New Information as of January 19, 2008:
Ms. Langsted spent the day at the airplane. Ms. McCormick reviewed the crew interview reports. The airplane has not been moved from the runway yet. The airplane is considered a hull loss.
Crashworthiness: There was only one serious injury, a compound fracture to the leg. The airplane landed on the main gear, bounced, came back down on the gear, then the gear failed, and the engines supported weight of the airplane. The descent rate at landing was 1500-1800 feet per minute. One of the main landing gear swung around and pushed slightly into the cabin. The other punctured the center fuel tank (empty) leaving a 1-by-2-foot hole. The report of a fuel leak is unconfirmed. All the slides deployed and the doors worked. Some passengers had to shuffle down the slides due to the slight angle. The flight deck door opened on its own during the landing. Some oxygen masks dropped.
Engines: No indication as yet of why engines rolled back. They ingested grass and dirt during the landing. One engine had recently had the electronic engine control (EEC) replaced due to indicated faults. The EECs have been removed from the engine to have the memory read.
Fuel system: No indication as yet that the fuel system was not providing fuel to the engines. Center fuel tank was empty, and the main fuel tanks had a quantity of fuel in the tons. The spar valves were open until the pilots pulled the fire handle just prior to evacuating the airplane (normal). The fuel crossfeed valves were closed in flight (normal) according to the flight crew, but the switches were found in the open position and only one valve was open. All fuel boost pumps were on and indicating high pressure (normal). The engine fuel filters have been
removed for analysis. Several fuel samples from this airplane and other airplanes coming in from Beijing have been analyzed with no significant findings. The fuel temperature indicated in flight was as low as -34 degrees Celsius, although its proper functioning is being questioned.
Electrical System: Although the electrical buses seemed to have been powered through the landing, there were several electrical anomalies close in time with the engine rollbacks. The auxiliary power unit began its auto start sequence, and the quick access recorder saved data and shut down. There were also the unexpected fuel valve positions mentioned earlier. The flight data recorder was powered through the landing.
New Information as of January 18, 2008:
Sue McCormick and Margaret Langsted arrived at Heathrow in the afternoon London time and met with Bill English (NTSB), Carol Horgan (NTSB), Steve Magladry (NTSB), TR Proven (FAA), for a quick briefing.
At about 700 ft AGL, the auto throttle commanded engine acceleration. One engine started to rollback during and the other engine started to accelerate then 8-10 seconds later began to roll back. Once the flight crew noticed, they pushed the throttles up and the engines' EECs responded but the engines did not. It appears that no fuel was getting to the engines. There was adequate fuel on the airplane. Fuel sample tests are not complete. No one from this group of investigators has been on board the airplane. The airplane has been released to the operator and we assume they will move it tonight.
January 17, 2008
Background:
On January 17, 2008, at approximately 1242 (GMT), a British Airways Boeing 777, operating as Flight 38 from Beijing, China to London, England with 152 people on board, landed short of the runway at Heathrow International Airport. The airplane skidded in the grassy runway overrun area resulting in substantial structural damage and came to rest at the approach end of the runway. There was no fire, and the airplane was successfully evacuated with only minor injuries reported. The captain stated that at 400ft on a stabilized approach, the power on both engines simultaneously rolled back. Weather does not appear to be a factor.
An investigation team including members from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Boeing, FAA Aircraft Accident Investigation, and the Seattle ACO will be leaving Thursday evening. An accident investigator from Boeing happened to be in London on other business and is currently at the accident site. The Seattle ACO in sending a propulsion and a cabin safety engineering specialist to participate in the investigation. The cabin safety specialist will help assess the factors that contributed to the successful protection and egress of the aircraft’s occupants.
Airplane Configuration Data:
The aircraft is a Boeing Model 777-200, Serial Number 30314, registration G-YMMM, operated by British Airways. The airplane was delivered May 31, 2001 and had accumulated 22,046 hours and 3,181 cycles and is powered by two Rolls-Royce (RR) Trent 895 engines.
The engines were last overhauled approximately one year ago at the Roll-Royce facility in Derby, United Kingdom (UK).
The Trent 895 is part of the Trent 800 series of engines which are high by-pass, axial flow, three spool turbofan engines, originally certified by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and subsequently validated by the FAA in 1999. European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) began oversight of the type design on behalf of the UK CAA in 2003. The engine FAA type certificate data sheet number is E00050EN.
Top 5 Operators of Boeing Model 777 series airplane:
Airline
Number of Airplanes
Singapore Airlines
69
Emirates Airline
55
United Airlines
52
Air France
49
American Airlines
47
777-200 Airworthiness Directives (ADs) (See Attachment 1)
Engine Information
Engine #1
Engine #2
Serial No.
51426
51359
Total engine hrs
15,700
24,247
Total engine cycles 1,928
3,412
The current IFSD rates for RR-powered 777’s are as follows:
Worldwide fleet total IFSD rate – 0.0048 per 1,000 hrs. (RR data thru Sept 07)
Worldwide fleet basic IFSD rate – 0.0038 per 1,000 hrs. (RR data thru Sept 07)
Action Requested/Recommended:
Information only. This information is preliminary and is subject to change.