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 operating the flight suffered an uncontained engine failure and fire in the left (#1) GE90 engine during take-off from Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport, prompting an aborted take-off and the evacuation of all passengers and crew. All 170 people on board survived, but 20 were injured.[1] The aircraft, which suffered moderate damage to a section of its forward fuselage as of a result of the vigorous fire, was repaired and returned to commercial passenger service in March 2016.[2][3][4]

British Airways Flight 2276
G-VIIO, the aircraft involved, photographed in 2009
Accident
Date8 September 2015 (2015-09-08)
SummaryUncontained engine failure on ground, fire
SiteMcCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
36°4′34.67″N 115°9′8.96″W
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 777-236ER
OperatorBritish Airways
IATA flight No.BA2276
ICAO flight No.BAW2276
Call signSPEEDBIRD 2276
RegistrationG-VIIO
Flight originLas Vegas McCarran International Airport
DestinationGatwick Airport, Crawley, England
Occupants170
Passengers157
Crew13
Fatalities0
Injuries20
Survivors170 (all)

Incident

The aircraft left Terminal 3, Gate E3, at 15:53 local time, and began its take-off from Runway 07L at 16:12 where the incident occurred.[5]

After noticing what the pilot later described as a "catastrophic failure of the engine"[6] well before take-off speed, the flight crew aborted the take-off by using the aircraft's brakes and ordered an evacuation of the aircraft.[7] All 170 passengers and crew escaped. Nineteen people sustained minor injuries and one person sustained serious injuries.[8] The aircraft is thought to have reached a speed of approximately 90 miles per hour (78 kn; 140 km/h) when the decision to abort was made;[9] far below the takeoff decision speed of the aircraft, which would have been at least 139 miles per hour (121 kn; 224 km/h).[10]

The airport's emergency services extinguished the fire within five minutes of the mayday call. Fourteen people were lightly injured, mostly from sliding down the escape chutes, and treated at Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center.[6][11] The fire caused a large hole in the cargo hold and damage to the engine.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicated the fire was caused by failure of the left General Electric GE90 engine, one of two fitted on the aircraft.[12] The aircraft came to a halt upwind, causing the fire to be blown towards the fuselage; the aircraft sustained localised, but major, structural damage as a result.[13][14] The aircraft was equipped with suppression systems, though the systems did not extinguish the fire.[11]

The runway, one of four, was closed for four hours, and several inbound flights were cancelled.[15]

Aircraft and crew
The aircraft at Victorville in February 2016, showing the unpainted fuselage skin and engine cowling

The aircraft involved in the incident was a Boeing 777-236ER, s/n 29320, registered as G-VIIO. At the time of the incident, the aircraft was 16 years old; it had been delivered new to British Airways on 26 January 1999.[16]

The captain was 63-year-old Chris Henkey, who had been with British Airways since 1973 and received his type rating on the Boeing 777 in 1999. He had 30,000 flight hours, including 12,000 hours on the Boeing 777.[8]:9–10 Flight 2276 was intended to his penultimate flight before his retirement (which was intended to occur in a week),[17] but following the accident he decided that Flight 2276 would be his final flight.[18][19]

The unnamed 30-year-old first officer joined the airline since 2006, receiving his type rating on the Boeing 777 in 2011, and had 6,400 flight hours, with 3,100 hours on the Boeing 777.[8]:9 An unnamed 45-year-old relief pilot was also on board. He had been with British Airways since 1997 and had been type rated on the Boeing 777 since 2001. The relief pilot had 14,000 flight hours, and like captain Henkey, was also well experienced on the Boeing 777 having logged 10,000 hours on it. He was a first officer at the time of the accident.[8]:10–11

Repair

In December 2015, British Airways announced that a team of engineers from Boeing had assessed the aircraft and determined the damage was limited and suitable for repair. As a result, it was announced that the aircraft would be repaired and returned to service.[20] A team from Boeing completed the repairs in February 2016.

Airworthiness tests were conducted on the aircraft on 25 February 2016. On 26 February, the aircraft made its departure from Las Vegas McCarran airport at 1:33 p.m. and was flown to Victorville, arriving at 3:06 p.m, where it was repainted and further repairs and maintenance work was performed.[21][22] The aircraft was then flown to British Airways Maintenance Cardiff in Cardiff on 15 March for a routine C check. Finally, it returned to its London Gatwick base and resumed passenger service on 24 March.[23]

Investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the American air accident investigative body, dispatched four investigators to the site the day after the incident.[24] As well as FAA, Boeing and General Electric involvement, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch has a representative and that representative has appointed "British Airways and the UK Civil Aviation Authority as technical advisors". Initial NTSB findings were that an uncontained engine failure had occurred and that the "left engine and pylon, left fuselage structure and inboard left wing airplane were substantially damaged by the fire".[1] On 6 October 2015, the NTSB issued an update stating that the accident was traced to the failure of the "stage 8–10 spool in the high-pressure compressor section...liberating fragments that breached the engine case and cowling".[25] The NTSB released their final report 2 years and 10 months later. The cause of the accident was determined as:

The failure of the left engine high-pressure compressor (HPC) stage 8-10 spool, which caused the main fuel supply line to become detached from the engine main fuel pump and release fuel, resulting in a fire on the left side of the airplane. The HPC stage 8-10 spool failed due to a sustained-peak low-cycle fatigue crack that initiated in the web of the stage 8 disk; the cause of the crack initiation could not be identified by physical inspection and stress and lifing analysis. Contributing to this accident was the lack of inspection procedures for the stage 8 disk web.[8]

— Final report, National Transportation Safety Board

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.

  1. "NTSB Issues Update on the British Airways Engine Fire at Las Vegas". ntsb.gov. National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  2. Hoyle, Craig (1 March 2016). "PICTURE: Fire-damaged BA 777 leaves Las Vegas for further repairs". Flight Global. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  3. Fiegener, Craig (12 July 2017). "British Airways airplane that caught fire in Las Vegas back in service". KSNV. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  4. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 777-236ER G-VIIO Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport, NV (LAS)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  5. "Flight Info". FlightStats. Retrieved 9 September 2015. (Login required)
  6. Phipps, Claire (9 September 2015). "British Airways plane catches fire at Las Vegas airport #BA2276". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  7. "13 hospitalized after British Airways fire in Las Vegas". Fox 5 Vegas. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  8. "National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report". National Transportation Safety Board. 19 June 2018. DCA15FA185. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  9. "What happened to BA Flight 2276?". ITV News. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  10. B777-200ER Dispatch Performance Data, The Boeing Company, 26 October 2017
  11. "British Airways fire: Jet's suppression system didn't work, source says". CNN. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  12. Alcock, Charles (8 September 2015). "Engine Failure Causes Fire on British Airways Boeing 777". AIN Online. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  13. Waldron, Greg. "Unclear whether BA 777 engine failure was contained". flightglobal.com. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  14. Kaminski-Morrow, David (9 September 2015). "Weather data suggests crosswind at time of BA 777 fire". Flightglobal. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  15. Hradecky, Simon. "Accident: British Airways B772 at Las Vegas on Sep 8th 2015, rejected takeoff due to engine fire". avherald.com. The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  16. "Boeing 777 (G-VIIO)— British Airways". Plane Finder Data. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  17. Grierson, Jamie (9 September 2015). "BA plane fire: captain who helped avert disaster was due to retire next week". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  18. "Pilot Who Saved Burning Flight: 'I'm Finished Flying'". NBC News. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  19. Grierson, Jamie (10 September 2015). "Chris Henkey, pilot of British Airways engine-fire jet, has 'finished flying'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  20. Velotta, Richard N. (16 December 2015). "British Airways jet that caught fire before takeoff at McCarran to fly again". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  21. "Jet that caught fire on McCarran runway has left Las Vegas". Las Vegas Review-Journal. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  22. "The Latest: Fire-damaged British Airways jet departs Vegas". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Associated Press. 26 February 2016. Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  23. "British Airways B777-200ER G-VIIO Leaves Las Vegas". The BA Source. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  24. "NTSB Investigators to Probe Engine Fire on British Airways 777 in Las Vegas". ntsb.gov. National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  25. "NTSB Issues Second Update on British Airways Engine Fire at Las Vegas". ntsb.gov. National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
National Transportation Safety Board
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