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British Airways 777 Catches fire at Las Vegas


Julien

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34193767

worth reading to note the inconsistencies in the eye witness reports.

And for finding out that a lady witness goes by the name of "Reggie Bugmuncher" no less. :D

All credit to the fire service. According to reports they got the shout at 4.13 and after rolling had the fire extinguished by 4.18 - 5 minutes to go, get to the aircraft and get the fire out. Well done. I expect those on here attached to the industry will be more able to comment on their response time etc but it looked impressive to me.

Glad only injuries are from the evacuation slides and no one seriously hurt.

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AFAIK the regulations are that the fire brigade has to reach every point within one minute, that's the reason big airports have more than just one place for the fire brigades. What surprised me more was that the chutes are deployed on the side where the fire was (no criticism here!).

Good luck it happened before take-off, and not afterwards.

Alex

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I believe all the chutes were deployed but the exit closest to the fire was immediately ruled out. Good work all round by the cabin crew and the fire department, particularly as passengers were already running up the aisles before the aircraft came to a stop. Textbook evacuation and response- not that it will stop the lawsuits for psychological trauma etc.

Don't think the aircraft will be flying anywhere anytime soon, however.

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Yes its great to see no-one was hurt and what an absolutely brilliant cockpit team,cabin crew and fire service job !

Great to see unselfish passengers carrying out their luggage before considering others !!! >?????

Give me a break , can no one else see this >????

WHAT would we be saying if many had perished and we saw those passengers with HUGE bags walking away at the expense of those that could not get off ?

Panic ??? of course there was panic WE ALL know how selfish our fellow travellers are !!!! i'd panic too sitting up the back in flame and smoke waiting for some elitist to retrieve his /her overhead luggage before exiting, for goodness sake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nuff said i'm going back to the modelling bench.

Selfish ignorance is something you dont need at a time like that.

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Yes its great to see no-one was hurt and what an absolutely brilliant cockpit team,cabin crew and fire service job !

Great to see unselfish passengers carrying out their luggage before considering others !!! >?????

Give me a break , can no one else see this >????

WHAT would we be saying if many had perished and we saw those passengers with HUGE bags walking away at the expense of those that could not get off ?

Panic ??? of course there was panic WE ALL know how selfish our fellow travellers are !!!! i'd panic too sitting up the back in flame and smoke waiting for some elitist to retrieve his /her overhead luggage before exiting, for goodness sake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nuff said i'm going back to the modelling bench.

Selfish ignorance is something you dont need at a time like that.

Unbelieveable, It makes one wonder if overhead lockers should not latch automatically if an emergency evacuation is declared. I was staggered when I flew to the UK last year just how big the cases are that people get away with taking on board, 'pecially after I'd gone to great lengths to make sure mine was not a mm over the "allowable" dimension.

Steve.

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Yes you have nothing in your bags worth dying for, or someone else dying for.

One news report said the returning passengers were not allowed back in the terminal as they had cleared US exit procedures and must clear to re-enter. I hope that is not right as would seem crazy not to allow if not traumatised but dazed panicked passengers back in?

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I agree with all above, great team work by the U.S. Airport fire department and the cabin crew, who would have had their hands full. Only minor injuries and that's down to the crews drills, well done the cabin crew. I bet more people will pay attension to the preflight brief.

I must question the captains thinking, standard drill is get the fire away from the fuselage, I know this means a few more seconds but it's been proven to save lives. It does show that even after a few mins of fire how much damage can be caused, atomised Jet A1 at pressure is as good as any cutting torch.

From the pictures I've seen it looks more like a ruptured fuel hose as the fan Assy looks intact, no sign of FOD injestion. As T7 says, it's not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

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Just shows how training and technology has moved on since the Manchester disaster,.....so glad to hear that everybody got out OK,....bags and all! Those bags must have contained their ill gotten gains from the casino`s!

Cheers

Tony

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The first stage of the fan may look intact, but the most likely area for failure will be in the turbine area. There appears to be damage to the cowling showing an explosion or failure from inside. Time will tell.

I did hear that these were not RR engines either. Can anyone confirm this?

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I was thinking the same thing, Wafu - I thought that was SOP after the Manchester fire.

Could have been nil wind (calm) so might be best to leave off the witch hunts for a little while since if that were the case, a stop directly ahead wouldn't be at all the wrong action. I did the flying job for many years and this is a scenario practised and tested regularly in the simulator so I'd be surprised if that escaped their thought processes along with the thousand and one other items which had to be processed and actioned in what was obviously a very fraught few seconds for them.

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It's a fair comment from 806x, just relaying my thoughts from the video from the BBC showing the plume of black smoke at an angle over the airframe. You are of course right, the FAA will uncover the cause and the actions of all involved. The main thing is no one was badly injured and all escaped from the fire. Big thumbs up to the flight attendants.

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In Manchester the problem was that they turned off the runway while on fire which led to the fire enveloping the fuselage. So staying on the runway and stopping immediately is the SOP. In the event of a fire the number one priority is getting out fast.

As for the 777 it looks like an uncontained engine failure. It could in compressor or turbine sections but it could be in the burner section. That's what happened in Manchester, a burner can dislodged and directed it's flame into the wing. If I recall correctly.

I'm not familiar with the GE90. But I doubt it has separate burner cans.

Uncontained engine failures shouldn't happen in theory because the engine cases are designed to ..well contain any debris from blade failure. I've seen the result of a blade failure and it's not pretty but all the damage was internal as the cases did their job. However if there's a flaw in the case design or manufacture. It's an accident waiting to happen. The case itself can fail precipitating the explosion.

Edited by noelh
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Glad to see that no one was seriously injured.

Well done to the flight crew, control tower crew and the emergency response crew.

ATC recording: https://clyp.it/jrvdzhrw

I really don't know how both the cockpit crew and the ATC can remain so calm. So professional.

Graham

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I really don't know how both the cockpit crew and the ATC can remain so calm. So professional.

Graham

Training,.....training,......training and more training!!! Train hard to fight easy.

Cheers

Tony

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The first stage of the fan may look intact, but the most likely area for failure will be in the turbine area. There appears to be damage to the cowling showing an explosion or failure from inside. Time will tell.I did hear that these were not RR engines either. Can anyone confirm this?

The news report I read stated they're General Electric GE90 engines, a team is being sent from there to investigate alongside NTSB.

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I really don't know how both the cockpit crew and the ATC can remain so calm. So professional.

Graham

As Tony says training training training. When I had an emergency once. I was so calm everyone else failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation. I had to start yelling at everyone. Which of course led to them later claiming I was panicking. One of the problems in emergencies is that are slow to recognise they're in peril. The recent South Korean ferry disaster being a classic example. People stayed put and died. The panicked survived.
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If this was to happen to me, the only thing I'd carry out with me is my memory cards (in my pocket when flying) and passport that is on my person too, failing that. I wouldn't want to leave my camera but if I had to I would it can be replaced. God no would I even think of taking my bag!!

I think if I saw someone trying to get the bag out, i'd quickly move them on!

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The fact that so many people felt they had time to gather up their bags proves the point that there wasn't panic on board. If they really felt they were about to die they would have beaten people out of way to get to the door.

Edited by noelh
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I must question the captains thinking, standard drill is get the fire away from the fuselage, I know this means a few more seconds but it's been proven to save lives. It does show that even after a few mins of fire how much damage can be caused, atomised Jet A1 at pressure is as good as any cutting torch.

All I'll say is that headwinds and tailwinds are conditions where a turn into /away from the fire is beneficial. Unfortunately crosswind conditions are trickier if the fire is upwind of the cabin. It's unreasonable to pull a U-turn in an emergency stop, so the right decision is to stop straight ahead, evaluate, make an early decision to evacuate if one looks likely, and don't use the exits near the fire to stop the cabin filling with smoke. Which is exactly what they did.

I'm sure there will be a lot of evaluation and we will learn a lot from it. But from where I'm sitting at least, it was textbook.

Edited by Brokenedge
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