision!

I’m sure quite a few people found this event to be quite alarming.

Here i was snickering as i read the story, thinking "over dramatizing events just like those cheap reality shows". Planes are designed to stay flying with only one engine working. Praying for my life? No, I'd be praying the pilots were current with their ratings and training.

I had a memorable trip out of Albuquerque where our AA MD-80 (mostly the same plane as is here) lost an engine on take-off to FOD. All the same things happened: the engine sounded like a giant, unbalanced washing machine. Smoke was pulled into the cabin from the bleed air system. We had a very slow lift-off after the problem occurred. It was right at V1 rotate. We leveled-off about 50 feet up, then slowly started to ascend.

The pilots turned-off the engine, then tried re-starting, to no avail. We circled around and landed, greeted by the fire brigade. The landing was heavy and uneven, with only one engine/reverser being used. After the fire team cleared us, we returned to the gate.

As we deplaned, the pilots looked extremely pissed-off. One seemed to be speaking with notable directness to what appeared to be an airport official. I rebooked and was on my way. The plane was still parked at the West end of the airport two days later when I returned.

I just had the sneaky feeling something was wrong when an American Airlines flight pushed-back 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

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The upshot that is actually relevant here is that I learned from speaking with another AA pilot sometime later that Albuquerque is the simulator location they use to practice this kind of failure: hot and high, they know that if they can handle a simulated failure on take-off from ABQ, they can handle it anywhere. He said they practice engine loss regularly at all phases of flight. That made me feel better about the whole situation. Though I was not scared, I was concerned in the incident when I was on the plane. I know what these people went through at altitude had to be unnerving. But it really is all about training. People are quite safe with the level of professionalism these aviators have.

The FAs did exactly what was required - namely their primary role on a passenger aeroplane, preparing for an emergency and getting the self-loading cargo through the trauma and out to safety.

This sounds like a classic case of "everything worked out in the end", but nowadays we have some smartphone wielding "Turkey-Lurkey" who thinks the sky is about to fall in.

I still believe in the UK Royal Air Force approach: "If you walk away from it, it was a good landing."

Putting your head down is not a rule. Various airlines have variations on emergency procedures but they all amount to keeping you safe. In NASA videos of airplane crashes they demonstrated the need to protect your head, whether by bending forward and tilting your head down between your knees or just bending over and covering your head with your arms - either method is practical. If you have a pillow, even resting your head on that is more advisable than just sitting upright like we do riding in a car.
Sitting upright invites whiplash, protecting your head protects you from suffering from a severe concussion from crashing into the seat ahead of you during the crash.

Pray?

No... I have not noticed that... JT8D Engines will take more abuse than any Fan Engine out there... The JT8D can with stand more abuse that almost any jet engine out there... Keep in mind they are not manufactured any longer, but are just being rebuilt.... You may want to research your facts... you will see that the JT8D's have logged many many more hours than CFM's... They powered the 737, 727, DC9's, MD-80's... They were first used in 1960... The CFM56's have only been out since the 70's... Did you ever see a JT8D flame out due to too much water... ever see what happens on a good CFM with a compressor stall...

I think you are barking up the wrong tree... I have many many many years working on both JT8D's and almost every other CFM engine out there....

You should speak less and think more. And then still continue to speak less.

Leo, I flew the DC-9 / MD-80 for 37 years - approximately 20,000 flight hours. NEVER had an engine fail - never a precautionary shut down. Think about those numbers for a minute.

It's usually a Rolls Royce on an A380.
The more famous, uncontained failure recently was a CFM-56 on a Southwest 737.
Should we park these planes as well?

On the wing?

This was an MD88.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/07/delta-flight-1425-engine-failed-videos/