Sorry for your troubles, and sorry to say that it's not an issue with smokeys specifically, but it's a pervasive issue with CTI 54mm motors of all sizes and formulas.
CTI 54 shorts blow out at the nozzle/liner interface and 54 longs blow out at the front. Although it's not all of them, it seems like more and more happen every year.
Never know if you got a blowtorch or a rocket motor.
Well documented, the CTI thread is full of pics just like yours, as well as many independent threads along the way through flying season.
CTI has even acknowledged the issue to the point that they admit to having a closure re-design that needs tested.
That was several years ago. Current news.....crickets.
Gluing the fwd closure (acknowledged by CTI as effective, yet not "officially" endorsed) sorta mitigates the risk of a blow out in the longs, but we have yet to see anything substantive that's prophylactic against rear failures.
There will be more threads like this as the season progresses.....there always are.
That's what I've got to do my L2 with.
