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.
Karen Bass got a new job?
BLM sleepover?
this comment doesn't make any sense.
Story doesn’t make sense.
Video of fire
https://rumble.com/v6qls8c-american-airlines-plane-catches-fire-at-denver-airport.html
Video of passengers evacuating onto the wing
https://rumble.com/v6qlsdi-fire-on-plane-at-denver-airport-forcing-passengers-to-evacuate-onto-the-win.html
Because President Trump laid them all off? This needs to be fart checked.
You can hear the pilot or first officer say no emergency to the tower and was nonchalant. It was a women’s voice. Was there a connection because the crew member was a woman and why wouldn’t you declare an emergency?
The pilot should have declared an emergency... then fire crews would have been waiting.
I think it means that the front exit is so high, it needs a jetway at the gate. Nothing else, apparently, fits.
The reason the passengers evacuated out onto the wing is because the person sitting by the wing door saw the fire, opened the door and got the hell out and everyone else followed him.
“”””You can hear the pilot or first officer say no emergency to the tower and was nonchalant. It was a women’s voice. “”
No big deal. Just a plane full of people that is on FIRE.
We’ll look into it after we have our Starbucks.
Well duh, thy are for emergency exit and everybody made it out. It would be nice to point that out.
P.S. The seats at those exits have decent economy class leg room too.
I worked ARRF for 8 years at Alliance airport in Fort Worth. We could be at almost any point on the field within 3 minutes of being called even from a dead sleep. If they weren’t there…they weren’t called out.
i have visited and lived in some different places but CO has some of the laziest, lame inexoerienced and workers on the planet, on par with Africa.
I am almost afraid to even get my tires changed here, I have to recheck the torque and take it back a few times to get the balnce done right, this may be a nationwide trend with this generation
The plane was NOT on fire when the call was made initially, it was was for engine vibration.
“The problem with the DEI fire was that the jetway hadn’t been pulled up to the aircraft yet,” Feith said.”
Why am I not surprised?
So they didn’t notice the fire until they parked the plane in a crowded area?
How does one do that, exactly?
So it was the girl pilot saying no emergency that caused the lack of fire response.
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