TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
You probably already read about the 767 that barfed an engine on a maintenance run yesterday, as it was on Aero-News.net. Here's two more accounts, and pictures from the LAFD, that I received from my AA 777 pilot friend:
Two accounts of the 767 fire in LAX.
The photos are at: http://flickr.com/photos/lafd/sets/72157594153722446/
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From:
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 10:07 AM
To:
Subject: Re: AA767LAX
Yeah I heard about this from a mechanic last night when I went to DFw to ferry an a/c to Alliance. He said they were running both engines because it had been tagged as having high vibration levels...guess so. Spit that turbine blade about 100 feet he said, and it ripped holes in the fuselage, under side of the wing (that’s what started the fire) had lots of fuel on board. It was a/c 330. That picture of the thing that looks like a manhole cover covered in foam...that’s the turbine section.
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From:
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 9:59 AM
To:
Subject: Re: AA767LAX
Was up at the hill briefly this afternoon around 13:30 local and 25R was closed with airport ops walking around the runway and over by the AAL maintenance facility there was a AAL 767-300 surrounded by police and fire. for all i know it could have been a major training exercise but something was definitely brewing. To be honest it almost looked like the area around the aft left door was a bit burned but it very well might have been my mind playin tricks... i was at distance.
Apparently, the a/c (N330AA) had an engine write up. It was taken to the mx pad for a test run. (Word in the crew room later that afternoon.) During that run the left engine had some sort of massive failure. I taxiied out past the back of that blast fence where they did the test about 2-3 minutes before the 'explosion' that was heard well into El Segundo. Over south ground I heard the mechanics urgently calling for fire trucks and that they were abandoning the a/c. The guy was really freaked! Too bad we couldn't see anything as we were taxiing east.
Once we took 25R for takeoff, I could see the damage. A cloud of black smoke was huge and blew over all of terminal 4 and the a/c looked like a BBQ gone bad all the way up past the rear door. On climb out the fire trucks were visible spraying down the plane. There was so much foam the entire a/c and the ramp looked like a snow storm. Foam was blowing through the blast fence and onto C & C11 for some time- even up to Q and out on to B whih is why that area was closed. The AE ramp looked like a big bubble bath with the flying foam till past 4pm (and the event happened at 12:35). The flames must have been amazing. I saw the trailing edge of the wing scorched and bits of burnt composite were blowing in the wind 2 hours later on our return flight to LAX when T was open again and we taxiied into C11 behind the 767.
Two accounts of the 767 fire in LAX.
The photos are at: http://flickr.com/photos/lafd/sets/72157594153722446/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 10:07 AM
To:
Subject: Re: AA767LAX
Yeah I heard about this from a mechanic last night when I went to DFw to ferry an a/c to Alliance. He said they were running both engines because it had been tagged as having high vibration levels...guess so. Spit that turbine blade about 100 feet he said, and it ripped holes in the fuselage, under side of the wing (that’s what started the fire) had lots of fuel on board. It was a/c 330. That picture of the thing that looks like a manhole cover covered in foam...that’s the turbine section.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 9:59 AM
To:
Subject: Re: AA767LAX
Was up at the hill briefly this afternoon around 13:30 local and 25R was closed with airport ops walking around the runway and over by the AAL maintenance facility there was a AAL 767-300 surrounded by police and fire. for all i know it could have been a major training exercise but something was definitely brewing. To be honest it almost looked like the area around the aft left door was a bit burned but it very well might have been my mind playin tricks... i was at distance.
Apparently, the a/c (N330AA) had an engine write up. It was taken to the mx pad for a test run. (Word in the crew room later that afternoon.) During that run the left engine had some sort of massive failure. I taxiied out past the back of that blast fence where they did the test about 2-3 minutes before the 'explosion' that was heard well into El Segundo. Over south ground I heard the mechanics urgently calling for fire trucks and that they were abandoning the a/c. The guy was really freaked! Too bad we couldn't see anything as we were taxiing east.
Once we took 25R for takeoff, I could see the damage. A cloud of black smoke was huge and blew over all of terminal 4 and the a/c looked like a BBQ gone bad all the way up past the rear door. On climb out the fire trucks were visible spraying down the plane. There was so much foam the entire a/c and the ramp looked like a snow storm. Foam was blowing through the blast fence and onto C & C11 for some time- even up to Q and out on to B whih is why that area was closed. The AE ramp looked like a big bubble bath with the flying foam till past 4pm (and the event happened at 12:35). The flames must have been amazing. I saw the trailing edge of the wing scorched and bits of burnt composite were blowing in the wind 2 hours later on our return flight to LAX when T was open again and we taxiied into C11 behind the 767.