Falling hot metal chunks from a 777 engine hit Toronto suburb

28 May 2012; Toronto, Canada; Air Canada 777, flight AC001: During or shortly after takeoff, an Air Canada 777 taking off from Toronto's Pearson International Airport developed serious engine trouble which caused the liberation of several pieces of metal and led to a shutdown of its right engine. While several cars on the ground were damaged, no one on the ground was injured. After dumping excess fuel, the flight crew returned safely to the airport about 90 minutes after taking off. None of the 318 passengers and 16 crew members were injured.

Map of airport area

Canadian investigators who interviewed the pilot were told that there was loud bang from from one of the engines when the aircraft was about 1,000 feet above the ground. Several witnesses near the airport also heard an exceptionally loud takeoff, and noticed either smoke, flames, or debris coming out of one of the engines.

Several pieces of metal from the right engine came down in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto that is adjacent to the airport. At least four vehicles at a gas station were hit and damaged by debris, including one car that had its rear window smashed. One witness stated that the debris was too hot to touch.

Car damage and chunk of engine

Incident investigation
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will be investigating this incident, along with representatives of Air Canada and the engine manufacturer General Electric (GE). Early findings indicate that there was no damage to the front end of the engine, indicating that a bird or other object was not likely the cause of this engine failure. The Safety Board plans on releasing a written report about this incident.

While parts separated from the engine, this event is considered to be a contained engine event because the liberated pieces exited through the tail pipe of the engine and did not penetrate the engine case. Although uncontained engine failures are considered more potentially hazardous to people in or near the affected aircraft, this Toronto incident shows that even contained engine failures have the potential to be potentially fatal to people on the ground.

Photo: Rick Madonik, Toronto Star
Airport Map: National Post

Cathay Pacific A330 Has Close Call and A300 Cargo Jet Crashes

Yesterday saw both a serious incident and a fatal crash involving two wide-bodied jets. While everyone escaped with their lives in the first event in Hong Kong, all on board plus at least one on the ground lost their lives in Mexico.

Cathay Pacific A330 almost loses both engines
In the first event, Cathay Pacific flight CX780, an A330, was approaching Hong Kong, China after a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia when the crew noted problems with the left engine. After shutting down the left engine, the right engine experienced several uncontrolled increases and decreases in thrust (Correction: FlightGlobal reports that the right engine was at idle thrust throughout the approach, and the left engine was stuck at 70% thrust, leading to a high speed landing at an incorrect flap setting).

The crew declared an emergency and landed about 25 minutes later. All four tires on the left landing gear and two of the four on the right main landing gear deflated after the landing, and the 309 passengers and 14 crew members evacuated. Eight passengers were injured, with one sent to a local hospital for at least an overnight stay. It is unclear if the injuries occurred before, during, or after the evacuation.

Flightglobal.com reports that as a result of this event, Cathay Pacific temporarily suspended refueling at Surabaya.

Typically, US airlines offer little if any compensation to passengers after an incident like this. Unlike most US airlines, Cathay Pacific offered full refunds to all the passengers on this flight.

Recent A330 historyThis is the fourth accident or serious incident involving the A330 in the last two years, including the only fatal A330 crash while in passenger service:

• 7 October 2008; Qantas A330-300; Flight 72; near Learmonth, Australia: The aircraft was in cruise on a scheduled international flight from Singapore to Perth when the aircraft experienced several sudden and unexpected altitude changes. About 36 passengers and crew members were injured, with over a dozen severe injuries.
  
  
• 1 June 2009; Air France A330-200; Flight 447; Atlantic Ocean: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France when it crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil. All 216 passengers and 12 crew members were killed.
  
  
• 25 December 2009; Northwest Airlines A330-300; Flight 253; near Detroit, MI: A passenger on a Northwest Airlines A330-300(N820NW) attempted to detonate an explosive device while the aircraft was approaching Detroit after a flight from Amsterdam. None of the other 277 passengers or 11 crew members were killed.

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Cargo jet crashes in Mexico and kills at least six

Also on Tuesday, an A300 jet, operated by AeroUnion of Mexico, crashed during its approach to the Monterrey, Mexico airport. The A300 had departed earlier that evening from Mexico City and crashed just outside the airport in an area adjacent to a number of hotels. All five crew members, plus at least one person in a car hit by the aircraft, were killed.

Update to the Investigation into the 17 January 2008 Crash of a British Airways 777 in London

At SAE's recent 2009 AeroTech Congress and Exhibition, which was held in Seattle earlier this month, a Boeing fuels systems expert provided an update on the investigation of the January 2008 crash of a British Airways 777-200 (Flight 38, G-YMMM).

In the January 2008 crash, the flight from Beijing to London was routine until the the aircraft was on final approach, when both engines had an uncommanded power reduction, or engine rollback, which caused the plane to land short of the runway. Although the aircraft was seriously damaged, only one of the 136 passengers was seriously injured, and there were no serious injuries among the 16 crew members.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the UK is heading the investigation, and has released several interim reports, most recently in March 2009. In that report, a buildup of ice in the fuel system was identified as a likely cause of the uncommanded power reduction.

The most revealing insights provided by Boeing was that this kind of fuel icing problem was identified in the 1960s with the B-52, and the lessons learned from that experience led to changes in fuel system design that largely eliminated the problem. The January 2008 British Airways event, and a subsequent November 2008 rollback event involving a single engine on a Delta 777, led to a very thorough review of both the 777 fuel system and to the dynamics of fuel icing.

Among the more surprising findings from fuel system tests (which included system components from the accident airplane) was that in some situations, 777s flying with Rolls Royce engines can have ice form in the fuel system, and that ice could in turn block fuel flow at the fuel oil heat exchanger.

It was a difficult problem to study because ice formation was somewhat unpredictable in that tests similar environmental and fuel flow conditions may have produced significant amounts of ice in one test, and very little or no ice in another test.

In spite of the difficulty Boeing had in recreating the conditions that could cause icing, solving the problem was relatively easy. Changes in the fuel oil heat exchanger, plus changes in flight crew procedures, will be enough to prevent these kids of icing events in the future.

AAIB is still investigating this accident, and when the final report is released, AirSafe.com will review the report and summarize the findings in the AirSafe.com News.

For more details on this investigation, including videos summarizing previous Interim reports from the AAIB, visit 777.airsafe.org.

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Report on March 2009 AAIB and NTSB Updates
Watch or listen to the report below, or read the transcript
Audio: MP3 | Video: iPod/MP4 | WMV |  Google Video | YouTube

For more videos, visit the AirSafe.com YouTube channel.

Crash of Spanair MD82 on 20 August 2008

The aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff on a scheduled domestic flight from Madrid to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Early reports indicated that the left engine experienced a major malfunction during the takeoff. The aircraft was able to get airborne, but the crew set the aircraft down in a area to the right of the departure runway. The aircraft broke up and there was a severe post-crash fire.
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There were 162 passengers and 10 crew members on board, and 153 of the 172 occupants were killed. Among the passengers were 20 children and two infants. Both infants reportedly survived. Many of the 19 survivors suffered burns, some of them serious.

This was also a code share flight with Lufthansa, and that airline reported that seven of their passengers had transferred to the Spanair flight from a previous Lufthansa flight. , and that airline reported that seven of their passengers were checked in for the flight.

About Spanair
This was the first fatal event for Spanair, the second largest of the five airlines in the SAS Group. The airline began operations in 1988. At the end of June 2008, there were 65 aircraft in the Spanair fleet, averaging 13 years old. The fatal event aircraft was built in 1993.

About the MD80
This was the 15th fatal event involving the MD80 series aircraft. Four fatal events have been in Europe, and four in the US. The aircraft began commercial operations in 1980, with the first fatal event in 1981. This latest crash was the eighth fatal MD80 event since 2000.

For additional information on this crash, including links to related audio and video podcasts and updates on the investigation, visit
http://spanair.airsafe.org.



You can also use the links below for the podcast:
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The transcript of this podcast is available at
http://www.airsafe.com/podcasts/show62.htm

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