TWO CRASHES
Passengers fleeing from AA383 | Photo courtesy Alan Lemery
28.10
P lane crashes don ’ t occur very often but when they do they usually aren ’ t fatal . Planes don ’ t crash due to only one problem . It ’ s usually a chain of events . The job of the pilots is to identify these problems and stop them from happening . Here in this article are two such events that hapened during the same day at Chicago O ’ Hare International Airport , USA .
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 383
On the 28th October 2016 an American Airlines flight 383 - a Boeing 767 registration ( N345AN ) was taking off from the world ’ s second busiest airport , Chicago O ’ Hare International Airport , on a daily flight to Miami . During the takeoff roll the plane ’ s number two engine burst into flames , which forced the pilot to abort the takeoff and make an emergency stop on the runway . When the aircraft came to a full stop all passengers were forced to immediately evacuate as the right engine caused the right wing to catch fire and there was a risk of explosion . All of the 170 passengers onboard escaped but some were taken to the hospital due to minor injuries . What caused the problem ? It sounds unbelievable but sometimes , small parts can cause big or even fatal crashes . The NTSB ( National Transportation Safety Board ) investigation into the cause of the explosion is still ongoing . But here ’ s what we know : American Airlines and the NTSB say the explosion was caused by a disk located in the rear portion of the engine , where burning fuel races past fan blades to spin the turbine . The disk was found to be broken in four pieces about 890m away from the explosion . The NTSB had found several cracks on the disk which weren ’ t caused by the explosion and likely led to the crash . This GE CF6 engine was built in 1997 .
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE BOEING 767-300ER
LENGTH 54.94m WING SPAN 47.57m MAX PASSENGERS 290 MAX CRUISE SPEED 486kn / 900kph
4
MAX RANGE 7200km MTOW 158,758kg