Ryanair B38M near London on Apr 24th 2025, fuel leak
Last Update: April 9, 2026 / 15:45:00 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Apr 24, 2025
Classification
Report
Cause
Fuel leak
Airline
Ryanair
Flight number
FR-2899
Departure
Venice, Italy
Destination
Manchester, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
EI-HEZ
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800MAX
ICAO Type Designator
B38M
On Apr 9th 2026 the AAIB released their final bulletin concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:
In completing fuel balancing from memory, the pilots did not consider the possibility of a fuel leak, delaying diagnosis of the problem. Once the leak was confirmed, they decided not to fully complete the non-normal checklist, which directed them to shut down the affected engine. The subsequent use of thrust reverse on landing increased the potential risk of fire due to disbursement of fuel vapour around hot parts of the engine.
The AAIB analysed:
Fuel imbalance
On reaching the cruise altitude the commander noted a fuel imbalance during a fuel check and decided to balance the fuel before an imbal alert was displayed. The pilots completed fuel balancing from memory, missing the prompt at the start of the FCOM ‘Fuel Balancing’ supplementary procedure to consider a possible fuel leak. This delayed the start of the diagnosis process until the second imbalance was noticed, some 35 minutes into the cruise.
Memory ‘v’ checklist Boeing encourages the use of the FCOM ‘Fuel Balancing’ supplementary procedure with good crew coordination to reduce the possibility of errors. The FCOM guidance on the use of supplementary procedures gives the captain the discretion to accomplish the procedure from memory, by reviewing the procedure prior to accomplishing it, or action the procedure as a checklist. If used as a checklist there is less likelihood of an omission or error occurring and, in this case, it is likely the pilots would have had the opportunity to diagnose a fuel leak on first recognition of the imbalance at around seven minutes into the cruise.
Fuel leak
When the fuel imbalance was addressed for the second time in flight, the commander actioned the QRH ‘IMBAL’ non-normal checklist although there was no imbal alert. A fuel leak was suspected, leading to the QRH ‘Fuel Leak Engine’ non-normal checklist. The pilots confirmed an engine fuel leak but decided not to continue with the non-normal checklist, which would have led them to shut down the affected engine, because they considered the leak rate to be only marginally greater than the trigger value in the QRH. Advice contained in the FCTM did not form part of their decision-making process.
The thrust reversers were used for approximately six seconds on landing. With fuel still leaking around the right engine, the use of thrust reverse would have dispersed fuel vapour around the hot parts of the engine and the risk of a fire would have increased.
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Apr 24, 2025
Classification
Report
Cause
Fuel leak
Airline
Ryanair
Flight number
FR-2899
Departure
Venice, Italy
Destination
Manchester, United Kingdom
Aircraft Registration
EI-HEZ
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800MAX
ICAO Type Designator
B38M
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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