Individually Owned: 151,845
Corporate Owned: 143,699
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Jamaica, New York
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 11:09 EST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
On February 8, 2012, American Airlines flight 837, a Boeing 767-323ER, had a fire in the right engine, a General Electric (GE) CF6-80C2B6, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Jamaica, New York. The pilots reported that as the airplane was climbing through 9,000 feet, they heard a bang that was immediately followed by a right engine fire warning in the cockpit. The pilots further stated that they shutdown the right engine and discharged both fire bottles into the right engine’s nacelle before the fire warning was extinguished. The pilots also stated that they declared an emergency and returned to JFK for a single-engine, overweight landing without further incident. When the right engine was wet motored, fuel leaked from the front of the integrated drive generator (IDG) fuel-oil heat exchanger. The examination of the front of the IDG fuel-oil heat exchanger revealed there was a pre-service bulletin 73-0242 two-piece bracket and spray shield that had been misinstalled with the bracket over the spray shield rather than the spray shield being over the bracket. American Airlines aviation maintenance technicians replaced the right engine's fuel flow transmitter and an adjacent fuel tube during the previous night requiring the removal and reinstallation of the bracket and spray shield on the front of the IDG fuel-oil heat exchanger. A seal under the fuel tube flange that is held in place by the bracket had the O-ring partially missing, which was the source of the fuel leak.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The failure of the American Airlines aviation maintenance technicians to properly reassemble the two-piece bracket and spray shield on the integrated drive generator fuel-oil heat exchanger that caused a fuel leak that sprayed out and ignited on hot engine cases. Contributing to the cause of the fire was the 767 Aircraft Maintenance Manual’s lack of any graphical or pictorial displays of the correct assembly of the two-piece bracket and spray shield.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 2/8/2012 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1109 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Standard Time |
| Event City | Jamaica |
| Event State | NEW YORK |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | -- |
| Event Date Year | 2012 |
| Event Date Month | 2 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | John F. Kennedy International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | JFK |
| 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 | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Unknown |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | -- |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 210 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 30797 |
| NTSB Notification Source | American Airlines |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 11 2012 12:11PM |
| User who most recently changed record | defc |
| Basic weather conditions | -- |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N360AA |
| NTSB Number | ENG12IA010 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | Unknown |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | In-flight |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | BOEING |
| Aircraft Model | 767 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 323 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 24041 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 408000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | 3 |
| Cabin Crew Seats | 9 |
| Passenger Seats | 201 |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 225 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Unknown |
| Date of Last Inspection | Feb 2 2012 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 97101 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | Unknown |
| Aircraft Owner Name | American Airlines |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Fort Worth |
| Aircraft Owner State | TX |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | American Airlines |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | Fort Worth |
| Operator State | TX |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | AALA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | AALA025A |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | International |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | JFK |
| Departure City | Jamaica |
| Departure State | NY |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1100 |
| Departure Time Zone | EST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | PAP |
| Destination City | Port au Prince |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | HA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 10 2012 1:22PM |
| User who most recently changed record | hooj |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | N/A |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |