I have a feeling that a couple of posters in this thread miss the point about information. A fire indication doesn't mean "evacuate immediately" so everything starts with appropriate INFORMATION. Shutting down engines and so on are directly related to this very important piece of the puzzle.
Introducing checklists with different ideas such as "always evacuate when a fire indication is present" or "always evacuate after engine failure" or "always shut down all engines if one of them fail/is on fire" and varieties thereof wouldn't produce appropriate results and would lead to unnecessary evacuations based on indications only.
A proper decision to evacuate the aircraft after an engine failure with fire must be based on proper information relayed through a couple of channels:
Cameras
Cabin crew
ATC
Other channels
This means the ability for the crew to quickly learn what is going on and make the decision to evacuate based on this information. It is also a way to avoid this "engine running" issue. The cause of the engine no 2 running here are a couple of factors:
1. Lack of information about the fire - the pilots stopped the aircraft with the mindset of it being an engine failure and fire, NOT a pooled fuel fire. Keeping the engine running for taxiing clear of the runway was logical based on what they knew when they stopped.
2. The lack of information was further enhanced by the ATC silence, thus giving the impression that the situation wasn't that serious.
3. The result was a rushed decision to evacuate since the fire had been ongoing for a while already and that led to a chaotic execution of the checklists and the still running no 2 kept going for about 44 seconds before they shut it down.
So yes, the lack of appropriate information did delay the evacuation and caused a rushed decision when it came eventually, thus leading to the no 2 engine still running when the doors opened.
The whole case is a clear demonstration that INFORMATION must be available to the flight crew at an early stage so the appropriate decisions can be taken and the "taxi clear of the runway" mindset can be avoided in cases where the aircraft must be abandoned immediately.
Arguments along the lines of: "the crew should have evacuated immediately since they had fire warning" and similar makes no sense. Yes, they did have a fire warning but it still doesn't mean "evacuate" and it would be highly inappropriate to connect it with that course of action.
Delayed and rushed decisions to evacuate is an information problem and it is an obvious issue in this case, especially the lack of external (ATC) sources. The cabin call system could also be scrutinized - i.e. a more obvious indication of incoming high priority emergency calls from the cabin and perhaps fire warning buttons located at the flight attendant stations (i.e. the ability for CC to relay such information to the flight deck if flames are visible outside of the aircraft).
Edit: It is pretty logical and normal to leave an engine running after a failure on the other one when on the runway since shutting down everything without such a need would cause more disruptions to the airport. Taxi clear of the runway after the situation has been assessed is appropriate.
Stopping on the runway is for serious emergencies; moving the aircraft to a different location under power of the remaining engine is logical when the circumstances are such that the passengers should remain on board until appropriate means of exiting the aircraft are ready (airstairs or returning to a gate).
The "shutdown all engines because of a fire indication" item isn't a logical thing to add to the checklists.
And yes, ATC SHOULD SPEAK UP when a crew report that they are aborting take-off if there are visible smoke and flames from the aircraft since such information is extremely important to get to the crew as quick as possible.
"If you see something, say something" is an appropriate principle and a burning aircraft is a good case for it.
It is also more urgent to convey such information to a crew that *doesn't* report a fire when they report "stopping" or "abandoning take-off".
Last edited by AVR4000; 29th Jun 2018 at 13:13.