A system and method is provided for fault detection in a turbine engine. The fault detection system and method uses discrete event system modeling to provide improved fault diagnosis and prognosis. The fault detection system and method receives sensor taken at multiple dynamic events occurring in different time windows. An event determination mechanism evaluates the received sensor data to determine if specified events have occurred. Indications of the occurrence of specified events are then passed to a discrete event system model. The discrete event system model analyzes the timing and sequencing of the event occurrences to determine if a fault has occurred. This method does not require a detailed modeling of the system, and thus can be applied to complex systems such as turbine engines.