Engines EXPLODE at 34,000ft! | The True Story of S A Airlink Flight 103

imagine cruising along at 34,000 ft then suddenly an explosion rocks the aircraft the lights from the Sparks fill the cabin as you were pushed and pulled in your seat due to the vibrations this is what happened to the passengers of South Africa airlink flight 103 and this video will show you what happened and what happens next on the 8th of November 2019 this AV 146 rj85 Alpha operated by South Africa airlink was scheduled for a routine return passenger flight from Zimbabwe back to South Africa as the passengers and crew arrived at the terminal little did they know this flight would turn out to be anything but routine on board the aircraft there were four crew two pilots and two cabin crew with 34 passengers the aircraft a British Aerospace average 146 it was manufactured in 1997 and it's currently held a certificate of airworthiness and was last release from a major maintenance on the 27th of July 2017 the pilot in command carried out a walk around of the aircraft to ensure everything was looking correct and safe for the upcoming flight once he was happy he joined the first officer in the flights deck before signaling that the aircraft was ready for boarding the flights scw a mix of experience they were both South African Nationals and both held valid atls with atpl standing for airline transport Pilots license the pilot in command had a total of 8,895 flying hours with 7,035 on type with the first officer having a total of 4,157 total flying hours but only 81 hours on type this was an early evening flight and the times shown will be coordinated universal time or UTC which is 2 hours behind local time at approximately 1,600 the passengers boarded the plane with boarding being completed about 30 minutes later the cabin crew got to work on securing the cabin whilst the flight crew got their start and departure clearance once this was complete they started the aircraft They carried out their after start checks and everything was operating as expected they then taxied to the holding point before then carrying out their final checks the cabin crew informed them that the cabin was ready for takeoff the weather was looking excellent for their trip with the wind at 080° at 12 knots the temperature was 15° cus and the conditions were Cav okay which stands for cloud and visibility okay flights 103 now informed air traffic control that they were ready for departure and promptly received clearance to take off the first officer opted to carry out a rolling takeoff he lined the aircraft up with the center line of the runway and once both crew were happy he moved all four thrust levers forward to initiate takeoff thrust the four Honeywell rj85 engines roared into life and pushed the plane down the runway at 1645 flight 103 took off and began its Journey towards Johannesburg in South Africa before we continue this video is sponsored Ed by my friends at Sterling Pacific Sterling Pacific is a premium luggage brand that has gained worldwide recognition among 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which is also in the description the crew were given clearance to climb to flight level 340 or approximately 34,000 ft and all their systems were looking great for the flight the passengers now started to settle in with the seat belt signs being switched off and the aircraft quickly reaching its cruising altitude for the next 50 minutes the flight flight continued as normal the cabin crew carried out the inlight service and the flight's crew were just about to cross into South African airspace at 1738 cruising at 34,000 ft flight 103 crossed into South African airspace after the flights crew had checked in with their new controllers the busy part of the FI change was complete the firi standing for flight information region and it's just a means of breaking up airspace into controllable chunks the flight's crew now began to relax and started to discuss their approach and Landing they were 240 nautical miles away from Johannesburg and were nearing their top of descent all of a sudden a loud explosion rocked the aircraft and the plane immediately began to yaw to the left the flight crew quickly took control they steadied the aircraft and started to diagnose the issue in the cabin the passengers had experienced the loud bang and felt the aircraft rocked to the left the lights from the Sparks filled the left side of the cabin which only increased the shock and panic of the situation in the flights Deck The Crew had trimmed the aircraft and had it under control the symptoms indicated that they had lost an engine the beauty of the 146 is that it has four engines for an added level of redundancy the flight crew now checked the cockpit engine instruments to see which engine had been lost to the shock of both crew it showed them that engine number one and engine number two had experienced a catastrophic failure engine number one had no indications and engine number two was producing a persistent vibration and fluctuating indications engine number one and two are both on the left wing as the pilot in command visually inspected the engines from what he could see from the flight deck it appeared that Sparks could be seen they contined to fly the aircraft without making any hasty decisions one of the cabin crew now got in touch with the pilots and informed them that some of the passengers were reporting Sparks coming from the engines on the left and the passengers were becoming panicked in the cabin the pilots remained calm they asked the cabin crew to control the cabin and that they would provide a briefing soon on the next actions due to the explosive nature of the engine shutdowns it was very unlikely that an engine relight would be possible and it may cause further issues They carried out the emergency checklist for a loss of engine in flight and ensured that the fuel was starred from both of them the crew then decided to use both number one and number two engine fire bottles to extinguish any possible fire the crew now checked on the rest of the systems as there were now only two engines producing thrust the aircraft could no longer maintain its current altitude they started to drift down to an altitude the engine thrust could support the flight's crew could not deter determine what had caused the two engines to catastrophically fail and feared that the other two engines could be next the pilo in command now put in a Mayday call to air traffic control he informed them that they had lost two engines and were now descending from flight level 340 they were currently checking on options to divert and would inform Air Traffic Control once they had more information Air Traffic Control gave flight 103 all the space it needed to deal with the emergency search and rescue was activated and the dispatch team was put on hold air traffic control now contacted a nearby Air Force Base to inform them of the situation they were approximately 50 Mi left of flight 103's current route and they were put on standby just in case flights 103 needed to divert there meanwhile the flight's crew got in touch with the airlinks maintenance control center to report and discuss the situation Air Traffic Control informed flight one 103 that the Air Force Base was available to use after discussing all the options the pilotin command decided that the best option would be to continue to Johannesburg to land at their destination Airfield it was 240 oral miles away but they would be able to carry out a slow descent reducing the stress on the two remaining engines and giving them enough time to ensure the cabin crew and passengers were briefed and all the emergency procedures were double checked the time was now 1757 19 minutes after the initial explosion the flight crew informed air traffic control of their intentions and started their long descent towards Johannesburg by now the passengers were becoming quite Restless the pilots spoke with the cabin crew and informed them of the plan the cabin crew then briefed the passengers of the situation and that they were going to continue to their destination at 1810 10 flight 103 was requested to change to a dedicated radio frequency of 132 decimal 15 they were then informed that Runway 03 was currently the runway in use due to their current heading Runway 21 right would be available to use the pilot in command accepted Runway 21 right and checked to see if they had the performance to land there with the new Runway approach and Landing briefed the crew prepared themselves for this unusual situation there was still a slight fear that the other two engines were at risk they were still unsure of why the engines failed they were also unsure if the explosion had caused any damage to the left wing it appeared to be intact but it was not known if the flaps or operating systems had been damaged the crew discussed configuring for landing early to check on the stability of the aircraft whilst at a suitable altitude to recover if anything was to go wrong this would increase the drag and stress on the remaining two engines but whilst using the speed from The Descent they decided to check the flaps the tension built in the flight deck as the flap handle was grabbed the crew prepared to see if any unusual vibrations or if there were any controllability issues with the aircraft once the flaps were moved with his hand remaining on the handle the first officer moved the flaps to the first position the pilot listened and watched intently as the flaps moved the pilot in command carried out a few slow turns to simulate an approach and the aircraft performed as expected now they decided to go for landing flap the same procedure was carried out the first officer moved the lever and listened and watched it appeared to extend without any issue the pilot in command again carried out a few slow turns with the aircraft per forming as expected with the aircraft in the landing configuration it was better to remain in this position rather than risk cycing the flaps again the flight's crew had the height to continue in this configuration without having to put any major strain on the remaining two engines at 1828 flight 103 was handed over to approach on 124 decimal 5 they were 10 minutes out from the runway the cabin crew now briefed and prepared the passengers for the emergency landing procedures all the other aircraft on approach to Runway 03 were pulled off their approach and put into a hold to allow for flight 103 to make an approach to Runway 21 right the pilots informed the cabin crew to take their seats and the cabin fell silent as the sound of the two remaining engines pushed the aircraft towards the runway the pilots finished off their asymmetric pre Landing checks and focused on the task ahead they could see the emergency vehicles waiting and as they got closer to the ground the pilot in command asked for the first officer to remove the Y trim with the pilot in command feeling the pressure required through his feet as the aircraft passed over the runway threshold the pilot in command pulled the aircraft to the right to line it up with the center line and at 1839 flight 103 land landed safely they vacated the runway and after a quick check for fire they taxied back to the apron closely followed by the emergency vehicles as they reached the stand they shut down the two remaining engines and allowed all the passengers to deboard there were no injuries of any of the passengers or crew when the passengers exited the aircraft they could see that both the left engines had sustained damage as the crew got off to inspect the engines it became clear that engine number two had exploded with the shrapnel being fired into engine number one causing damage during the investigation into the cause of the failures this was found to be true engine number two's left hand side casing was ripped open by the fourth turbine wheel the fourth turbine rotor wheel was found stuck on the exhausted Cas in with the retaining nut in between the turbine disc and the exhaust ribs all the turbine blades on the wheel assembly broke off and flew towards engine number one the reason why the pilots saw that engine number one had failed first was due to the damage to the full Authority digital electronic control or fadec which provides digital readouts and information on the engine the turbine blades from engine number two had struck the fadec along with the fuel oil and pneumatic lines so the the fourth turbine wheel on edge number two was the point of failure but how the investigators looked back through the maintenance logs and saw that engine number two was installed on the 2nd of June 2013 with the four stage turbine rotor disc reaching its life limit a few months before this incident's flight on the 27th of July 2017 the fourth stage turbine disc was removed and replaced during the installation process the retaining nut that held the fourth turbine in place was reused it was found that the retaining nut had backed off during the flight causing the fourth stage turbine to dislodge the reason for the retention nut coming loose could have been due to multiple reasons they knew the retaining nuts didn't Shear off as the shaft and nuts threads were intact implying that the retention nuts backed off this could have happened due to improper installation caused by one of the overspeed ring Mis stacking improper torque application or a missing lock cup washer the most probable cause was the Mis stacking of the overspeed Rings and it was believed that this was due to the lack of Dimension guidance for the placement of the fourth turbine disc within the aircraft maintenance manual or amm also as the maintenance was occurring with the engine still on the wing this allowed for the potential for the parts to shift not by much but margins the maintenance Engineers are required to keep are very small for example the length of the shaft protruding beyond the fourth turbine rotor should be within .13 mm because of this it may have been that the overs speed ring was mis stacked causing the teeth to misalign this in turn allowed the turbine to overs speed causing the retaining nuts to back off and dislodge the turbine leading to the catastrophic failure it took the retaining nut and the fourth stage turbine rotor wheel approximately 320 flying hours and 248 Cycles since installation to back off and dislodge from the low press turbine shaft assembly according to the engine manufacturer's analysis the events during this failure indicates that the component backed off over time due to two possible conditions namely the incorrect application of torque settings or improper installation due to a possible Mis stacking of the overspeed Ring during maintenance it was easy to Mis stack the overp speed ring without anyone noticing as it is impossible to check visually it can only be confirmed with a dimension drop check which as we know was not accurately represented in the aircraft maintenance manual I know that was quite heavy on the technical and maintenance language but hopefully it was broken down enough to easily understand it was important to cover to understand how an engine could have failed that badly the basic premise was that the nut that holds one of the four turbines in the engine in place came loose and allowed the turbine to move and disintegrate this was either due to the nut not being tored correctly or the overp speed protection for the turbine not seated correctly this in turn allowed the turbine to speed up beyond the acceptable range without any protection and the increased kinetic energy in vibration caused the nut to back off because of this incident the Bae 146 RJ aircraft maintenance manual was amended to include the dimension check for the fourth turbine rotor assembly installation Bae published an all operator message informing them of the pending amm update and providing the dimension check picture that will be included in the next amm update this was a positive outcome to what could have been a massive disaster the crew showed great airmanship to remain calm keep the aircraft under control and make a successful approach and Landing it must have been terrifying for the passengers to experience the loss of both engines especially in such an explosive manner but again the cabin crew were able to calm the cabin and keep everyone informed and prepared for the emergency landing I think the 146 is a fantastic aircraft and this highlights again the resilience and training of both aircraft and crew I hope you found this video interesting please like the video if you did I hope you're having a a fantastic day and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Curious Pilot

Views: 135,426

Keywords: SA Airlink, South Africa Airlink, Engines explode mid air, air crash investigation, Curious Pilot, Aviation

Id: Q3l3CbqlpAs

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024