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U.S. NEWS A7
Friday 11 September 2015

Jet engine parts on Las Vegas runway indicate major failure

KEN RITTER A damaged British Airways Boeing 777-200 sits at McCarran International Airport Wednesday, interview Henkey and two
SALLY HO Sept. 9, 2015, in Las Vegas. An engine caught fire before takeoff Tuesday forcing the evacuation senior first officers with 18
Associated Press of the crew and passengers. and 10 years of experi-
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jet en- ence.
gine parts found on the (AP Photo/John Locher) Henkey, 63, was hailed
Las Vegas runway where a by fire officials and airline
British Airways flight abort- week. close call in a 42-year ca- flight to Barbados, where observers for a flawless
ed takeoff as the engine Chris Henkey of Padworth, reer, and he’s “finished he intended to vacation reaction and evacua-
burst into flames indicate England, told NBC News flying.” He won’t captain with his daughter. tion, though he deflected
a rare catastrophic failure, he’d never had such a what was to be his final Investigators planned to praise, saying the entire
experts said Thursday as crew helped. The whole
investigators released pre- ordeal lasted about five
liminary findings and be- minutes.
gan analyzing flight data Engine fires are unusual but
and cockpit recordings. not unheard-of.
Early findings show the fail- In July, a Southwest Airlines
ure occurred where the en- flight evacuated at Mid-
gine was under the highest way International Airport in
pressure, though there was Chicago when one engine
no immediate indication caught fire on takeoff.
of what caused it or the fire In June 2006, an Ameri-
that forced 170 people to can Airlines jet engine ex-
evacuate Tuesday at Mc- ploded during testing at a
Carran International Air- maintenance area at Los
port as smoke poured from Angeles International Air-
the aircraft. port, launching parts into
“You really don’t see cata- the body of the plane and
strophic or uncontained as far as half a mile away.
engine failure like this very No one was injured in ei-
often,” said John Cox, an ther incident. q
aviation safety consultant
who spent 23 years as
a U.S. Airways pilot. He said
the failure indicates parts
sliced through the engine
casing.
The National Transporta-
tion Safety Board said
there was damage to the
armored shell around the
left engine’s high-pressure
compressor, and several 7-
to 8-inch fragments of the
compressor were found on
the tarmac.
No one was seriously in-
jured when British Airways
Flight 2276 screeched to a
halt and the 157 passen-
gers and 13 crew members
escaped down evacu-
ation slides as firefighters
doused flames spewing
from the engine beneath
the wing of the Boeing 777.
The pilot who halted the
takeoff and calmly called
“mayday, mayday” said
he will retire one flight shy
of the day he had planned
to hang up his wings next