NTSB releases report on airliner engine fire
Panicked passengers on an American Airlines widebody aircraft at O’Hare Airport in Chicago lastOctober demanded to evacuate as a massive fire engulfed the rightwing, andwere blasted by exhaust fromthe another engine that pilots hadn’t shut down.
The National Transportation Safety Board released more than 500 pages of investigative reports Thursday detailing how a metallurgical flaw led to a violent right engine failure, a fire that raged outside the plane, andthe ensuing evacuation.
Flight attendants described a chaotic scene as they at first tried to prevent an evacuation because the plane’s left engine was still operating andwas buffeting one of the escape slides. They relented after smoke began filling the cabin, and some of the passengers were blown to the tarmac by the blast of air from the working engine while they attempted to evacuate, according to the investigative reports.
One passenger told investigators that he “stood up to get away from the airplane and was blown over by the thrust coming out of the back of the engine,” NTSB wrote in one report.
The Boeing 767-300 was accelerating for takeoff Oct. 28 when its right engine exploded. Shrapnel from the disintegrating engine ripped through the hardened casing and it burst into flames.
Leaking fuel triggered a fireball on the right of the plane as passengers fled out the other side. Out of 170 people aboard, one person suffered a serious injury and 19 had minor injuries, according to NTSB.
The NTSB documents include technical reports on the crew’s performance, the failure in the engine, and the evacuation. They stop short of reaching any conclusions about the causes of the incident, which will be issued later.