The accident with the turbine of a Delta Airlines Airbus A330 at Guarulhos International Airport may have been caused by birds, animals or metal parts falling on the runway
O Delta Airlines plane crash what made an emergency landing at Guarulhos International Airporton Sunday night (29), after fire in one of the turbinescould have been caused by birds, animals or metal parts falling on the runway, according to an expert. The aircraft, however, has safety systems that allow it to fly even with one less engine..
O. The Airbus was carrying 272 passengers and 14 crew. The pilot activated emergency systems, communicated with the airport control tower and made an emergency landing at the same airport. Nobody was injured. The accident is being investigated by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).
Delta says on its official website that the flight was canceled due to problems with the left engine and apologized to passengers for the inconvenience. The company claims that the Airbus A330-300 landed safely, was received by the airport firefighting team and the passengers were taken by bus to the terminal.
The aircraft departed at 11:49 pm bound for Atlanta, in the United States, when, seconds after leaving the ground, there was an explosion in the left engine. The incident caused charred fragments to fall in the area next to the runway, which started a fire.
According to mechanical engineer Gerardo Portela, risk management specialist from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppe-UFRJ), historical data shows that accidents like these generally occur due to the ingestion of a foreign object, which could be a bird, a balloon, a bird, or parts that remain on the track, such as screws.
“This happens when cars or other aircraft drop something on the runway and, during takeoff, when the plane is gaining speed, it lifts the part that ends up entering the turbine”, he explains.
According to him, this model of plane has sophisticated turbines and you can stay in flight even if you lose one of them. “Airlines are quick to make these updates. A very safe plane, widely used on transatlantic trips.”
According to the expert, Even if you lose a turbine, the aircraft still has 100% flight capability. “It also has a very reliable fire and gas and turbine overheating detection system, which detects the presence of temperature changes, confirms it and sends a message to the cabin.”
Still according to him, These planes have a fire fighting system for each turbine. “This system includes a gas capable of very efficiently extinguishing any type of fire and explosion, and also adopting isolation actions so that the event does not take on greater proportions.”
Regarding the debris that fell from the plane’s turbine during the fire, he explains that, if the pallets installed in the turbine were to detach, it could hit the plane with the force of a missile. “So there is also a housing that does not allow any pieces to go inside the aircraft. But it is not possible to prevent something from falling, as several pieces fell, causing a fire on the ground, precisely in the area of the emergency landing runway. We have to wait for an investigation to find out what happened.”
In addition to the hypothesis of foreign object ingestion by the turbine, another possibility, according to the engineer, an engine failure has occurred. “On the ground, all appropriate and applicable actions were taken and they managed to overcome the situation. In these cases, the priority is to put the aircraft on the ground, because it is running with just one turbine, even if there is still something there, a fire, but firefighters tried to reduce the fire and did so in the best possible way”, he says.
Delta Airlines’ Airbus A330-300 has the capacity to carry up to 282 passengersdistributed in executive, premium and economy classes.
Measuring 63.4 meters long and with a wingspan of 60.1 meters (distance between the wingtips), the plane boasts a 16.9 meter tall tailplane.
The aircraft reaches a cruising speed of around 855 km/h, with a range of 10 thousand kilometers, which allows non-stop intercontinental flights. The model is equipped with two turbofan propulsion engines – a type of large fan to generate thrust.
Data collection and confirmation
The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) reported that, last Sunday, researchers of the Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa), based in Brasília (DF), were called to carry out the initial action in the incident involving aircraft registration N813NW at Guarulhos International Airport (SP).
During the action, professionals applied specific techniques to collect and confirm datapreservation of elements, initial verification of damage caused to the aircraft or by the aircraft, in addition to gathering other information necessary for the investigation. The result of the investigation will be released at the end of the investigation.
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