Event Details


Title:Engine fire on takeoff, Air Zimbabwe, Boeing 707-330B, Z-WKU at Shannon Airport, Ireland, 1997-03-10
Micro summary:Right after takeoff, a fire emerged in the #3 engine of this Boeing 707.
Event Time:1997-03-10 at 2315 UTC
File Name:1997-03-10-IE.pdf
Publishing Agency:Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU)
Publishing Country:Ireland
Report number:2004-023
Pages:23
Site of event:Shannon Airport, Ireland
Departure:Shannon International Airport, Shannon, Ireland
Destination:Harare International Airport, Harare, Zimbabwe
Airplane Type(s):Boeing 707-330B
Flight Phase:Takeoff
Registration(s):Z-WKU
Operator(s):Air Zimbabwe
Type of flight:Charter
Occupants:53
Fatalities:0
Serious Injuries:0
Minor/Non-Injured:53
Other Injuries:0
Executive Summary:The aircraft had completed a refuelling stop at Shannon Airport and took off bound for Harare, Zimbabwe. Immediately after take-off fire was detected in the No. 3 engine. The fire was successfully extinguished and a number of other technical problems arose, necessitating two over-shoots. The aircraft finally landed safely at Shannon. No. 3 engine had suffered considerable fire damage. The investigation found that this engine had suffered a similar fire 11 days before this event. The fire originated in a poor welding repair of the engine diffuser casing. This repair was completed some considerable time prior to the fire.

Causes

3.2.1 The cause of the fire was a poorly executed welding repair of the diffuser casing in the area of the supports to the P&D Valve mounting-boss, which caused the distorting of the boss.

3.2.2 This distortion of the boss led to an air/fuel leak, which over a long period of time caused the erosion and failure of the bolt. Then when the escaping air/fuel mixture vapour reached a critical fuel/air ratio with the vented air-flow around the diffuser casing, the mixture ignited and caused the fire.

3.2.3 The inspection of the engine, following the previous events in relation to this engine, failed to detect the true nature of the fault in the engine.
Learning Keywords:Operations - Maintenance
Systems - Engine Fire
Systems - Fuel
Systems - Fuel - Leak
Close match:All Engines-out Landing Due to Fuel Exhaustion, Air Transat, Airbus A330-243 marks C-GITS, Lajes, Azores, Portugal, 24 August 2001
Multiple system failures, Airbus A340-642, G-VATL
Apparent fuel leak, Boeing 777-236, G-YMME
Engine fire, McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, N68065
Engine fire, Airbus Industrie A300, July 9, 1998
Engine fire, Boeing 757-232, April 17, 2003
Engine fire, McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, G-NIUK, May 11, 1997
Maintenance Error — In-flight fuel leak, Air Canada Airbus A330-300, C-GHKX, Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, 06 November 2003

 




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