Aircraft Engine Fire
The intent of this questionnaire is to solicit existing information and experience that would improve training and readiness of airport fire fighters for incidents with both modern technology and legacy aircraft.
Uncontrolled engine core fires (core & tail pipe)
Uncontrolled engine core fires in high bypass turbofan engines present a difficult challenge to airport firefighters. Since the fire is burning within the turbine casing and exhaust nozzle, pulling the fire handle to discharge extinguishing agent into the space between casings and cowls would seem to be ineffective.
Question:
Could you please confirm that pulling the fire handle may also make it impossible to dry motor the engine, which is the quickest way of extinguishing most tailpipe fires?
In case dry motoring does not work, would you recommend flooding the intake and/or exhaust with aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) using large monitors, or dry chemical powder, or clean agents such as Halotron?
What would be the recommended extinguishing agent application technique? Would directing the streams to the core annulus be more effective?
In situations where fuel control to the engine is malfunctioning, what are the alternate means of cutting off fuel to the engine?
Accessory compartment fires
Fires in the accessory compartment are usually best controlled by the onboard firefighting agents (Halogenated products) initiated by the fire handles.
Question:
In situations where the onboard firefighting system malfunctions or is unable to suppress the fire, manual firefighting will have to take place. Which locations in the nacelle would be expected to be the seat of the fire? Are there external indicators, e.g. Infrared signatures that would aid in detection and assessment of the magnitude of the fire?
In order to access the seat of the fire what would be the recommended access point? Would you recommend using service ports such as oil fill point’s access panels to inject extinguishing agents?
Would you recommend the use of a piercing applicator to inject foam, dry chemical or clean agent into the accessory compartment? In the affirmative – what reference points would you use on the nacelle?
What extinguishing agents would you recommend?
Inability to shut down
On two occasions, two large frame aircrafts (A340 & A380) experienced an inability to shut down their engines while on the ground during emergencies.
Question:
In case of control/FADEC malfunction and fuel spar valve remaining open, what alternate means of shutting down the engine could you propose?
Would complete flooding of the engine core be the only viable option to shut down (terminate combustion in) an engine whose command & control has been lost? Would this be possible at idle and high power? Could engine stall be induced and at what risk?
Due to the design of high bypass turbofan engines, is flooding realistic? In the affirmative – what type of application technique. e.g. location, droplet size would you recommend?