Eastern Air Lines Flight 855
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On May 5, 1983, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, registration N334EA, operating as Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 en route from
Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...
to Nassau International Airport, experienced the loss of all three engines near
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. The flight crew succeeded in restarting one engine in time to safely land the aircraft at
Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...
.


Aircraft

The incident aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1,
registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...
N334EA,
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1141. The aircraft had been manufactured in 1976. It was powered by three
Rolls-Royce RB211 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production three-spool engine, and turned Rolls-Royce from a sign ...
-22B
turbofan engine The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which achieves mechanic ...
s.


Background

On May 4, N334EA had flown into Miami where it underwent overnight maintenance, which included a check of the
magnetic chip detector A magnetic chip detector is an electronic instrument that attracts ferromagnetic particles (mostly iron chips). It is mainly used in aircraft engine oil and helicopter gearbox chip detection systems. Chip detectors can provide an early warning of ...
s inside the
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s. This involved removing the master chip detector from each engine and replacing it with a new one. Each chip detector had two
O-ring An O-ring, also known as a packing or a toric joint, is a mechanical gasket in the shape of a torus; it is a loop of elastomer with a round cross-section, designed to be seated in a groove and compressed during assembly between two or more par ...
s, which served as oil seals. The replacement chip detectors were not fitted with O-rings, a fact which was not noticed by the mechanic who fitted them. After the chip detectors were fitted, each engine was motored for 10 seconds to check for oil leaks. None were found. The aircraft was signed off as serviceable and returned to service.


Incident

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...
Flight 855 took off from
Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...
at 08:56 on a flight to Nassau International Airport in the
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carrying 162 passengers and 10 crew. On board was a veteran flight crew, consisting of Captain Richard Boddy (58), Captain Steve Thompson (48) and Flight Engineer Dudley Barnes (44). Captain Boddy had more than 12,000 hours of total flying experience, although he was new to the L-1011, having logged just 13 hours in the aircraft type. On this flight, Captain Thompson served as a supervisory check airman. He had accrued close to 17,000 flight hours throughout his career, with 282 hours in the L-1011. Flight Engineer Barnes had more than 9,000 hours of total flying time, with 2,666 hours clocked in the L-1011 cockpit. At 09:15, while descending through 15,000 feet (4,572 m), the low oil pressure indicator on the TriStar's number 2 engine illuminated. The flight engineer noted that the oil pressure on the #2 engine was fluctuating between 15 and 25
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; the minimum pressure required for normal engine operation was 30 psi. The captain ordered the flight engineer to shut down the engine. By this time, the plane was about 50 miles (80 km) from Nassau. The crew elected to return to Miami to land. Flight 855 received a clearance back to Miami, as well as instructions to begin a climb to FL200 (20,000 ft, 6,096 m nominal altitude). En route back to Miami, low oil pressure lights for engines #1 and #3 illuminated, and the oil quantity gauges for all three engines read zero. At 09:23, Flight 855 informed Miami ARTCC of the engine gauge readings but stated, "We believe it to be faulty indications since the chance of all three engines having zero oil pressure and zero quantity is almost nil." At 09:28, at an altitude of 16,000 feet (4,877 m), the #3 engine failed. Five minutes later, the #1 engine flamed out while the crew was attempting to restart the #2 engine. Cabin lights went off and flight deck instruments stopped working. The aircraft descended without power from about 13,000 feet (3,962 m) to about 4,000 feet (1,219 m), at a rate of descent of approximately 1,600 feet (488 m) per minute. The crew successfully restarted the #2 engine on the third attempt and executed a one-engine landing at Miami at 09:46. After the landing the power from #2 engine was insufficient for the aircraft to
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; a tug had to be used to tow it to the airport terminal, where the occupants disembarked normally. None of the 172 passengers and crew aboard were injured in the incident.


Cause

The
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
determined that the probable cause of the incident was as follows: It was subsequently established that the engines needed to be run for at least 30 seconds with no O-rings fitted before an oil leak would become apparent.


Awards

Barnes, Boddy and Thompson were each presented with an Award for Outstanding Airmanship by the
Airline Pilots Association The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is the largest pilot union in the world, representing more than 59,000 pilots from 35 U.S. and Canadian airlines. ALPA was founded on 27 July 1931 and is a member of the AFL-CIO and the Canad ...
.


References


Sources

*


External links


Airliners.net
Photos of Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar aircraft *
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

Final report
*

– Prepared for
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usage by Hiroshi Sogame (十亀 洋 ''Sogame Hiroshi''), a member of the Safety Promotion Committee (総合安全推進 ''Sōgō Anzen Suishin'') of
All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had mo ...
.
Archive
** {{coord missing, Miami Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1983 1983 in Florida 855 Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed L-1011 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by engine failure Airliner accidents and incidents in Florida May 1983 events in the United States