American Airlines Flight 383 (2016)
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American Airlines Flight 383 was a scheduled passenger flight from Chicago to Miami, which caught fire on the runway at Chicago O’Hare on October 28, 2016. The crew aborted their takeoff, evacuating everyone on board, of whom 21 were injured. The plane was a write-off. The incident was caused by the rupture of a disk in the starboard engine, with one fragment piercing the fuel tank in the wing. The investigation revealed the need for more stringent directives for ultrasonic inspection of engines.


Incident

On October 28, 2016, the
Boeing 767-300ER The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...
operating the flight (registered N345AN) was accelerating for takeoff down Chicago O'Hare's runway 28R when the aircraft's right engine suffered an uncontained failure that led to a severe fire. The crew managed to abort the takeoff and evacuate everyone on board, while emergency services extinguished the fire. Twenty-one people were injured, and the aircraft was substantially damaged, written off, and stored. The right engine had suffered a sudden rupture of the stage 2 disk operating at takeoff power. The disk separated into two pieces, the smaller of which pierced the wing's fuel tank and then flew , falling through the roof of a
United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company ...
(UPS) facility and coming to rest on the building's floor. No one was injured in the UPS building. The investigation revealed the need for more stringent airworthiness directives for ultrasonic inspection of engines.


Aircraft and crew

The aircraft, a thirteen-year-old Boeing 767-323(ER) powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2B6 engines, registration number N345AN, was delivered to American in 2003. The captain was 61-year-old Anthony Paul Kochenash. He had been flying with American Airlines since May 2001 and previously flown with
TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...
from January 1986 to April 2001. Kochenash also served with
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
from May 1976 to December 1985 as a veteran of The
Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
. He had 17,400 flight hours, including 4,000 hours on the Boeing 767. The first officer was 57-year-old David Travis Ditzel. Like the captain, he had also been working for American Airlines since May 2001 and previously flown with
TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...
from December 1995 to April 2001. He had 22,000 flight hours, with 1,600 of them on the Boeing 767.


Fire

At 14:30
central daylight time The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...
(CDT), Flight 383 was cleared for takeoff on runway 28R. The aircraft commenced its takeoff roll one minute later with Captain Kochenash as the pilot flying and First Officer Ditzel as the pilot monitoring. At 14:31:32, Ditzel called out "eighty knots," however, 11 seconds after this callout was made, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recorded a loud noise. The aircraft began to veer right and Kochenash rejected the takeoff. Ditzel radioed to the control tower, "American three eighty-three heavy stopping on the runway." The controller had already noticed the engine failure and responded "roger roger. Fire," advising the crew of the situation. Ditzel asked the tower controller, "do you see any smoke or fire?" The controller said, "yeah fire off the right-wing." He then ordered the fire trucks to be sent to the aircraft. Kochenash called for the engine fire checklist, the right engine was shut off, and its fire extinguisher was activated. Kochenash then called for the evacuation checklist, during which the flight attendants had already initiated an evacuation, despite the command not having been given (which is not required). After shutting down the left engine, Kochenash finally gave the evacuation command and sounded the evacuation alarm. The first emergency exit (the left overwing window exit) was opened 8 to 12 seconds after the aircraft stopped. After completing the evacuation checklist, the pilots then evacuated. The right side of the fuselage suffered considerable fire damage. The right wing collapsed about midway along its length. American subsequently declared the aircraft a hull loss. The accident marks the 17th hull loss of a Boeing 767. On the same day, FedEx Express Flight 910 had crash-landed in
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
; everyone was unharmed.


Investigation and recommendations

In July 2017, GE Aviation issued a Service Bulletin recommending that airlines perform regular inspections of first- and second-stage disks of all CF6 engines built prior to 2000. On January 30, 2018, 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 ...
(NTSB) issued its final report on the incident involving American 383. It traced the origin of the failure in disk 2 to a "discrete dirty white spot" that in the Board's judgement would have been undetectable, at manufacture or subsequent inspection, with the inspection techniques available. The NTSB made several safety recommendations as a result, not only with regards to the engine and aircraft but also to issues raised by the evacuation.


Engine inspections

Although the CF6 had been the subject of multiple
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) airworthiness directives, they had not focused on the larger, relatively slower Stage 1 disks at the front of the engine, made with a nickel alloy. Although the FAA had signaled its intent to issue an order for ultrasonic inspections of CF6-80s in September 2017, the NTSB called for such inspections to be extended to all large commercial aircraft engine models in service. On August 30, 2018, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive that required airlines to perform ongoing ultrasonic inspections for cracks in stage 1 and stage 2 disks on engines like those involved in Flight 383. The NTSB also called for increased design precautions, based on multiple uncontained disk ruptures, to be continually integrated into all commercial aircraft design, especially of the wings and fuel tanks; the FAA has not yet responded to that recommendation.


Procedures

The Board recommended separate engine fire checklists for ground vs. in-flight operation; the checklist used did not so differentiate, and so did not include a separate step where, if the plane was on the ground, the other engine should be stopped to allow evacuation. As a result, a passenger evacuating using the left overwing exit was the only person seriously injured when they were knocked to the ground by exhaust from the still-operating engine. In addition, the checklist provided to the pilots called for discharge of only one of the two fire extinguisher bottles in the affected engine, followed by a wait of 30 seconds to judge its effectiveness; however, other checklists specific to ground operations call for immediate use of both bottles in order to create a safer environment for evacuation of the aircraft. The Board also faulted communication efforts among the crew, including the inability of flight attendants to successfully operate the interphone (which differed from the model used in training) and the failure of the flight crew to keep attendants informed of their intention to evacuate. The Board also called for research into countermeasures against passengers evacuating with carry-on luggage despite being specifically instructed not to do so by crew.


See also

*
Dynamic Airways Flight 405 On October 29, 2015, Dynamic Airways Flight 405, a Boeing 767 on a scheduled passenger service from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Caracas, Venezuela, suffered a fire while taxiing for departure. All 101 passengers and crew evacuated the aircraft an ...
*
British Airways Flight 2276 British Airways Flight 2276 was a scheduled international passenger service from Las Vegas to London. On 8 September 2015, the Boeing 777-200ER operating the flight suffered an uncontained engine failure and fire in the left ( #1) GE90 engine d ...
*
Korean Air Flight 2708 On 27 May 2016, a Boeing 777-300 of Korean Air, operating as Korean Air Flight 2708 from Haneda Airport in Tokyo to Seoul's Gimpo International Airport, was accelerating for take off when its left engine suffered an uncontained failure and a ...
*
British Airtours Flight 28M British Airtours Flight 28M (also known as Flight 328) was an international passenger flight which caught fire before takeoff at Manchester Airport, England on 22 August 1985 with the loss of 55 lives. It was en route to Corfu International A ...
*
United Airlines Flight 328 On February 20, 2021, United Airlines Flight 328 (UA328/UAL328), a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Denver to Honolulu, suffered a contained engine failure four minutes after takeoff from Denver International Airport (DEN). ...
* Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 *
United Airlines Flight 1175 On February 13, 2018, around noon local time, a Boeing 777-222 airplane, operating as United Airlines Flight 1175 (UA1175), experienced an in-flight separation of a fan blade in the No. 2 (right) engine while over the Pacific Ocean en route to ...
*
Qantas Flight 32 Qantas Flight 32 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from London to Sydney via Singapore. On 4 November 2010, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A380, suffered an uncontained failure in one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 en ...
*
United Airlines Flight 232 United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport. On July 19, 1989, the DC ...
* Tibet Airlines Flight 9833 * FedEx Express Flight 910


Notes


References


External links


NTSB Final Report

NTSB investigation docket
including Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript and Flight Data Recorder readout {{Aviation accidents and incidents in 2016 2010s in Chicago 2016 in Illinois Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 767 Airliner accidents and incidents in Illinois 383 Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2016 October 2016 events in the United States Airliner accidents and incidents involving uncontained engine failure Aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_2016