Virgin Atlantic A333 at Orlando on Jan 19th 2013, engine shut down in flight, both engines damaged by bird strikes
Last Update: September 13, 2013 / 16:33:01 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 19, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Virgin Atlantic
Aircraft Registration
G-VKSS
Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300
ICAO Type Designator
A333
The flight data recorder revealed that immediately following bird impact at about 530 feet AGL the left hand engine's N1 vibrations rose from 0.4 to 10 (maximum) units, the right hand engine's N1 vibrations increased from 0.2 to 1.8 units.
The AAIB complained that although the operator had procedures in place to secure the cockpit voice recorder the same procedure did not apply to the flight data recorder which permitted the FDR to operate for 20 more hours before download resulting in most of the incident flight being overwritten.
The investigation determined there was nothing wrong with the left hand engine's oil system, the oil pressure was overwritten with a zero value and the engine's electronic control locked at overwriting the correct engine oil pressure values if the oil pump's failure detect logic detects negative differential pressure between 10 and 30 psi at both transducers within 3 seconds. The EEC lock would be lifted only after engine shut down thus appearing the engine oil pressure at 0 even after the oil pump recovered.
The engine manufacturer detected a condition in which increased engine vibrations could trigger the engine oil pump failure detection and thus cause a zero engine oil pressure indication persisting to engine shut down.
The AAIB reported debris recovered from the engines was analyzed and it was determined the birds were probably ring necked ducks of about 1.5 to 2 lbs in weight, each engine had ingested one bird.
The damaged fan blades as well as the left engine's nose cowl were replaced, the aircraft subsequently ferried to Great Britain where the left hand engine was replaced. Analysis of the engine after removal confirmed that the pressure transducer oil supply lines
were secured and routed correctly.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Jan 19, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Virgin Atlantic
Aircraft Registration
G-VKSS
Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300
ICAO Type Designator
A333
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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