British BAE-146-300 N611AW

Summary

On 27 January 1995 at about 22:23 local time, a British BAE-146-300 registered N611AW was involved in an incident near Madison, Wisconsin, United States. 89 people were on board and nobody was injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

27 January 1995 at 22:23

Classification

Incident

Location

Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Coordinates

43.1395, -89.3506

Aircraft

British BAE-146-300

Registration

N611AW

Category

Airplane

Engines

4

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chicago → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

IMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

CHI95IA079

Nobody was injured.

A fuel leak in the no. 2 engine left fuel manifold segment due to a design defect which led to a fatigue crack.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

While in cruise flight at 12,000 feet mean sea level, the no. 2 engine had a fire indication. The crew shut the engine down in flight and landed uneventfully. Investigation found a cracked left fuel manifold segment in the no. 2 engine. Metallurgical analysis established that the crack was characterized by fatigue striations, and that the crack occurred in a position on the manifold where there was an abrupt change in material thickness. There had been two previous occurrences of cracked manifolds reported by the operator and investigated by the NTSB. Prior to this incident, the manufacturer had taken three actions to resolve fuel manifold cracking; they were: 1.) introduce a redesign of manifold segments, 2.) agree to replace all operator manifold assemblies with the improved design, and 3.) introduce an eddy current inspection procedure for detecting manifold cracks. Following this incident, the FAA mandated more frequent inspection intervals and adoption of the new eddy-current inspection process for the unimproved manifolds.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.