Atlas Air B744 at Miami on May 17th 2010, dropped flaps part on approach

Last Update: January 24, 2017 / 14:11:39 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
May 17, 2010

Classification
Accident

Airline
Atlas Air

Departure
Sao Paulo Viracopos, Brazil

Destination
Miami, United States

Aircraft Registration
N498MC

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

An Atlas Air Boeing 747-400, registration N498MC performing freight flight 5Y-8865 from Sao Paulo Viracopos,SP (Brazil) to Miami,FL (USA), was on approach to Miami's runway 09 when the aircraft dropped a part of the wing. The crew continued for a safe landing on runway 09.

The FAA rated the occurrence an accident stating, the aircraft received substantial damage to its wing.

Atlas Air said, that a portion of the right hand outboard flaps dislodged while on approach to Miami.

The NTSB reported on Sep 25th, that the airplane lost a section of the left fore-flap. The airplane sustained substantial damage when the flap portion impacted the fuselage.

On Jan 24th 2017 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident was:

impact of the fore flap with the aft fuselage after fatigue failure of the right wing fore flap carriage assembly attachment fitting at position 6.

The NTSB reported: "According to the operator, the flight crew heard and felt a large impact after 30 degree flaps was selected during the approach. Postflight inspection revealed that approximately twelve feet of the right wing inboard fore flap was missing and had caused substantial damage to the aft fuselage. The separated section of the fore flap was recovered and examined. The examination revealed that a large portion of the enamel was missing from the fore flap attachment fitting of the carriage assembly and that there was a large amount of contamination and grease buildup around the lubrication fitting. Extensive corrosion byproducts covered up the lubrication passage in the attachment, which prevented passage of grease to the bearing, causing extensive corrosion in the bore and propagated by fatigue before final ductile separation."
Incident Facts

Date of incident
May 17, 2010

Classification
Accident

Airline
Atlas Air

Departure
Sao Paulo Viracopos, Brazil

Destination
Miami, United States

Aircraft Registration
N498MC

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

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