Nippon Cargo B748 at Hong Kong on Mar 29th 2018, engine fire on short final

Last Update: July 10, 2020 / 16:01:54 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Nippon Cargo Airlines JA18KZ, Boeing 747-8 — Nippon Cargo Airlines JA18KZ, Boeing 747-8 (Photo credit: masak2_ukon / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 29, 2018

Classification
Incident

Cause
Engine fire

Airline
Nippon Cargo Airlines

Flight number
KZ-5207

Departure
Tokyo Narita, Japan

Destination
Hong Kong, China

Aircraft Registration
JA18KZ

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-8

ICAO Type Designator
B748

A Nippon Cargo Airlines Boeing 747-800, registration JA18KZ performing flight KZ-5207 from Tokyo Narita (Japan) to Hong Kong (China) with 5 crew, was on short final to Hong Kong's runway 07L when the crew received an engine (GEnx) indication. The crew continued landing, vacated the runway and advised ATC they needed to stop here due to an engine fire. ATC did not understand and instructed the aircraft to turn onto the next taxiway, the other pilot chimed in and categorically explained they had a fire and needed to stop here, ATC still did not understand, the crew reported again they had a fire, now ATC understood. The crew advised they had an engine #3 (inboard right hand) fire, they had run the checklists (shut the engine down and discharge the fire bottle). Tower advised engine #3 did not show any fire or smoke. Emergency services responded. Emergency services reported a visual check of the #3 engine showed no smoke and no fire.

While the emergency was in progress and emergency services were attending to the aircraft at the turn off tower kept runway 07L open, a number of aircraft landed.

Japan's Ministry of Transport reported evidence of an under cowl fire was found. The occurrence was rated a serious incident, the investigation will be done by Hong Kong's CAD.

On Jul 10th 2020 Hong Kong's AAIA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the serious incident were:

- There was a crack on the Psec fuel manifold adjacent to the second upper braze block. It was probable that the leaking fuel was ignited from contact with the hot surface of the Combustion Diffuser Nozzle (CDN) case during landing when the undercowl ventilation flows were low.

- The crack was not detected in the last two UT inspections in accordance with Revision 03 (7 September 2017 inspection) and Revision 04 (12 January 2018 inspection) of SB 73-0034.

Contributing Factors

The non-detection of cracks in the last two UT inspections in accordance with the SB could be attributed to the actual crack surface and orientation. Other contributing factors could be the intermittent signals from probe S/N 16F00EXC and attenuation of the energy of the reflection due to scattering, absorption, surface roughness and diffraction, etc.

The AAIA described the sequence of events:

The pilot-in-command (PIC) was the “pilot flying” in the left-hand seat, the first officer was the “pilot monitoring” in the right-hand seat, and the pilot sitting on the jump seat inside the cockpit was a relief pilot for the return leg to Japan.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) cleared the aircraft to land on Runway 07L at approximately 0435 hours. Just before touchdown, “FIRE ENG 3” EICAS warning message appeared. The PIC landed the aircraft at Runway 07L at 0436 hours, and stopped the aircraft using thrust reversers.

The aircraft vacated Runway 07L to the intersection of Taxiway A8 and Taxiway A.

The crew informed ATC that “we have a fire and we have to stop here”. ATC activated the Crash Alarm to initiate a Ground Incident at 0437 hours. The first officer shut down the No.3 engine and activated the engine fire suppression.

The engine fire warning message cancelled following the extinguisher discharge.

Airport Fire Contingent (AFC) arrived at the scene at 0438 hours.

Upon arrival, AFC found that “a little white smoke was emitting from the No.3 engine of the aircraft”. On request by AFC, the No.4 engine was shut down allowing the AFC to access the starboard side of the aircraft to conduct inspections including a temperature check on the No.3 engine.

At 0459 hours after the inspections, the crew restarted the No.4 engine.

Taxi clearance was given by ATC at 0503 hours. The aircraft then taxied to cargo apron bay C22 under the escort of AFC. After the aircraft was parked in the bay, the Ground Incident was stood down at 0518 hours.

...

Subsequent ground inspections revealed thermal damage, sooting, and discolouration at the exterior top section of the No.3 engine core.