LAN A319 at Cajamarca on Jun 7th 2015, both engines on fire during departure preparation

Last Update: June 26, 2015 / 11:40:25 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 7, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
LAN Airlines

Flight number
LA-2295

Departure
Cajamarca, Perú

Destination
Lima, Perú

Aircraft Registration
CC-CQK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

A LAN Airlines Airbus A319-100, registration CC-CQK performing flight LA-2295 from Cajamarca to Lima (Peru) with 204 (!!) occupants, was preparing for departure, the aircraft had been dispatched under minimum equipment list requirements with the left hand generator inoperative. The crew started both engines (V2524) and was in the process of verifying that all aircraft systems were powered correctly when a total electrical power failure occurred also causing all instruments to fail. The crew proceeded to shut both engines down, however, the engines did not correctly shut down, fuel was still supplied to the combustion chambers eventually causing fires in both engines. The captain ordered the evacuation of all occupants, the evacuation was carried out using 3 emergency slides. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained minor damage. Emergency services extinguished the fires in both engines.

On Jun 16th 2015 the French BEA reported in their weekly bulletin citing Peruvian Authorities, that the aircraft carried 204 occupants, both engines caught fire when following the complete electrial failure the shut down of both engines carried out by the crew did not bring down the engines correctly, fuel still being supplied to the combustion chambers caught fire. Peru's Civil Aviation Authority is investigating the occurrence rated a serious incident.

On Jun 26th 2015 The Aviation Herald received credible information out of Peruvian aviation channels stating, that the aircraft had been dispatched out of Lima with the left hand engine driven generator inoperative. The flight from Lima to Cajamarca went without problem. For the return flight the aircraft carried 104 passengers and 5 crew. While the aircraft was preparing for departure, tower alerted the crew that one engine was on fire, ground workers shouted through the cockpit window the number #2 engine was on fire prompting the crew to initiate an emergency evacuation through the left hand doors.

The source continued that gossip (credible but unverified information, in this particular case in conflict with initial information provided by Peru's Civil Aviation Authority quoted by the BEA) running in Peruvian Aviation channels reports the right hand engine has never been on fire, the confusion of left and right engine resulting in the official report to Peru's Civil Aviation Authority of both engines on fire was caused by the ground workers. According to that information the crew had started both engines in Cajamarca and began to work the MEL required procedures. The APU generator as well as the engine driven generators were disconnected to verify the integrity of the electrical ciruits. The DC essential bus in this configuration became unpowered however, which prohibits departure. The crew aborted the checklist and continued with the ECAM items. As the aircraft could not depart, the captain subsequently selected the engine cut off swithes to off, however, as the DC essential bus was unpowered, nothing happened and the engines continued to run. The crew thus decided to carry out the checklist for being unable to shut the engines down (without attempting to reconnect one of the generators) and pulled the fire handles in order to suffocate the engines, which takes a couple of minutes. Gossip continued that the captain ran out of patience and pushed the fire handles back in, which started the tail pipe fire on engine #1. The ground crew remained unaware of the events in the cockpit, as communication via the headsets also require DC Essential bus. A company engineer travelling as passenger entered the cockpit to assist, the cockpit door remained open, passengers and flight attendants noticed the fire from the engine and started screaming without identifying the engine, the mechanics in the cockpit pulled both fire handles. Ground workers called through the open cockpit window that engine #2 was on fire. The aircraft was being evacuated through the left hand side, the relevant checklist was not completed evident by the fact that the APU remained running, with the generator disconnected, until after evacuation was completed.

Although this occurrence constitutes a ground incident usually outside the coverage of The Aviation Herald, due to the really extraordinary circumstances of the occurrence and the rating as a "near accident" by Peruvian's Authorities we decided to cover this occurrence nonetheless.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 7, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
LAN Airlines

Flight number
LA-2295

Departure
Cajamarca, Perú

Destination
Lima, Perú

Aircraft Registration
CC-CQK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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