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Plane’s Engine Type Has History of Problems
The type of engine that powered the American Airlines Airbus A-300 that
crashed in New York this morning had incidents of failure in the past, but
its manufacturer says
those glitches have been addressed.
American Airlines Flight 587, en route to the Dominican Republic, went down
in the borough of Queens just minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy
International Airport. The jet was powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2
engines.
“We monitor this engine every day, virtually every hour. We’re not aware of
any operational issues that would hazard the continual safe flight of the
aircraft,” said Rick Kennedy, spokesman for General Electric.
Eyewitnesses to the crash of Flight 587 reported seeing a smoke trail behind
the engine before the plane went down. One witness said he saw an engine
falling off before the plane hit the ground. ABCNEWS’ Brian Ross reported
the pilot of another American Airlines jet reported seeing smoke coming out
of one of the engines as 587 climbed.
ABCNEWS aviation consultant John Nance says these reports could suggest the
crash was caused by an engine failure, although he stresses at this point
that possible causes of the crash can only be speculative.
“If you have a smoke trail behind the engine, you have a problem in that
engine — and that problem could have come to a catastrophic end,” he said.
“[It] could have taken some of the structure with it.”
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said today that there were no unusual
communications from the cockpit of the American Airlines plane before it
went down, but he declined to rule out terrorism as a possible cause.
Past Problem With Engine ‘Rubbing’
In December 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that
the Federal Aviation Association step up inspections of the engine model
that powered the crashed plane. The order was based on a finding that an
apparent disintegration problem inside the engine model could cause a
“catastrophic accident.”
The call for inspections followed at least two incidents, including:
The failure of a CF6 engine on a US Airways jet during a maintenance check
on Sept. 22, 2000. As mechanics tested the aircraft on a runway at
Philadelphia, the engine blew apart. The National Transportation Safety
Board determined if the incident had occurred while the plane was in flight,
it “might not have been able to maintain safe flight.”
The aborted takeoff on June 7, 2000, of a Varig Airlines Boeing 767 in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, after the CF6 engine partially disintegrated. It was
determined that the cracks in the engine’s compressor system led to the
problems.
GE’s Kennedy says it was determined that some early versions of the engine
were experiencing “rubbing” problems — meaning the rotating parts inside the
engine were rubbing against static parts.
“That problem has since been corrected, we’re not having any problems in the
field with that now,” he said.
The American Airlines aircraft that crashed today was powered by two of GE’s
CF6-80 engines that had undergone and passed routine inspections.
American Airlines spokesman Al Becker said Flight 587’s No. 1 engine on the
left side had logged 694 hours since its last overhaul. The plane’s No. 2
engine, on its right side, had logged 9,788 hours since its last overhaul.
He said the engines undergo major overhauls every 10,000 hours of service.
“The last time the No. 2 engine was in for a shop inspection was 2,987 hours
ago,” he said.
Engine Loss Not Always Catastrophic
Aviation expert Nance says if an engine falls off, it is not necessarily
catastrophic, but it can disrupt the flight control system and make the
pilot lose control. If that were the case, said Nance, “You wouldn’t have
any warning at all.”
Nance adds that since airplane engines are at full power during takeoff, if
there were any insufficiency in the engine, it would most likely cause
problems during takeoff.
One of the most devastating accidents due to engines falling off a plane
occurred on May 25, 1979. All 273 people on board the American Airlines
DC-10 were killed seconds after takeoff when an engine fell off the plane.
Kennedy says the Cf6-80C2 engine model that powered Flight 587, an Airbus
300, is a very common engine that powers more than 1,000 aircraft worldwide.
The engine has been in service since 1984 and has logged more than 74
million flight hours.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been charged with leading the
investigation into the crash. Inspectors may be able learn important clues
about the cause of the crash soon since the flight data recorder has been
recovered, said NTSB Chairwoman Marion Blakey.
She said that 60 to 100 investigators were already at the site or would be
there soon.
ABCNEWS’ Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
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