Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
West Palm Beach, Florida 33406
Sunday, September 12, 1999 7:11 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
During climb after takeoff, the flight had an uncontained failure of the No. 1 engine. The flight returned to the departure airport and landed without further incident. Examination of the airplane showed there was damage to the left wing high lift devices, fuselage, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, rudder, and tail cone. The No. 1 engine left thrust reverser had separated. Debris from the No.1 engine was located over an eight block long by three block wide city block area. Examination of the No. 1 engine revealed that it had a 360 degree separation in plane with the high pressure turbine (HPT) rotor and that the HPT shaft and the HPT forward rotating air seal had exited the engine. The HPT rotating air seal was recovered in the debris field. Metallurgical examination showed the rotating air seal had two radial fractures that passed through the bore and the HPT front shaft-to-HPT disk attachment bolt holes. Fatigue cracking was identified in one attachment bolt hole which initiated from a heat affected layer. The heat affected layer was caused by abusive machining during the manufacturing process due to loss of coolant during the drilling process. Based on striation count, the fatigue crack was at detectable length during two in-service inspections, but was not detected.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The fatigue fracture and separation of the high pressure turbine forward rotating air seal due to a manufacturing defect in a bolt hole that was not detected by the engine manufacturer due to inadequate and ineffective inspection techniques. Contributing to the accident was the engine manufacturers failure to provide adequate hole making requirements at the time the forward rotating air seal was manufactured and the engine manufacturers failure at the time of last inspection to require eddy current inspections for the high pressure turbine forward rotating air seal bolt holes.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 9/12/1999 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 711 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | WEST PALM BEACH |
| Event State | FLORIDA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 33406 |
| Event Date Year | 1999 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Full |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 653 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 270 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | PBI |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 19 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 1 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 20000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 27 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 23 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 30 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 1600 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 89 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1348 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Sep 12 1999 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 805 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 12 2000 11:56AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N17356 |
| NTSB Number | MIA99FA252 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Boeing |
| Aircraft Model | B737-300 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | B737-300 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 23942 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 135000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 134 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Aug 18 1999 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 222 |
| Airframe Hours | 34602 |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | ICX CORPORATION |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 3 SUMMIT PARK DRIVE, SUITE 200 |
| Aircraft Owner City | CLEVELAND |
| Aircraft Owner State | OH |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 44131 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | CONTINENTAL AIRLINES |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | P.O. BOX 4607 |
| Operator City | HOUSTON |
| Operator State | TX |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | 77210 |
| Operator Code | CALA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | PBI |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 711 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | IAH |
| Destination City | HOUSTON |
| Destination State | TX |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 20 2002 12:42PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |