Horizon DH8D near San Jose on Mar 5th 2013, persistent engine fire indication
Last Update: October 1, 2014 / 13:03:17 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Mar 5, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Horizon Air
Flight number
QX-404
Departure
San Jose, United States
Destination
Boise, United States
Aircraft Registration
N417QX
Aircraft Type
De Havilland Dash 8 (400)
ICAO Type Designator
DH8D
A replacement Dash 8-400 registration N438QX reached Boise with a delay of 6.5 hours.
On Mar 15th 2013 the NTSB reported the aircraft sustained minor damage as result of an inflight engine fire. The aircraft was climbing towards FL200 when the crew heard a bang and received a right hand engine fire indication. The right hand engine was shut down, both fire bottles were discharged however without success. Cabin crew reported no fire was visible from the engine. The aircraft returned to San Jose for a safe landing and stopped on the runway, the left engine was shut down and the passengers disembarked through the left main door. Initial assessment by maintenance confirmed an actual engine fire, the damage to the aircraft was limited to "what was visible on the aircraft's exterior". The aircraft was moved to a secured hangar for further examination.
On Oct 1st 2014 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the incident was:
The failure and separation of a section of the No. 2 engine's combustion chamber's small exit duct (SED), which created an airflow disruption that led to an engine surge and subsequent fire. Contributing to the accident was the insufficient weld penetration that remained totally contained within the SED outer dome and did not penetrate through to the inner duct as required by the manufacturing specifications.
The NTSB reported that the engine's low pressure compressor, turbines, combustion chambers and gearboxes did not receive damage though downstream of the high pressure compressor sooting was visible. The NTSB described the damage to the high pressure compressor:
"The high pressure turbine (HPT) vane assembly includes the SED inner duct and outer dome that are welded together and function to direct combustion gas flow. Pieces of the outer dome had separated from the vane assembly and were subsequently ingested into the gas path. A section of the SED outer dome was submitted to the PWC materials lab for weld analysis. The exposed inner duct of the SED exhibited localized thermal distress including burn through and distortion at approximately the 11 O' Clock position. Sooting, metal splatter and discoloration were noted on all HPT vanes with some metallic fragments adhering to the leading edge of the vane airfoil. Two metal fragments were found resting at the bottom of the HPT blade shroud against the aft side of the vanes.
The HPT disk assembly exhibited impact damage and metal splatter along the blade leading edges 360 degrees around. All blades were heavily sooted. Material loss was noted on leading edge blade tips resulting in exposure of internal blade cooling passages. Uniform tip rubs were present on HPT blades around the disk as evidenced by shiny metal and material smearing."
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Mar 5, 2013
Classification
Incident
Airline
Horizon Air
Flight number
QX-404
Departure
San Jose, United States
Destination
Boise, United States
Aircraft Registration
N417QX
Aircraft Type
De Havilland Dash 8 (400)
ICAO Type Designator
DH8D
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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