04 Nov Jetliner fire in Chicago
Twenty passengers and crew were taken to hospital after they sustained minor injuries trying to evacuate an American Airlines jetliner that caught fire while preparing for take off from Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
Investigators later conclude that the fire was started by a rare malfunction which they classified as an “uncontained engine failure”.
In such instances debris escapes the hardened engine casing and then damages or penetrates the wings or fuselage, amplifying the risk to the aircraft far beyond the loss of thrust
And a senior investigator told a news conference that a disc in a high-pressure engine turbine had failed, and a piece of it was found 2,920 feet away in a parcel Service warehouse.