Southwest B737 at San Francisco on Dec 24th 2010, engine fire
Last Update: August 9, 2013 / 21:06:25 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 24, 2010
Classification
Incident
Cause
Engine fire
Airline
Southwest Airlines
Flight number
WN-1226
Departure
San Francisco, United States
Destination
Los Angeles, United States
Aircraft Registration
N248WN
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-700
ICAO Type Designator
B737
The airline reported, the indication was later determined false.
The NTSB reported on Jan 11th 2011, that the crew heard a loud bang followed by an engine fire indication for the #2 engine. Preliminary examination of the engine revealed some sooting but no significant thermal damage. An investigation is in progress.
On Aug 7th 2013 the NTSB released their factual report stating that an actual engine fire had occurred even though there was little thermal damage, the fire was the result of a fuel leak. It was found that the fuel flow to the right hand engine had increased without corresponding EGT or N1 increase of the engine, which is consistent with an external fuel leak. The engine was removed from the aircraft, during high power engine tests the fuel leak was discovered between fuel manifold and fuel manifold cover. A closer examination showed that one of the four bolts of the cover was missing and the remaining three were insufficiently torqued leaving the fuel manifold cover loose on the manifold. A review of other aircraft of the operator and later throughout the global fleet did not find any further missing or insufficiently torqued bolts.
On Aug 8th 2013 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the incident was:
The probable cause of the undercowl in-flight engine fire was the insufficient installation torque of the bolts that secure the fuel manifold cover to the fuel manifold. Engine vibrations and fuel pressure cycles caused the bolts to gradually loosen further until one bolt lost all its tightening torque and fell out. The internal fuel pressure then forced open the fuel manifold cover at the location of the missing bolt, causing a gap between the two mating surfaces which allowed fuel to push past the integral packing, resulting in a fuel leak onto the hot engine cases where it ignited resulting in a fire.
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 24, 2010
Classification
Incident
Cause
Engine fire
Airline
Southwest Airlines
Flight number
WN-1226
Departure
San Francisco, United States
Destination
Los Angeles, United States
Aircraft Registration
N248WN
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-700
ICAO Type Designator
B737
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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