Eastar B737 near Seoul on Oct 5th 2012, engine shut down in flight

Last Update: June 30, 2015 / 15:22:23 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 5, 2012

Classification
Report

Airline
Eastar Jet

Flight number
ZE-223

Aircraft Registration
HL8207

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-700

ICAO Type Designator
B737

An Eastar Jet Boeing 737-700, registration HL8207 performing flight ZE-223 from Seoul Gimpo to Jeju (South Korea) with 146 passengers and 5 crew, was climbing through 22,500 feet out of Seoul when the right hand engine (CFM56) emitted a loud bang, the aircraft shuddered and showed a right yaw and the crew received indication that the right hand engine had failed. The crew secured the engine and returned to Seoul's Gimpo Airport for a safe landing on runway 32R about 40 minutes after departure. There were no injuries and no damage beyond the right hand engine damage.

South Korea's ARAIB released their final report in Korean concluding the probable cause of the occurrence rated an accident was:

A high pressure turbine blade of the right hand #2 engine fractured and separated causing substantial damage downstream to the engine and causing the engine to fail and resulting in an inflight shutdown of the engine.

The ARAIB reported the right hand engine had accumulated 30,294 flight hours in 23,491 flight cycles total and 7,502 flight hours in 8,516 flight cycles since last overhaul.

A post flight examination of the engine after landing back revealed all blades of the stage 1 high pressure turbine (HPT) as well as all blades of the stage 1 low pressure turbine (LPT) had fractured and separated, the turbine exhaust nozzle showed impact damage by metal debris ejected through the exhaust, the HPT and LPT stator as well as guide vanes showed substantial damage.

The ARAIB analysed that the blades, including the HPT stage 1 blade #1 (of 80) starting the engine failure, were permitted to be used for 25,000 flight cycles, 1,509 flight cycles were thus left for using the blades, however, the failure occurred before that limit.

The ARAIB analysed that the blades need to undergo inspection every 1600 flight cycles, the last inspection had occurred three months prior to the occurrence, the engine had accumulated 394 flight cycles since. During that inspection no cracks or corrosion were detected, the blades and nozzle guide vanes were found in a generally good condition.

The ARAIB analysed that the coating of the #1 blade left was insufficient to protect the blade, in addition an inclusion of sulphur oxide was found in the coating meaning the protection against corrosion was compromised. As result, a cavity formed and a number of fatigue cracks started to develop below the platform of the blade until the blade fractured off with only the root remaining attached to the rotor.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 5, 2012

Classification
Report

Airline
Eastar Jet

Flight number
ZE-223

Aircraft Registration
HL8207

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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