Flybe Engine Fire

[flybar]

Belfast plane: Emergency declared as engine goes on fire

All evacuated safely!!

BBC News - Belfast plane: Emergency declared as engine goes on fire (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30504199)

[MKY661]

G-FLBC appears to be the aircraft involved. Good news that no one was hurt.

[Ozmd]

Glad no one was hurt. At least they have emergency response as a precaution - it would be asking for too much in Australia! Please see below:

http://www.pprune.org/australia-new-zealand-pacific/552600-qantaslink-dash-8-engine-failure.html

May be OEI with engine fire only would warrant emergency response and an ATSB investigation? Oh we are ill-informed pax who mean nothing to those in the 'jump seat' and are obliged to get frightened.

[Burpbot]

Like the last engine shutdown thread! Let the armchair know it alls commence! Please do not bother waiting for any facts ;)

[RRAAMJET]

Rarely post here anymore, but in this case, from what I have read, good job crew. Single eng landings never routine, and calming the pax whilst planning all adds to the potential drama...so in this example, a deserved pat on the back, I hope.

[Fat Magpie]

The passenger interviewed on the BBC stated "he asked a fireman where to stand and the fireman did not have a clue"

Really...I very much doubt it... i have seen them exercise and their throughly professional.

[Lord Spandex Masher]

The fire brigade have zero interest in passenger control during a situation like this. A lesson learnt the hard way by Flybe on the IOM a few years back.

[Jwscud]

I thought UK airports were supposed to corral everyone, and separate out pax and crew following an incident and/or evacuation?

[Lord Spandex Masher]

Well the IOM may be different to the UK (:}) but one thing to come out in the AAIB report was that the fire brigade will NOT involve themselves in crowd control whilst they are controlling whatever emergency they're dealing with.

It was an eye opener for everybody and something to think about.

[con-pilot]

I was once holding short of the north runway at KMIA one night and a 737 across the runway on a parallel taxiway called saying that they had a fire in the cockpit and were evacuating the passengers via the emergency slides.

We saw the emergency exits open, the main cabin doors open, the slides deploy and then escape slides come out and inflate. Then here came the passengers down the slides. My God, I didn’t know a 737 could carry that many passengers, they were like ants running away from an anthill. There were running away in about every direction, some heading toward the active runway.

So I turned on my landing lights (727) so the area would illuminated and then the tower cleared us for takeoff. The tower did not know the 737 was spewing passengers all over that end of the airport. Well that made things interesting. My co-pilot called the tower back and told them considering everything, we would wait until all the people running around were corralled. After our call the tower realized that the 737 was evacuating its passengers.

I have to say that after the CFR folks were notified their response was extremely rapid. But it still took 30 minutes before we could make an intersection takeoff from about 2,000 feet down the end of the runway. In this case, after the CFR crews handled the fire, which was just smoke in the cockpit, they and the airport police did help round up the passengers and move them to a safe area where they were loaded on busses.

By the way, this happened the night after hurricane Andrews destroyed the southern half of the Miami area the previous night.

[Bull at a Gate]

According to the AAIB website "The AAIB is deploying a team to Belfast International Airport to investigate a serious incident to an airliner. "

Does anyone have any more information?

[G-BPED]

This probably!! http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/553022-flybe-engine-fire.html

[james brown]

Flybe quote:

""At no time was the safety and well-being of passengers compromised"

Surely a contender for most preposterous quote from the PR dept of 2014 award. Yes we all train for all sorts of scenarios. But ultimately the thing was on fire. Therefore I would say the safety and well being of said passengers was compromised.

[srobarts]

Is the FlyBe fire according to AVHerald. Incident: Flybe DH8D near Belfast on Dec 16th 2014, engine fire (http://avherald.com/h?article=47edabc7&opt=0)

[DaveReidUK]

Flybe quote:

"At no time was the safety and well-being of passengers compromised"

AAIB statement:

"The AAIB is deploying a team to Belfast International Airport to investigate a serious incident to an airliner"Serious incident (ICAO Annex 13): An incident involving circumstances indicating that an accident nearly occurred. The difference between an accident and a serious incident lies only in the result.

Hmmm indeed.

[A2QFI]

I think passenger safety was compromised, to an extent, from the moment the engine failed until they were in a terminal building.

[airbus350s]

I think they need to start taking a look at there engine run up procedures as any flybe flight I have been on they never run the port engine up to full temp before take off, and have it shut down before on stand at the arrival airport. Seems like bad practice to me.

[Consol]

Well now 350s,

On what basis and evidence would you say a single engine taxi on a Dash 8-400 is bad practice?

Why would you say this could contribute to an engine fire?

Please respond with reference to FCOMs and statistical history or else stick to the PC flight sims.

[Ozmd]

It may be a strange co-incidence but the following both are exactly same type of aircraft and same type of engines (incidentally same side!):

Incident: Sunstate DH8D at Dubbo on Dec 5th 2014, engine shut down in flight (http://avherald.com/h?article=47e660ab&opt=0)
Incident: Flybe DH8D near Belfast on Dec 16th 2014, engine fire (http://avherald.com/h?article=47edabc7&opt=0)

[Cloud1]

airbus350s - a few airlines do single engine taxi including the one I work for so I don't think it has anything to do with the engine fire to be honest.

Ozmd - a coincidence. Out of all the Q400s flying around the world to have 2 with an engine problem does not represent a trend or major problem.

[RVF750]

Airbus350s,

Dear sir, Q400s do 8-10 flights per day and other than the first flight in the morning, the oil temps in the left engine are nice and warm all day long. The PW150 is massively derated for sea level so it's a quite unstressed engine as these things go...Starting it late in the taxi is simply not an issue. It's only because there's a big prop attached that you notice anyway....

Good job by the crew who only get to practice this twice a year mostly...

[silverknapper]

Turkish

What about after landing? I've noticed the port engine is shut down more or less straight away as of fairly recently. Never flown the type so just curiosity. Any other turbine I've flown needs 3 mins stabilising before shutting down.

[Fat Magpie]

Did I read somewhere that there was a problem with the wheel in that landing gear pod earlier in the day ?

[Hotel Tango]

Since FlyBe operate 40 odd DHC-8s and have been practising single engine taxi scores of times per day for years without problems, I fail to see why there's so much focus on this being the cause. There are plenty of other possibilities.

[barit1]

3 minutes cooldown is fairly typical across several engine models of various sizes.

But in some cases, approach and landing at/near idle (i.e. less than full flaps) may be counted toward the 3 minutes requirement.

[PT6Driver]

Airbus350, silver and others,
There are prescribed oil temp limits which must be adhered to before takeoff, whether single engine or not.
Further as I recall on shut down the engine needs to have been in start/feather for 1 minute before bejng shut down.
On a cold day and first flight the engines can take some time to come up to the correct temp prior to flight. Other than that it is not a problem as the short turnarounds do not allow the engines to cool down that much.
After landing the engine is put into start feather for 1 min prior to shut down wheather on stand or during taxi in.
All engine manufacturers have their own procedures which should (and in in this case are) be followed. Your plane and procedures will be different and you should follow them.
GE do not follow RR etc.so do not presume that just because procedures do not follow your company sops they are wrong.
This is a non issue.

[bean]

PT6Driver
It's actually 30 seconds not 1 minute

[PT6Driver]

I stand corrected. 30 secs it is.
Memory playing false old age or dementia!

[Reversethrustset]

The only warm up period required for the PW150A is for take off when in icing conditions. If icing conditions aren't prevalent then there is no warm up period. This warm up period is to reach a certain temperature to ensure engine intake ice protection which uses oil as it's heat source. There is no warm up period required specifically for the engine. The only cool down period is what has already been stated - 30 seconds on selection of start/feather. There certainly is not a 3 minute cool down period or anything like 3 minutes as being cited by some. I hope this helps clear up a few myths being cited on here.

[Burpbot]

Incorrect! Read your AOM