AAIB Special Bulletin: S2/2009
G-WOWB
SERIOUS INCIDENT Aircraft Type and Registration:
Bombardier Dash 8-311, G-WOWB
No & Type of Engines:
2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW123 Turboprops
Year of Manufacture:
1992
Date & Time (UTC):
12 April 2009 at 1852 hrs
Location:
Plymouth City Airport, Plymouth
Type of Flight:
Private
Persons on Board:
Crew - 4 Passengers - 0
Injuries:
Crew - None Passengers - None
Nature of Damage:
Moderate
Commander’s Licence:
Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence
Commander’s Age:
43 years
Commander’s Flying Experience:
10,716 hours (of which 7,719 were on type) Last 90 days - 56 hours Last 28 days - 9 hours
Information Source:
AAIB Field Investigation
This bulletin contains facts which have been determined up to the time of issue. This information is published to inform the aviation industry and the public of the general circumstances of accidents and must necessarily be regarded as tentative and subject to alteration or correction if additional evidence becomes available. The investigations in this bulletin have been carried out in accordance with The Civil Aviation (Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1996, Annex 13 to the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation and EU Directive 94/56/EC. The sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident under these Regulations shall be the prevention of accidents and incidents. It shall not be the purpose of such an investigation to apportion blame or liablility. Extracts can be published without specific permission providing that the source is duly acknowledged. © Crown copyright 2009
AAIB Special Bulletin: S2/2009
G-WOWB
The Incident:
The Aircraft:
The aircraft involved (Bombardier Dash 8-311) is chartered by Air Southwest, a group of Sutton Harbor Holdings Ltd. Based in Plymouth, UK. It had landed from Newquay and was on stand with passengers disembarking and luggage being offloaded.
The aircraft had been inspected by the Flight crew at Newquay before departure and a thorough inspection had been carried out by Air Southwest three days previously. No defects were found in either inspection.
The flight, WOW11B was the last one of the day for that aircraft, and was going to be pushed into the appropriate hanger at the airport. Plymouth ATC gave permission for the Ground Handlers to push the Aircraft to the hanger via Runway 06/24 through Holding point Alpha. This was done by the Handling Agents pushback vehicle. All the passengers were off and so were there bags, but the crew remained onboard and were going to disembark when the aircraft was in the hanger. As the aircraft was being taken to the hanger, the Duty Air Traffic Controller Officer reported seeing smoke and possible flames from the right hand engine. The pushback was stopped and the Airport fire services were put on standby, so were the Local Area emergency services. Air Traffic Control notified the flight crew, who acknowledged the situation. At 18:47 UTC Plymouth Air Traffic Control dispatched one fire appliance to the aircraft to investigate the incident. The flight crew also monitored onboard Fire detection systems. The Airport fire service checked for hot spots and none were found, so the aircraft continued to the hanger with an escort from the airport fire service. At 18:52 UTC the Airport fire service observed a severe explosion of the right hand engine, followed by a fuel fire. The Airport fire service alerted the pilot who immediately fire the onboard Fire Extinguishers, and closed the fuel valves on the engine concerned. He also moved the crew to the FWD 1L Door, so the crew could evacuate the aircraft. ATC sent out a call to the Local emergency services. They arrived on the airport within 3 minutes. The fire was quickly extinguished by the Airport fire service and the aircraft was evacuated through the FWD 1L Door. A watch was kept on the aircraft by the Local Area fire brigade and Airport fire services. At 19:11 UTC after substantial cooling of the engine, it was taken to a maintenance hangar for inspection. Plymouth Air Traffic Control informed the AAIB at 19:30 UTC An inspection was carried out on the aircraft the same night and it was found to have had a ruptured fuel line. As a result, all of Air Southwest’s Aircraft were inspected. No defects were found on the remaining four aircraft and they were in service the next day.
The aircraft had been operated in accordance with Bombardier, Air Southwest and the CAA and no fault by the flight crew or handling agents were found. The AAIB has examined the aircraft and has issued an ASN regarding all Bombardier aircraft fitted with the Pratt & Whitney P123 Turboprop aircraft. During the explosion, debris was ejected through the engine cowling and landed up to 12ft away from the explosion area. It was noted however, that none of this debris appeared to have damaged the fuel tanks or flight controls on the right wing. The aircrafts right engine has been replaced, inspected & certified and the aircraft is now back in service.
AAIB Special Bulletin: S2/2009
G-WOWB
AAIB Special Bulletin: S2/2009
G-WOWB