Posted on 03/15/2025 7:32:48 AM PDT by george76
FAA regulations require Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting units to be on site at all commercial airports when a pilot declares an emergency...
DENVER — Federal investigators are working to determine what caused an engine fire on American Airlines Flight 1006 at Denver International Airport, which forced passengers to evacuate onto the wing.
The fire broke out after the Boeing 737-800 landed and was taxiing to the gate Thursday, prompting a chaotic evacuation that has raised questions about why passengers had to go out onto the wing, why emergency responders were not in position when the plane touched down and what caused the fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation and will be looking at maintenance records, mechanical failures, and the timeline of the fire to determine what went wrong.
Why Passengers Were Forced onto the Wing..
Passengers were seen evacuating onto the left wing of the aircraft, a rare event in commercial aviation... Aviation Expert Greg Feith said only half of the plane’s eight exits were usable due to the fire and the aircraft’s position at the gate.
“The problem with the DIA fire was that the jetway hadn’t been pulled up to the aircraft yet,” Feith said. “Without the jetway, you can't use that exit anymore because the slide won't deploy. There's not enough room… This one would be available, but this engine was on fire, and this is where all the smoke was.”
With three exits near the burning engine unusable and one front exit unusable due to the jetway, passengers had limited ways out.
...
Why Firefighters Weren’t Waiting at Landing..
Passengers on board expected to see emergency crews on standby when they landed—but they weren’t.
“I was trying to think rationally, like, there should be fire engines here when we land if this plane is on fire. Certainly, there’s gonna be somebody there to extinguish it,” passenger Ingrid Hibbitts said.
FAA regulations require Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting units to be on site at all commercial airports when a pilot declares an emergency—but in this case, the pilot did not.
An air traffic control audio recording confirms that the pilot did not initially report an emergency when controllers checked in.
ATC: “1006, just to verify—not an emergency, still correct?” Pilot: “Nah, we just have a high engine vibration, so we are cruising slower than normal.”
“The plane was diverted with no explanation,” a spokesperson for DIA said in a statement.
Because the flight was diverted due to an engine vibration, not an active fire, standard emergency procedures were not activated until after landing.
“The fire began once the plane came to the gate. When the fire was first observed, our emergency notification system was activated. Fire response is part of that system. All emergency response procedures were followed as protocol,” the statement from DIA said.
What Caused the Fire?..
Aviation experts say engine fires on modern jets are rare, and investigators are working to determine how the fire started.
Passengers described smelling gas and fuel before landing.
Feith said it’s a possibility the fire was caused by a punctured fuel line, possibly from a broken engine blade.
“It’s evident from the type of fire that occurred, with thick black smoke pooling under the engine,” Feith said. “That’s indicative of a fuel-based fire.”
Feith said a big part of the investigation will involve analyzing maintenance records, engine components, and flight data to determine whether a mechanical failure or improper maintenance contributed to the fire.
I’m having a hard time with the pictures of those passengers standing on the wing of a plane that is on fire. The wing where in unknown thousands of gallons of jet fuel is stored.
This would have been an horrific event had the fire made it to that wing . . .
Sigh. Jet aircraft buyers, jet aircraft makers, jet engine makers . . . all trying to squeeze by . . . using synthetic (non-metal-alloy) “composite” fan and turbine blades.
MAYBE this was just to let Sean Duffy LOOK BAD! a WOMAN”S VOICE???
BINGO!! UNCREDIBLY STUPID!
It’s Denver, for goodness sake...
Why any big surprise at a normal Denver CF?
Just put it on the news. Quinnipiac will take a poll showing that 60% of the boneheads living in this country agree with every lie the far left “media” vomits at them. They lick it up as fast as the RAT liberals can vomit it at them.
I remember visiting the tower, in days gone by, when ATC used binoculars to observe every arriving and departing aircraft . . . in addition to using other tools for "observing" and managing arrivals and departures.
It is a pilot (Captain) judgement call. I’ve had engine vibrations before and have not declared an emergency, it just depends. If I were in this scenario, I probably, at the least, would have kept the engine running (depending on other engine indicators), reduced to either idle or where the vibration diminished or stopped. Easy to judge from behind the computer.
This is completely inexcusable.
Unless the Captain declares an emergency or asks for ground assistance, they will not roll the fire trucks.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the video. Why were NO doors opened or slides deployed?I could understand the rear doors not being opened, as that was the direction the fire/smoke was moving, but no reason the front doors were not opened. We were always taught to continue monitoring your exit because the conditions will change and an exit blocked by fire or smoke can become available. The overwing exits were initiated by a passenger…not sure of the AA jump seat layout, but usually no crew member is posted over wing.
I don’t know who this “aviation expert” is, but under no circumstance do you “wait for the jetway (or stairs) to pull up” before you evacuate the plane! The only time you evacuate off stairs or bridge is if they are already attached. What I saw was people standing on the wing and waiting for the jet stairs to pull up to the wing. Were the flaps not dropped so people could slide off? I thought that was the pilot responsibility? Not ideal, as it’s a long drop, but better than burning alive.
I don’t know…every plane accident is different and things are going to go wrong. When I was flying and SWA slid off the end of the runway at Burbank, we covered that crash in recurrent. They lost both rear exits because the FA didnt shove that door hard enough and the slide pack fell into the galley and inflated, blocking both exits. one of the front slides landed on a fire hydrant, rendering it unusable. so they had only one slide and the overwings to evacuate that aircraft.
The article was poor writing and lazy journalism.
As you point out - the plane was not at a gate. The doors should all have operable slides. why didn’t they deploy during this emergency?
I have small, inexpensive cameras all around my house - so I know what's going on at all times. Isn't the safety of the passengers worth the investment?
Airplanes are designed to deplane all passengers with half of the emergency exits blocked.
Just a quick read-thru of the article and it sounds like nobody is really at fault and everything went as it should given the circumstances. There was no fire until they pulled up at the gate and so no emergency was declared. The wing exit was the best way out due to the heat and smoke at the other exits.
Proximate cause: Failure of the pilot to evacuate on the runway at wheel-stop.
I can't wait to find out why he/she was prompted to roll to the gate while under confirmed fire emergency.
No, it doesn’t. See #36.
Lots of confusion on this one. Looks like the walkway was hooked up to the air aircraft when the fire started. The aircraft may have been “off” because flaps have to set at 40 degrees for the wing exits to be operated safely on that version of the 737-800 since there are no slides..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9zzt9bNKQ8
Alright. It seems the early report by CBS (below) that I saw was egregiously in error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5vGO654pcI&t=24s
The plane was diverted due to engine vibration, not fire, landed without incident and taxied before smoke then fire.
Gotta love these asshat ‘journalists’...
“The plane was diverted with no explanation,” a spokesperson for DIA said in a statement.... “Because the flight was diverted due to an engine vibration.....”
Diverted to where?
What kind of plane?
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